RAF security film
 

Anybody out there remember the 70's security film made at RAF Wittering. The story line was a harrier pilot who was going off the rails, it may have starred Richard O'Sullivan? as the pilot. I remember having to watch it once a year through the early 80's. Reason I ask is that my wife was in one of the scenes ( a young 19yr old ATC lovely ) and I would love to find a copy to give her and our girls a suprise. I've tried utube and alike with no luck.

I do recall that security film:

RAF airman hitch-hiker decides to clam up when asked too many questions by a driver and is dropped off at Wittering.

Cheeky little WRAF who says "I'll do it any way you like, sir" :ooh: to the Sqn Cdr about some document which needs re-typing.

Baby sitter and boyfriend who dresses up in her dad's RAF uniform, spilling S&C documents from dad's briefcase.

Suspicious 'bird watchers' observing Harrier exercise.

But I'm not sure whether it featured Richard O' Sullivan. He certainly appeared in a FS video; after oversleeping and missing breakfast, he enters the runway without clearance forcing an F-4 to go-around. There was another movie where someone talking about FAC work asks him if he flies Hunters. "No, Harriers actually" came the reply in a rather superior (and remarkably accurate) tone - I wonder how he knew?

I can only remember an earlier one that featured a Canberra pilot , who when asked to climb to 40,000ft, replied:-

"Steady on old chap, this is only a Mk8" :uhoh:

That no doubt comes from the early 70s when TWCU and 1 Sqn were based together. IIRC the majority of TWCU pilots were bound for F4 and Jag and not Harrier. Talk about chalk and cheese.

Huh? TWCU wasn't formed until 1981 and, as its name implies, was an entirely Tornado Weapons Conversion Unit.....:hmm:

Dctyke,

Was that the one about DISTRACTIONS (written in zig-zag writing)? I seem to remember watching the same one about the bona mate who has snags at home, gets behind on his paperwork (probably the coffee boat knowing Crab Air's secondary duties :p) and then leaves the pins in the seat, resulting in a lack of bang when he required it.

Age and beer have probably muddled up several of the flight safety movies but I, too, am sure Richard O'Sullivan was in that one.

Ahhh, the joys of the RAF training system, poor wx in the Yorkshire 'bowl' and a negative forecast from Stan :)

Wasn't the Sy film the one that had a Harrier pilot hitting the bottle and meeting an attractive young lady in one of Soho's less salubrious establishments before finding himself confronted by an eastern european type with some very compromising photographs and a request for co-operation?

I seem to recall that said pilot was played by Richard O'Sullivan, who clearly hadn't been prevailed upon to have a regulation haircut.

I thought that the Richard O'Sullivan one was a flight safety film where it was a chain of events leading up to an incident, one of which was not getting his breakfast in the morning.

The premise being that everyone has an effect on flight safety.

Beags, you are of course correct, AD, the Hunters I was thinking of were but I incorrectly recalled that they were a tactical weapons training unit. I think that is the role they were actually fulfilling keeping FJ pilots gainfully employed.

Ahem, more to the point, do we get a chance to see a 'before and after' of Mrs dctyke? :)

heh, heh.......................... somehow I don't think she would approve of me splashing her pics across the site. If I ever find the film I'll send a link! The mail that mentioned 45 and 58 Hunters brought back some great memories, my very 1st posting................... happy days volunteering to sit at the end of the runway on sunny days collecting chutes and making sneb cans safe!

45 Sqn and 58 Sqn of Wittering's Hunter Wing were operational Hunter squadrons in every sense of the word. Pilots were posted there pending the availability of an OCU slot on other types.

IIRC, they won a prestigious NATO low-level attack competition with their map-and-stopwatch Hunters, much to the chagrin of the Pussycat people with their gucci new toy...:O

I was posted to 58 Sqn as the last pilot ever posted to an operational RAF Hunter squadron, then went on leave. When I came back the Boss had been told that the Wing's disbandment had been brought forward in order to provide more Hunters to RAF Brawdy, who couldn't mange to generate enough serviceable jets on a daily basis to meet the TWU's needs.

So I piled all my worldly belongings back into my car and returned to Brawdy; when 45/58's jets arrived they were in showroom condition compared to the scruffy things 63 (:yuk:), 234 (:ok:) and 79 (:8) normally had to fly. That was the difference between having well-motivated groundcrew with a sense of squadron identity at Wittering and a bunch of pi$$ed-off teddies who hated being stuck in the bottom left hand corner of Wales miles from anywhere.

Hunter flying in the summer of 1976 - ****ing brilliant!

