Widger - this isn't Dan Snow's fault.
It's the producer who writes the script and the RN/AAC/RAF PROs should have briefed fully the producer and pretty much given him/her the script, and at the very least all the detail on each aircraft type plus some personal detail such as "the lead RAF Merlin is being flown by Flt Lt PPrune who is just back from his Xth Op Herrick deployment in Afghanistan where he has been ... "
I've direct experience of the BBC and they respond very well to a really well-written brief but leave them to themselves and they just make it up.