As a member of a course slightly behind the "Fighter Pilot" studes (on a different FTS Squadron), we spent a bit of time with the director - Colin Strong - while he underwent some pilot training on his own account.
In order to give him a feel for what the studes were going through, he was put through as far as going solo on a JP3. I still remember the day at Elvington when he solo'ed and his delight at the achievement.
He certainly never came across as one with an axe to grind, though he clearly was not in the game of producing a recruitment film as their Airships might have wished.
As has been stated earlier, the public loved the series and the production team did a professional job of producing an entertainment programme which did the Sevice more good than harm. I flew with plenty of good instuctors - they had to be to get me through! There were some who could have been cuddlier, but the peacetime front line in the early 80s was a good deal more lethal than in later years, and there was not much room for sentiment when it came to screening out those who were unlikely to progress.