Heads up

[tony draper]

Documentry on the Spitfire, channel four tonight at 8pm .

[Who has control?]

Bet it clashes with something!! Next Tuesday, Channel 4 - 8:00 is the Lanc.

Perhaps we should start a 'TV listing thread??' <img src="tongue.gif" border="0"> <img src="tongue.gif" border="0"> <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

[tony draper]

Used to really look forward to a aviation related documentries, they were so few and far between.
Since I got cable, Hiscovery and the History channel I have been spoilt for them.
Trouble is once you have watched either if those two channels for three months thats all she wrote, they just repeat every thing over and over again.
Occasionaly you notice a new one in the offing only to discover that they are bits from the old ones mixed up and patched together in a different way.
Still, shouldn't complain, one is British after all. <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

[denachtenmai]

Caught the last quarter of an hour, I must say that you should make a greater effort to contact me telepathically when you know that a programme like that is on Mr. D. however I forgive you because I now have on tape the final shot of the Spitfire dropping out of sight below the hump then lifting into that beautiful barrel roll, and the sound , quite overwhelming, excuse me but I’m off to watch it again
Regards Dinsdale.

[tony draper]

Bloody well forgot it myself, missed the first twenty minutes, still, worth watching. <img src="wink.gif" border="0">
It did seem suspiciously like a one I have seen already on discovery, particulaly the interviews.

[BEagle]

Haven't seen Discovery for a while - still waiting for the Sky Digital receiver to arrive........

Hence I managed to catch all of tonight's Ch4 documentary and it was one of the most accurate, historically correct and unbiased Spitfire histories I've seen. Top marks, Ch4 - and the following documentary on the Commandos was good as well. So much so that I forget that the Challenger disaster documenary was on 625...err, BBC 2!

[tony draper]

Yup that 405 line just don't cut it now Mr B, mind you its a sod having to get out of your chair to press that change over button now just to watch bbc2. <img src="wink.gif" border="0">
They just don't know how cushy they got it now.

[BEagle]

Multi-channel TV? Remote controls?? Looxury!! Our TV when I were a lad had but one channel - Wenvoe - and that frequently picked up Merryfield GCA instead! Ran off a 110/240 rotary converter 'cos there was no mains electricity down in that part of Zumazett and we had a petrol generator....

But it was OK for 'Muffin the Mule' - legal back then.....

[poetpilot]

I enjoyed it a lot more than some aircraft documentaries I've seen. Liked the human aspects & interviews with "ordinary" spit pilots (how can a spit pilot be ordinary?), and they even gave credit to the poor old forgotten ground crews.

The only debit to my mind was that they concentrated more on the B of B than the the Spit itself - everything was woven around BoB (though the documentary itself said that Hurricanes were numerically superior to Spits at that time), and the Spit's development & use thereafter was summarised in about 20 seconds.

But some great low flypast footage. Well done C4.

[Who has control?]

Its the first of a ten-part series on WW2 weapons. (Correct me if I'm wrong, I've not yet watched it & I'm quoting the RT from memory). Next week is the Lancaster, I wonder what other treats they have in store for us?

Does anyone remember a series called 'Perpetual Motion' about machines that went on forever. They shows programmes about the DC-3 and the Shackleton, both of which are a treat to re-watch.

[poetpilot]

yeah I remember those.... there was another good doc on the Shackleton called "Grey Lady of Lossiemouth" or something... about the last 4 AEW 4s left (and shortly after that, one of them crashed). They showed it at 4am (!!!) on C4 once.

I recall a fleeting glimpse of 4 Shacks flying across Manchester in the mid-nineties. That's the last time I ever saw one. I used to enjoy watching Shacks at airshows. Like seeing an animal that's supposed to be extinct but they've discovered a living one (I only said that because I cant spell coelocanth...)

[FNG]

Loved (most of) the footage, but found the Spitfire prog overall rather disappointing. I thought that the cheap and cheerful bought-in History Channel style of documentary was rather shown up by the (more expensive) Channel 4-commissioned Commandos documentary which followed. The latter had a greater depth, human interest and even humour.

Wasn't the Spit prog just a bit, well, anorakky? Admittedly it was not as bad as some of the drooling war-toys stuff that Discovery Wings pumps out, most of which drones on and on about how good the Nazi kit was and what cool uniforms they had. At least this prog emphasised the fact that the Spitfire was fab and that the good guys won. Also some odd shots in the modern footage: lots of close ups of the wheels, not much footage of the bird in flight. I will forgive them the supposed BoB era flyover by a clipped and cropped version, and the fact that each time you looked the number of exhaust pipes was different owing to the use of different marques for various shots (how's that for anorrakking?) but, overall, not quite up to expectations.

Marvellous, however, to see and hear the pilots, notably Alex Henshaw, whom I heard give a speech at Duxford last year: he looks and acts like a man twenty or thirty years younger than he is. They all looked pretty hale and hearty, so clearly Spitfire flying is good for you. I'm off to buy a lottery ticket.

[ 16 January 2002: Message edited by: FNG ]</p>

[DOC.400]

Spit doc on tape to watch later -missed first fifteen mins due programming error -damn.

But some of the Commando's doc was a hoot, in particular the two old boys demonstrating armed combat and using a knife, in their back garden, behind the vegetable patch and the potting shed. But then when they took a machine gun out on to the street...........

DOC

[Who has control?]

Did you see the programme on before the Spit??

I set the video up to start two mins. prior to the SPit, but Chan 4 was running last, so I now have 5 mins of some woman bleating on about her latest invention for childcare - the talking potty. Apparently the potty is programmed to talk back to the child, so when the kid performs, the potty says (for eaxample) "Well done, that was a good piddle"

[poetpilot]

Yup saw it. She got an award for it but now needs someone to cough up the investment to put it into production.

How about a talking pilot's seat?

"Well done, that waaaaas a greasy landing young man"

"Ouch! That one hurt"

"ooooooooh! I didnt know adrenalin was brown..."

[gratlump]

I enjoyed the interviews with the 'old' pilots. Makes you stop and wonder when the only target practice was a quick burst into the sea. No ACM practice there. Then their opponents, yellow nosed 109s, probably JG26? Those pilots already had a wealth of combat experience. Talk about against the odds.

Gratlump.

[Who has control?]

Back to the top

Channel 4, tonight, 8:00pm. Prog about the Lancaster.

If its anything like the Spit last week, it will be 45 mins of Dam-busters and 15 mins of 'the rest'.

Can anyone confirm that the date of the dams raid (12-13/5/43 ???) was the same day as the Memphis Belle made its 25th and last operational mission??

[FNG]

Google results: last mission on 19th May 1943, attacking shipyards at Kiel. On 13th May it had been attacking an aircraft repair depot in France, with a Spitfire escort.

edit: The Dambuster raids took place on 16th-17th May. On the 17th, Memphis Belle attacked submarine pens in France,claiming one fighter shot down during the mission.

[ 22 January 2002: Message edited by: FNG ]</p>

[Who has control?]

Thanks FNG, I wrote the dates from memory.

For some strange reason I was convinced they both happened on the same day, and it seemed appropriate that as one aircraft was bowing out, so another unit was making its debut.

[poetpilot]

Now, I really liked last night's Lancaster prog...nary a mention of the Dambusters, but absolutely tons of human interest.... brought tears to my eyes listening to the old chaps reminiscing. Absolutely excellent !!!!!

[FNG]

I thought that it was a better documentary than the previous one on the Spitfire, although still not up to the very high standard of the Commandos series, which went from strength to strength. One of the pilot interviewees appeared to be a likely source for the returning to base part of Len Deighton's Booker Prize-winning masterpiece "Bomber".. .If you want to meet and fly with some of these remarkable men, check out <a href="http://www.projectpropeller.co.uk" target="_blank">www.projectpropeller.co.uk</a>

[ 23 January 2002: Message edited by: FNG ]</p>

[poetpilot]

Must admit I too was gripped by the paratroopers prog.