Flight Safety - It's Nothing to Do with Me!
 

The Richard O Sullivan film was, I believe, entitled 'Flight Safety - It's Nothing to Do With Me'. Memorable for a scene in a stripclub featured a frustrated young harrier pilot (Sullivan) enjoying a personal dance (given the film's age you get to see the full top half) (!), a RAFP Cpl picking mushrooms who ends up falling off his bike and swearing under his breath at a Dominie crew, and a jobsworth techie who throws an 'RTI' test kit in a draw and clocks off early, hence grounding the fleet. The culmination of the frustration is Sullivan being told to go-around short finals as he's not received landing clearance, shortly before being called a 'clown' on the radio by an angry Phantom crew.

The film is of a fine vintage and totally un-PC, hence recommended viewing!

I'm only familiar as during a hold at Bruggen, my job was to make VHS copies for everyone else - good times.:)

HH

Poor old Richard didn't get the right breakfast either iirc, Boy was he having a bad day!

There used to be another film called 'Frustration', we were shown it as 'space kidettes' in the 70's at 1 AEF at Manston when waiting as the rain stoped play! Ah...good days....

Think it had a crew in a Javelin having a bad day of all things!!!

Harrier Flight Safety Film -Wildenrath
 

Part of the overshoot incident film was filmed in part at 20 Sqn and the Pussycat Club in Wassenberg. The film's Director stole the show.

These films, I recall, were introduced by that red cartoon snake with the perpetual toothy smile called Hissing Sid! I remember some quite serious ones including one about an RAF Officer being blackmailed into spying at either Scampton or Waddington, during both their Vulcan eras. The poor chap had been filmed by some Commies getting it on with an intimate services operative, or whatever such young ladies are called now. Hissing Sid introduced the show by spinning in swivel chair asking if we would like to be in show biz, then introduced the Flt Lt somebody or other 'who wanted to be in show beessness' said Sid with his heavy East European accent. Also, that he like to haaf a vaery good time weev the ladees!:ok:

FB:)

Female or male?
The former: meh . . .
The latter, at the time, rather more serious.

The following RAF short films are available on DVD, unfortunately the two classics Dr FOD & The Man From LOX are not on the list but are available on YouTube.

************************************************************ **************
ROYAL AIR FORCE IN THE 1960s - The Definitive Short Films Collection
************************************************************ **************
Airborne Assault Operation (1960, 29 mins)
Rescue at Sea (1960, 4 mins)
The Favourites (1960, 20 mins)
Adventure with Skill (1960, 19 mins)
RAF 42nd Anniversary (1960, 10 mins)
Streaked Lightning (1960, 5 mins)
Call Out : RAF Mountain Rescue (1960, 12 mins)
Delta 8-3 : The Vulcan (1960, 27 mins)
Technical Officer (1960, 22 mins)
These Things Happen (1961, 14 mins)
True Bearing : RAF In The Far East (1961, 28 mins)
No Claims Bonus (1961, 5 mins)
Transport Command : RAF Lyneham (1961, 24 mins)
Jungle Life-Line : RAF in the Far East (1961, 16 mins)
High Encounter : Valiant (1961, 21 mins)
RAF Recruiting with Kenneth Wolstenholme (1961, 2 mins)
Transport Command (1962, 16 mins)
Nuclear Defence Operations (1962, 22 mins)
Jubilee 1912-1962 : RAF 50th Anniversary (1962, 26 mins)
The Multi-Seat `MS 26' Dinghy (1963, 22 mins)
Forward Air Controller (1963, 25 mins)
The Fighter-Bomber Electronic Warfare Battle (1963, 21 mins)
Air-Head (1963, 10 mins) / Spinning Modern Aircraft (1964, 19 mins)
Flight - An Anthology (1964, 13 mins)
The Royal Airforce D/F Emergency Organisation (1965, 19 mins)
Escape From an Aircraft in Flight (1965, 21 mins)
Maritime Air Electronic Warfare (1965, 25 mins)
Routine Adventure : RAF In Aden (1965, 13 mins)
Winged Horizons (1965, 11 mins) / The New Men : RAF Recruit Training (1965, 19 mins)
A Matter of Choice (1965, 17 mins)
African Journey (1965, 12 mins)
Operation Bush-Fire (1966, 25 mins)
Thursday's Comet (1966, 26 mins)
Air Quartermaster - Training (1966, 25 mins)
Fifteen Flight Safety Flashes (1966, 17 mins)
Timepiece (1966, 22 mins) / The Supplier in the Royal Air Force (1967, 7 mins)
RAF Recruiting With Wynne Jones (1967, 1 min)
Into Action with the RAF Regiment (1967, 6 mins)
Royal Air Force Police (1967, 8 mins)
A Place for You in the WRAF (1968, 32 mins)
Fiftieth Anniversary of the Royal Air Force** (1969, 20 mins)
Malta - Shackleton (1969, 8 mins)
Tomorrow, Today, Survival (1969, 5 mins)
Jump To Action (1969, 19 mins)
Graduate In The RAF (1969, 19 mins)
************************************************************ **************
ROYAL AIR FORCE IN THE EARLY 1970s - The Definitive Short Films Collection
************************************************************ **************
Oxygen Fire In The Air (1969/1970, 18 mins)
RAF College - Cranwell (1970, 19 mins)
The Sharp End (1970, 14 mins)
State Of Readiness (1970, 2 mins)
Sea Survival With The RAF (1970, 2 mins)
Aircraft Mechanic - Weapons (1970, 6 mins)
Low Flying (1971, 18 mins)
RAF Catering Trades (1971, 7 mins)
Vision And Nuclear Flash (1971, 17 mins)
Low Flying Training - Part One (1971, 22 mins)
Low Flying Training - Part Two (1971, 27 mins)
Seven Days To White Tent (1972, 52 mins)
Exercise Senator II (1972, 21 mins)
RAF Scramble - Quick Reaction Alert (1972, 2 mins)
Nothing To Do With Me (1972, 21 mins)
The Royal Air Force Afloat (1972, 28 mins)
Exercise Black Spear (1972, 28 mins)
The Engineer In The RAF (1972, 22 mins)
Flight 618 (1973, 18 mins)
Personal Service - The RAF Secretarial Officer (1973, 15 mins)
An Introduction To The Nimrod (1973, 17 mins)
************************************************************ *************
ROYAL AIR FORCE IN THE LATE 1970s - The Definitive Short Films Collection
************************************************************ *************
Open Secret (1973, 42 mins)
Airfield Driving - RAF Little Rissington (1973, 21 mins)
Skill At Arms - The RAF Regiment Gunner (1973, 26 mins)
RAF Fire Brigade (1974, 17 mins)
Jaguar In Service (1974, 11 mins)
RAF Telecommunications (1974, 6 mins)
RAF Community Relations Officer (1974, 3 mins)
RAF Aerospace Systems Officer (1974, 7 mins)
RAF Ground Trades - Flight Line (1974, 5 mins)
RAF Ground Trades - Take Off (1974, 3 mins)
Take-Off : Harrier - Recruitment Trailer (1974, 3 mins)
Phantom Trailer (1975, 1 min)
Part Of The Team (1975, 20 mins)
Nimrod - The Mighty Hunter (1975, 20 mins)
Fly With The RAF (1975, 19 mins)
Serving With The RAF : RAF Jaguar (1975, 2 mins)
RAF Take-Off : Phantom (1975, 1 min)
Out Of The Rut (1975, 16 mins)
RAF Supply (1975, 5 mins)
RAF Police (1975, 4 mins)
Harrier - Strike And Survive (1976, 9 mins)
RAF Recruitment - Jaguar (1977, 1 min)
RAF Recruitment - Jaguar : Air Base (1977, 1 min)
RAF Recruitment - Jaguar : Faces (1977, 1 min)
Hush House (1977, 3 mins)
Fighter Controller (1977, 9 mins)
Royal Salute - Queen's Silver Jubilee Review Of The RAF (1977, 30 mins)
RAF Mountain Rescue (1977, 2 mins)
RAF Sea Rescue (1977, 2 mins) / Nimrod Patrol (1978, 6 mins)
Harriers Operation Hal Flint (1978, 38 mins)
RAF Counter-Marching (1978, 2 mins)
Bomb Cluster HE 600lb No.1 Mk.1 (Excerpt, 1971, 9 mins)
************************************************************ ********
ROYAL AIR FORCE IN THE 1980s - The Definitive Short Films Collection
************************************************************ ********
RAF Watchdogs (1980, 24 mins)
Flying Low In A Hawk (1980, 3 mins)
Nimrod Attack (1981, 2 mins)
RAF Police (1982, 6 mins)
Fighter Pit-Stop (1982, 2 mins)
RAF Intercept (1982, 25 mins)
RAF Engineering (1983, 25 mins)
Distractions (1984, 30 mins)
Operation Intercept (1984, 29 mins)
Talkdown (1985, 10 mins)
Aircraft Structural Integrity (1986, 27 mins)
Tornado (1986, 29 mins)
RAF Recruitment TV Adverts Of The Early 80s (4 mins)
RAF In Germany (1987, 3 mins)
The Price Of F.O.D. (1987, 22 mins)
Support Trades (1987, 3 mins)
Pilot Display (1987, 3 mins)
Engineering Trades (1987, 2 mins)
Harrier Passenger Brief (1987, 14mins)
RAF Air Force For Peace (1988, 20 mins)
Christmas Present (1988, 26 mins)
Hazardous Ops(1989, 24 mins)
RAF Wings (1989, 1 min)
RAF Regiment (1989, 17 mins)
RAF Auxiliary Air Force (1989, 19 mins)
RAF Junior Engineer Officer JENGO (1989, 21 mins).
************************************************************ ********
ROYAL AIR FORCE IN THE 1990s - The Definitive Short Films Collection
************************************************************ ********
RAF Way Of Life (1990, 1 min)
RAF Round-Up 1990 (1990, 24 mins)
Aircraft Pilot & Navigator (1990, 3 mins)
Guardians Of The Sky (1991, 14 mins)
RAF Cranwell (1991, 16 mins)
RAF Promo The Dream (1992, 2 mins)
Flypast For RAF 75th Anniversary (1993, 5 mins)
RAF Bosnia Air-Lifts (1993, 5 mins)
RAF Battle Manager (1993, 17 mins)
Stepping In Time (1993, 22 mins)
High Hopes (1994, 6 mins)
RAF Engineer Engineered For Success (1996, 15 mins)
RAF Logistics (1996, 14 mins)
RAF Payload (1997, 1 min)
RAF Regiment Gunners (1997, 12 mins)
RAF The Hunters (1998, 13 mins)
RAF Fighter Control (1998, 14 mins)
A Matter Of Life And Death (1999, 23 mins)
Sections From Rise Above The Rest Life In The RAF (1994, 6 mins)
*********************************
Look at Life: Volume 2 - Military (Only shown the RAF centric films)
*********************************
The Black Arrows
Thunder in Waiting
A Piece of Cake
Air Umbrella
Flight Deck
Pipeline
Survival
Test Pilot
Turning Blades
Golden Wings
Girls of the Air
The Sky’s the Limit
The Jet Folk
Jumping Jets
Air Lift
Down to Earth
School for Skymen
Free Fall

