That story about the USN giving one of their pilots the sole task of beating Eric's record of 2,000 plus deck landings and then having to give up with a nervous breakdown at around 1,500 made me chuckle. Captain Brown was graciously sympathetic to the chap, who he thought had been put under undue pressure.
Fantastic programme, I can even forgive him his choice of Rod Stewart at the end
They gave Florence Nightingale the Order of Merit at the age of 87, so I suppose that's a precedent, but I agree with Goudie -it's a bit late for all that. In today's
Times there was an article about Desert Island Discs, which basically said "never mind a knighthood, it's when you get invited onto the programme that you know you've really arrived!"