War Zone on Channel 5
Join Date: May 2004
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Well
I've been flicking it on in between doing the ironing and reckon:
a) The RAF Regt are professional, well humoured guys.
b) The REMFs lounging around looking 'cool' while the rocket attack alarm sounded did more PR harm than they realise, especially with our sister services.
c) The Welsh 'HR' guru is almost perfect - she can't run too fast, quite fit, and as thick as a horse on toast.
d) No bandspeople - Hurrah!
I've been flicking it on in between doing the ironing and reckon:
a) The RAF Regt are professional, well humoured guys.
b) The REMFs lounging around looking 'cool' while the rocket attack alarm sounded did more PR harm than they realise, especially with our sister services.
c) The Welsh 'HR' guru is almost perfect - she can't run too fast, quite fit, and as thick as a horse on toast.
d) No bandspeople - Hurrah!
Join Date: Feb 2004
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Oh dear oh dear......
Not helped by the commentator making the programme the style of a "Brits on holiday" series.
Not helped by the "stars" giving the impression that they are Brits on holiday...
Not helped by the commentator making the programme the style of a "Brits on holiday" series.
Not helped by the "stars" giving the impression that they are Brits on holiday...
The Welsh 'HR' guru is almost perfect - she can't run too fast, quite fit, and as thick as a horse on toast.
Forgive me if I've missed something, but you are in the military, and you are on ops. I dread to think what they are saying on ARRSE.But agreed, the Rocks came out of the first episode very well. However, the whole thing looks very tabloid; the BBC documentary following the SH crews that was on a while back was far far superior and gave an indication of what it's really like out there.
As for ARRSE, just had a look - without repeating any of the more personal insults here, the comment "so far back they send their laundry forward" really does seem to sum up the impression of life at KAF given by this programme so far.
Last edited by Melchett01; 5th Jan 2009 at 21:22. Reason: Checked ARRSE to see exactly what they are saying
Join Date: Jun 2004
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Poor. It does not show the serious hard work which goes into providing CAS to the troops and SH to get the guys there and to resupply them. It needs a real burst of serious stuff to show what really happens rather than the inane stuff which panders to the celebrity TV culture we now inhabit. Yes there are burger kings etc but from that same base are guys and girls working their butts off. They do not get to swan about!!!!! Could have done to be edited a bit more!! How about getting across the reason we are there perhaps!!!
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Do you think the public will think all Sqn Ldr Aircrew look like that? 
Not the best TV we've ever put our names to. There is a lot of space between 'any fool can be uncomfortable' and 'fluffy'. We've erred on fluffy there.
Not the best TV we've ever put our names to. There is a lot of space between 'any fool can be uncomfortable' and 'fluffy'. We've erred on fluffy there.
Once again the Press seem to have been let loose with no editorial control. We had the same problem at Brawdy when they filmed the Fighter Pilot series.
We spent hours giving them acres of film both in the air and on the ground. What made the headlines? A student pilot cooking his chips in off-base accommodation saying he hated living in the Mess!! This time they spent more time filming a pretty little Welsh girl than they did filming the operational side of the Base!
Will their "Lordships" ever learn their lesson??
Well thats my rant. Just glad I recorded it so I could watch a wonderfully attractive redhead in "Above Suspicion" on the other channel!!
Shall now retire to my bunker with a glass of whiskey!! Tomorrow I must get a haircut and remove my sideburns! Oh! and do some PT to work off the excess of Christmas, polish my flying boots and press my trousers!!
We spent hours giving them acres of film both in the air and on the ground. What made the headlines? A student pilot cooking his chips in off-base accommodation saying he hated living in the Mess!! This time they spent more time filming a pretty little Welsh girl than they did filming the operational side of the Base!
Will their "Lordships" ever learn their lesson??
Well thats my rant. Just glad I recorded it so I could watch a wonderfully attractive redhead in "Above Suspicion" on the other channel!!
Shall now retire to my bunker with a glass of whiskey!! Tomorrow I must get a haircut and remove my sideburns! Oh! and do some PT to work off the excess of Christmas, polish my flying boots and press my trousers!!