Interesting - I was just thinking about those old security films yesterday bearing in mind the Jeremy Corbyn "spying" discussion.
In TBT's reply about the RAF films available - is "Operation Intercept" the fictional film about a Herc being shot down on the way to FI because of all the minor security breaches moulded together with buckets of open-source material?

& IIRC, the Harrier pilot crashing Flight Safety film was something like "Break The Chain"? - long sequence of events from problems at home to fried eggs in the Mess results in a fatality?

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I never did get to see my stunning background performance in a security film made on 617 circa 1985, would love to see some of the old faces in that one.

#roommeat

ISTR one that turned the usual "honeytrap" story on its head - so to speak.

A tasty WRAF officer - ADC to a VSO - was serviced by a Roosian (?) officer; tough work but someone's got to do it.

Anyone else remember that one?

Not a security film, but I appear very briefly in a WRAF officer recruiting film which was being shot at Feltwell in 1964. We were in the gym and were told to come and watch this young female cadet on the trampoline while they filmed her. I wasn't quite killed in the rush, and a young slim Officer Cadet TTN can be seen closely observing said girl bouncing up and down on the trampoline.

One of the better days at OCTU!

The Cadet receiving all the prizes from HRH Princess Elizabeth in this freebie film made in 1951 was later AVM Merriman.

http://www.youngpeopleoftheyear.org/...udges_sponsors

https://www.britishpathe.com/video/c...graduation-day

With that number of films produced it's a wonder that we ever had time to do any flying!

I can remember catching one I "starred" in when channel surfing the TV on a boring afternoon.

There was an episode of the BBC series Squadron in which a Harrier went missing and it was thought the pilot had defected to the other side. An intelligence officer played by, I think, Glyn Owen, was interrogating everyone about it, including the pilot's wife. In the end a farmer found the Harrier sitting in his yard and the pilot sat in his office, having suffered a breakdown.

The Harrier FS film with Richard O,Sullivan was ‘Flight Safety Nothing to do with Me’ (1973) The Wg Cdr Spry IFS type who did the summing up was Nicholas Courtney (who was Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in Doctor Who).

The Security Film set at Wittering with the hitch-hiking clerk was ‘Open Secret’ (1973).

Another FS film with people off the TV was ‘Oversight’ (1976), with Trevor Eve as a Phantom Pilot and Michael Sheard (who was Mr Bronson in Grange Hill), as an overloaded C/T.

