90 Years of the RAF - BBC2
 

Civilian here, will delete thread if necessary after flak.
BBC2 (Scotland- 11/12/08) 2000-2130 History of the RAF
What was it about? Comments?
Or was it just me?

Suprised they managed an hour and a half.......:O

It's on BBC2 (rest of the world) Friday 12 Dec 2100.

airsound

Jockistan calling then Airsound, unless you've had a preview don't hold your breath. I'll keep the thread open for comments.

I didn't like it - not enough content and too much wasted time.

Re the previous poster, couldn't agree more - tosh, and underlying fluffy/huggy bits as well. A badly made programme all round, and I make 'em. (not bad ones!) Look forward to the comments tonight. Don't forget the chance to complain officially....

A very poor programme.

Not enough about the 'RAF at 90', which was the title after all. Most of it was history, with random speaking clock recordings over modern film of Docklands, long pauses whilst veterans wandered around an old airfield and looked over the railings of a cross channel ferry. Only the last 5 minutes or so covered modern overseas ops and gave a false impression due to the way the film was put together. I don't think JP had any sort of prepared script, judging by the number of pauses, repetition and umm....errs.....

Some of the most interesting clips showed the Cup Final when the zeppelin appeared low overhead.

And to think the programme had official blessing :ugh:

You're right - It wasn't the RAF at 90, neither was it a comprehensive history of the RAF. I think the "snapshots" they gave were the thinking behind the development of Air Power and the effect those developments had on crews. If that was the aim then the programme probably succeeded, although there was no comparison between how a modern "bomber" force operates and the WW2 bomber raids given such a lot of coverage. They (whoever "they" are) could, however, have made several far better programmes. How about a history which included technology - changes in airframes, radar, jet engines, AAR, VSTOL.....etc or a portrait of the RAF today featuring not just pilots?
An interesting documentary, perhaps, but all in all a missed opportunity.

Can you "do" the history of the RAF in 90 mins? Were they trying to? The RAF at 90---- must have missed that bit, unless it was Typhoon at Cottesmore. All,in all a very poor attempt totally lacking direction, control and meaning, meandering into poorly edited sound bites, seemingly thrown together, in a hurry, at the last minute, in fact very much a labour government production! (:E sorry for that)

I thought JP came across ok. At least it was him and not the loud mouth 'I am an aviation expert now' that used to sit behind him!

Wiretensioner

I haven't got a problem with John Nichol - to be fair, he is a good a candidate as any to host TV programmes about planes, surely? Better than Ross Kemp and the Army, for example...

I think that by the time we reach the 100 years of the RAF, the service may well have been consigned to history. Certainly so if Torpy's 'strong' leadership is anything to go by.

And I'm not sure that many outside of Typhoon-land will give much of a stuff... :(

Scrappy programme - some good stuff in there but it could have been so much better with a decent production team.

What a wasted opportunity :(

I loved it! Told me some stuff that I didn't know about the RAF, and some of the scenes (graduating IOT, captured Tornado pilot) was especially hard-hitting.

Given that this was supposed to be about the 'RAF at 90' the scope seemed rather narrow and failed to mentioned some of the most important aspects of the RAF. The first 70 minutes of 90 were devoted to the first 27 years of the RAF, juxtaposed with some current fast jet skygods. About 15 minutes were devoted to cold war fast jet skygods and about 5 minutes to Gulf War 2 fast jet skygods.

Not a whisper of the SH force who have, after all, been doing most of the shooting (and getting shot at) for the last 10 years, not a mention of Black Buck, not even a mention of Aden, Suez, Malaya, The Stan etc etc.

This program should probably have been called 'FJ heroes and their predecessors at 90'. I should have gone to the mess and got smashed instead.

And a quick edit before I'm misunderstood, this is not a dig at the FJ force but with many mates on the SH force earning DFCs like they're going out of fashion, I thought it might warrant at least a single mention in a program claiming to present the history of 90 years of the RAF.

Honest debrief
 

Oft reading, infrequently posting and was touched by JP's comments - thus felt duty bound to put down the red wine and type........

Mate, I wouldn't of swapped my place for yours....you didn't fail and there but for the grace of god went I.....seeing the pictures of you from 91 brought back very strong memories and the elation of seeing you alive then, and still now, still brings back goose bumps...your pain was felt by all of us at Dhahran.......your unassuming commentary raised an average proggy above the norm.

mustpost:

Quote:

---

What was it about? Comments?

---

It was about 90 years of the RAF, or more particularly Strategic Aerial Bombing, for which it was formed. Known in the trade as "Frightfulness" or later "Armageddon" it has always been a particular preoccupation of the chattering classes from which the BBC draws its recruits. This was a complete hatchet job done, oh so obliquely, that you weren't quite sure if you'd got the point or not. Of course it wasn't all dark, the forces of light were there too, the "knights of the air", the "cavalry of the clouds", both past and present, with talk of pride at defending our skies from the Hun (what? are they? oh, sorry!). Which brings us to Luke Torpy. Why do I get the suspicion that he was personally involved in giving this the RAF seal of approval? All publicity is good publicity, especially when much of it is filmed at Coningsby. Strong the Force in that one is, think I!

Was a little confused by it all. Came across as trying to show off the glamour of the fighter pilots in previous years. But then every few minutes would come on with someone telling you how your shooting a man not a plane. Which is true, but why did they keep repeating it every few minutes. As other posters stated, I couldn't tell whether it was a hard-hitting insight into the morality of war, or a recruitment drive. With all the pictures of spitfires men running across grass, airshows etc.:confused: