Shipmates - BBC1
 

Some classic moments in this new series featuring the Senior Service. Rating humour at its best viz:

Small fire extinguished quickly in engine room about an hour out of Plymouth.
Producer (serious voice) to NCO:"Fire...pretty serious on a ship?"
NCO: "Yes, fire's serious."
Rating in background: "Sinking's pretty bad too..."

However, top prize to the BBC for using Roy Mallard as a script editor. Some lines were classic. Cut to:

Evening on deck, several hours after the previous incident, Lynx approaching for the det ex Yeovilton:
Narrator (serious voice again): "So, with the threat of fire now finally under control, the ship's Lynx approaches...".

LOL (at the BBC, not the RN)


NB: For those who don't appreciate the Roy Mallard reference, look here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/ar...66602770.shtml

Looks as though next week might get more serious as they provide assistance on Sri Lank post-tsunami.

I was expecting more of Jack's humour in the first programme, but I guess that will develop during the deployment.

Hoping that it will be as good as the "HMS Brilliant" series of a few years back.

I have to agree with Wycombe, although it will have to go some to catch up with HMS Brilliant - it had its very own one-man act in Leading Seaman (Radar) Mickey Gobel who was a 110% star and made the show. He turned up again a few years later in a series recreating Captain Cook's voyage to australia.

Was pretty impressed with the programme tbh, and even more so at the (IIRC) observer's father's christmas present.... a packet of condoms.... who says the navy dont have fun??

I wonder if they will make another programme about the RAF....they've made 'Shipmates' and 'The Queen's Cavalry'. I suppose they won't after 'Combat Pilot'. I reckon they should re-run the series.

Be nice if BBC Alba were to show things at the same time as BBC England :mad: :mad: At the moment we dont know when its going to be shown :mad: :mad:

I might be wrong but I thought I saw a male rating with his arm around another male rating in a wardroom scene. So nowadays what are the RN's regulations regarding PDAs afloat between a) heteros and b) homos?

If I was wrong, disregard all.

Knowing our luck, the series will never get aired on BBC Scotland.

'River City', Gaelic programmes (for 58,000 Gaelic speakers out of a population of 5 million), and the wonder that is Scottish football will keep it off the airwaves.

I only saw the recent 'Fleet Air Arm' series because it was aired on Discovery - ITV Scotland decided that it wasn't worth showing up north.

Zoom - same as it's always been - 'after 3 days it sea it doesn't count' - that's why the observer had the condoms!

If you have Sky TV, Shipmates is being shown on most of the Regional BBC1 Channels - Ch954 BBC1 London for example - I'm in Jockistan and watched it on Tuesday.

Think you'll find that BBC1 London is Channel 944, well it is where I get my Sky. I guess if you look around the 94x to 95x you'll find BBC Wherever

jf

Crab,

Don't you really mean:

"What a f888ing load of old bo**ocks - this just goes to show what the Navy PR machine is capable of. "

6Z3 - as soon as I track you down you're getting a £700.00 bill - read your post, laughed so much, spilt tea all over new laptop!!

I bet the Captain of Chatham is really chuffed that the whole 1st episode centred on a fat gunner who had achieved one promotion in 25 years!!
I bet the MOD is spitting bullets.

Funniest bit: The sign from the departing ship that said 'Who's stuffing yer bird this christmas'. Brilliant.

There's something about gunners. We had a gunner in HMS Sabre who hadn't even been promoted once in his 20 odd years. May have had something to do with spending much of his time in the Yacht, and so refusing promotion. He was just as much of a character as the guy starring in Shipmates.

'Only one diary entry. It simply reads... bugger...'


Is shipmates repeated at all? I missed it.

Most awfully sorry old chap for getting one digit wrong - should have been Ch.954 BBC1 South - sorry for trying to be helpful. :(

We greatly enjoyed it. Chatham is certainly a good-looking ship - lean and hungry-looking. Which is more than can be said for many of her crew. My wife thought that many of the men were overweight if not actually obese. When we saw the lavish meals being prepared in the galley and the lads and lasses guzzling their three tinnies/day, we understood all. Since I used to well-fill my grow-bag and was partial to a tinny (or six) I made no comment. One up to the Navy!

the big lads in the programme don't say alot for the PTI'S circuits does it or promotion in the gunners branch, 25 years and one of them a leading hand!!!steam bit