Frustrations has been made twice, the 60s one was a Javelin crew trying to get back to UK from the Far East.
The 70s one was a Jaguar Sqn Exec who (after lots of triv to deal with), goes flying, has an engine failure on take-off and can’t clear the external stores due to missed switch selections.

All the video resources that used to be in training and crew rooms, the first Sqn I joined had a mountain of UMatic tapes with ‘I Serve The Soviet Union’ recorded off air; fantastic for WP Target Reccie. Lots of FS videos too.

Crew rooms today have little or none. The TV in the corner will have Homes Under The Hammer on or even worse Jeremy Kyle.

At least there’s always Recignition Journal or Air Clues out monthly........oh no, that’s all gone too.

Just piles of unread Pathfinder Mag and as for RAF News, that isn’t even any good for starting a BBQ .

No-one uses the crewroom anymore I believe, except to nip in to make a coffee to take back to the office. Anyone chatting/watching TV in the crewroom obviously had too much time on their hands and therefore a good "volunteer" for any SLJs that came along. A big pity because chatting in the crewroom was where you learned the important stuff from those more knowledgeable on the Sqn.

How many films did O'Sullivan make??

The story I recall from a long time ago was that he was tired, distracted, and when told to hold short of the runway, he entered it and lined up, causing another to go around.

The biggest kick he should have received was for his haircut.

What gets me about most of these films, is that despite our [cough, cough] advancing years and loss of brain cells through beer and who knows what else, we all still remember the films and their messages. Corny they may have been but they seem to have worked. When you compare the recent penchant for losing sensitive information and the ridiculous CBT of the modern versions, I wonder whether the younger generation will get the message and be reminiscing about their CBT in 30 years' time?

Are the 'Hissing Sid' security videos listed in the comprehensive list of films. I never could remember the titles of those, but do remember the main characters and the messages.

The original 'Frustrations' was very good indeed. Interestingly, the frustrating events facing the Jav. crew would probably be considered quite acceptable to many of us today.

I recall that they turned up somewhere to find a dining-in night in progress, so were offered a waiter-served fry-up instead... Someone broke the navigator's duty-free perfume bottle which he was taking to his wife ( "Now everything will smell just wonderful"), but the succession of duck-nibbles eventually led to a go-around at minimum fuel, double flame out and ejection at Akrotiri (?).

Is there a rattly old 16mm cine version still hiding in some corner of a FS empire?

Sorry to hear about modern crew rooms. Similar story about messes - the only time I visited an officers' mess in recent years it was pretty well deserted and had all the atmosphere of a Travel Lodge. I am just so glad I did my service when I did.

Regarding the "Operation Intercept". I remember being shown it at MPA as part of arrival procedure. I found it briefly interesting but when they showed the VC-10 flight deck it became a little sad. Reason the chap in the RH seat had only recently passed away, he was a Capt on 101 at the time and probably one of the better "touch/feel" pilots. One story was whilst doing fighter assim, the fighter could never find the "brown bomber". Why, because the combination of pointing the nose towards the fighter and the angle of attack of the VC-10K was raised sufficiently so that the wings blocked the compressor intakes making the good old VC-10 difficult for the fighter's radar to find it.

Mind you, some of the films were good at clearing crewrooms....A good way to motivate staff in my old VGS was to put on a film called 'Flight checkers'*....all about ILS checking. Its amazing how suddenly people became motivated to go and clean A/C
or repair cables etc etc as soon as it started!


*Apologies to 115 Sqn...I am sure it was skilled and obviously necessary work...but did not make the most interesting video for a bunch of Staff Cadets!

I recall that the various first aid films were much better at clearing crewrooms. There was a (I think it was Canadian) film of a simulated passenger aircraft crash, and each person had a different but very realistic looking wound/broken bone. This usually got us all out in a couple of minutes!!

CharlieJuliet
 

I remember watching that film in 1964. It was a Dakota, I think, that crashed. I fainted at the sight of some of those wound shots!

Aaron.

I recall that movie, it was indeed an RCAF Dak. But the advice from that big, black chap to a survivor whose ruptured artery was spurting away, to "Hold on to that or you'll bleed to death!" was described as 'not exactly reassuring' by our instructor!

Some of the more unpleasant films were those shown to us at AMTC during AR5 training pre-GW1, which included shots of live animal experiments accompanied by the American instructor and audience laughing at the effects on the animals. Surely it didn't take the brains of a rocket scientist to expect that a cat which had been given LSD would suffer accordingly..:mad: ??