Last edited by newt; 5th Jan 2009 at 22:26.
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I was in no fit state to watch it after watching Vicki Butler Henderson state; ".. a voluptuous derriere is perfect to play with.".
I guess I came to at about midnight. I have recorded it though, and will offer my valuable input later.
I guess I came to at about midnight. I have recorded it though, and will offer my valuable input later.
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I switched off shortly after the commentator stated that Kandahar lay 100 miles from Kabul... only two thirds short! 
Such a wasted opportunity for the British Military again. The one over Christmas was fantastic.
SMT
Such a wasted opportunity for the British Military again. The one over Christmas was fantastic.
SMT
We spent hours giving them acres of film both in the air and on the ground. What made the headlines? A student pilot cooking his chips in off-base accommodation saying he hated living in the Mess!!
A typical over-reaction by the worthless Airships.....
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I only saw the last half-hour of it. What I seen of it, was............Ok....Well....Poor...
That commentator that babbles through it just gets on my frikin nerves, he talks through it like he's commentating like the way he would for an advert for Disneyland.
Sorry to say, but! The lame "Dutch-Disco" looked like a Friday night out at the bigmarket here in Newcastle! Rough as f**k & full of p**s-heads! But without the couple of door-head US Marines in the mix!
Why don't they show us what our lads & lasses are REALLY doing?...Rather than making it look like one of those crappy "Boozed-Up Brits Abroad" or whatever the hell it's called...
Disappointed!!! But NOT with our lads & lasses, not at all, but with the makers of this show...
That commentator that babbles through it just gets on my frikin nerves, he talks through it like he's commentating like the way he would for an advert for Disneyland.
Sorry to say, but! The lame "Dutch-Disco" looked like a Friday night out at the bigmarket here in Newcastle! Rough as f**k & full of p**s-heads! But without the couple of door-head US Marines in the mix!
Why don't they show us what our lads & lasses are REALLY doing?...Rather than making it look like one of those crappy "Boozed-Up Brits Abroad" or whatever the hell it's called...
Disappointed!!! But NOT with our lads & lasses, not at all, but with the makers of this show...
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Wrathmonk
How right you are.
I just have a horrible feeling that there may be the odd "PR shot to the foot" moment and one that may backfire (again) on the light blue
How right you are.
I did find it surreal that the possibility of RMP's being concerned over the wearing of faded combats
P
(Yes, yes, I know, running away, donning tin hat, avoiding flame...)
Champagne anyone...?
Why don't they show us what our lads & lasses are REALLY doing?...
do do. Some people fix aircraft, some fly them, some do dull admin & stores and some other people guard them. In the evenings they eat pizza and go to the gym. Why? Because there's cock all else to do. There are the odd rocket attacks there but overall the opportunities to fix bayonets and charge stark-naked at Terry are pretty limited down on the Boardwalk. I'm sure those of you horrified at the dutch disco wouldn't avail yourselves of all the US/NATO facilities that are there but would probably just stay in your rooms sharpening your boot knives.....The producers pick up on the pretty/thick-as-a-whale omlette lass and the young, slightly nervous Regt Gunner because they are the sort of people C5 makes programmes for. It's just a bit of lowest-common-denominator, matey boy commentary, seafront telly that the likes of ITV and C5 revel in. It's not gritty, Ross Kemp type stuff but that's because their jobs aren't, er, gritty, Ross Kemp type stuff. Still, who knows - perhaps the young lad will get his leg blown off whilst out sweeping the approach and the admin girl will get horribly burnt when her office gets rocketted - might make for better TV eh?
I don't see it as a PR disaster per se; this is, I'm afraid, what the majority of UK forces in theatre do - 98% dull stuff. No matter how many dutch discos there are there, it's still a ****ehole and still time away from friends and family; nobody wants to be there but people make the best of a bad lot. I think I'll give the series the benefit of the doubt - there are still several more episodes to go and I suspect future ones will perhaps shine some favourable light on the less glamourous, but nonetheless vital corners of the UK deployment out there.
PS. Why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why did the Air Commode have his fg suit wings patch sewn onto his deserts......?
