John Sergeant and The Sea King, 28th Feb
 

After his programme on the Spitfire in 2011, he returns with one about the Sea King:
Archie returns to aviation with BBC2 » Realscreen

Bit of a lad our John, reminds me of many an old Herk Captain ( A certain Colin comes to mind). I suspect, if he was ever in the mob, he would be out in mufti with his service shoes on every night ! But nice to see an attempt to pay credit to the aircraft and its crews. Look forward to it.

Why oh why do 'celebrities' get involved in specialist subjects far beyond their understanding? For the money of course, but why should a television company commission a 'celeb' instead of somebody who really knows his stuff? Do they really think nobody will watch unless a recognisable 'name' is tied to it? Then again, it is the BBC and we pay for the entire bloated broadcasting empire.

I would hate to cast any nasturtiums on your dissertation "Rose", but, I think the reason that people like him are used is that they will pull in a wider, more diverse, viewership than one that has only fact and "specialist opinion" to offer. Personally the thought of watching an hour long programme on the Sea King, narrated by John Nicholson (Tornado Navigator) would ensure my TV never got near the channel. I agree with your thoughts on the BBC, but think that John Sarjent is a good choice to present a program which should give due respect to the aircraft and its crews, whilst, having a bit of banter to keep the non anoraks engaged.

Smudge

WTF would Nichol know about the Sea King FFS?

Oh that's right, after getting shot down owing to him having a switch pigs, he became the UK expert on all things aviation.






NOT!

Exactly, what you said !!

I like John Sergeant's style of presentation, personally speaking. He has a good reputation as a journalist, so I'd expect his research to be up to scratch. Thanks for the heads up re the programme, I'll be putting it on the planner.

JS may look and act like a friendly uncle but he was a formidable journalist in his time.

John Sergeant (journalist) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Nichol perchance?

Would it work with John S presenting the program alongside somebody who *is* an expert ...? almost in a 'teach the celeb about ...' scenario. John S gets to ask questions about it, introduce a few stories about it, gets shown around it, but the expert is the one with all the knowledge and stories.

It doesn't really matter what the *it* is - it could be a corporation dustcart, a steam engine, a Sea King, a nuclear submarine. We all know that the star of the show is the _thing_, but I'd rather have the story told by an expert.

When you think back to the program about the last days of the Shackleton (was that really 20 years ago?!), the Shack was the star, and the RAF personnel telling their stories were the experts, and the commentator was not seen on screen.

Because, for the most part, experts, as exemplified by the many pedants who frequent these parts, are quite simply boring, blinkered, unintelligent tw@ts.

Reminds me of showing some new guy around years ago, on asking how long he'd been out of the RAF, he said I never said I was in the RAF and how did I know, I pointed down at a nicely polished pair of RAF shoes :E

Looking forward to it, his last one was a damn good show, and not one of these boring bods talking tripe.

And if you never saw his last show, I would recommend it

Bomber Command
John Sergeant pays tribute to the aircrews of RAF Bomber Command who died serving their country and tells the stories of some of the surviving members, including bomb aimer Andy Wiseman, pilot Bill Lucas, rear gunners Bob Gill and Harry Irons, and navigator Harry Hughes. On June 28, the Queen unveiled a memorial in London's Green Park to honour the 55,573 men who gave their lives in bombing raids during the Second World War.

..

RAF SHOES
 

In the 70/80s you could tell who was ex RAF in civil airlines by the shoes, socks and grey canvas nav bag ( aah nostalgia ).
Enthusiasts present the truth and journalists dont want to, why spoil a good story
It'll be HRH Andy in the Falklands and HRH Wills in the Highlands and the rest?

The specifics:

BBC Two - The Sea King: Britain's Flying Past

One of the TV Listings web-sites for today has a comment about the show, and says 'as flown by HRH Prince Andrew during the Falklands War' ... I thought he flew the Lynx. I've certainly got a photo of the nose of an RN Lynx with 'HRH Prince Andrew' painted on it.

HRH Prince Andrew certainly flew the Sea King HAS5 during the Falklands War, as a member of 820NAS and the airframe concerned(XZ574) is now on show in the Falklands 30 Exhibition at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, later he converted to the Lynx.

Was he also 815 NAS?

815NAS flying the Lynx

He's annoying me....keeps mentioning 'Culrose'. Could someone not have stressed the 'd'?

Argggghhhh he's just done it again.

Sadly, not even this will stop the totally stupid privatisation of the air-sea rescue force in 2016. :*

S41

CULROSE???????????!!!!!:{

Apart from the dropped "d's" I'd say good effort - not much HRH at all, and when the divers involved in the MV Muree rescue told their stories...gulp.......:ok:

Wow! What a program. Congrats to John Sergeant and more than that, deepfelt thanks to the guys who have served their Sea King time with absolute devotion to duty and have saved so many lives.

Anyone who doesn't feel proud of what they have seen tonight needs a check-up.

Great programme, lots of familiar faces (not just the obvious ones) - BZ/Well done as appropriate. Would be nice to get '298 and '718/BN together before the former is retired......Perhaps the 2 most combat experienced airframes in the UK military?

Much better than I thought it was going to be.

I did chuckle when they mentioned the Fastnet race showing a brief veiw of a Wessex.

Smashing program, well presented with due respect to the aircraft and its operators and maintainers. Well done says I!

I am sure John Sargeant is, in fact, Jo Brand in a trilby hat!

Somewhere, at this very moment, there is a Bagger Sqn PRO dreading tomorrows chat with the Boss.....

Great programme. Nicely done, a tad navy-centric, but she's done so much it must have been difficult to shrink it down to 1hr!

Fear God, Honour the (Mighty) King!!
 

I thought John Sergeant did OK, even if he couldn't pronounce CulDrose, I'm sure the Pingers, SAR Queens and Baggers won't have minded....much!

ZA298 is definitely a legendary cab - surely it's got to be the most obvious donation to the FAA MUseum once it's retired from service? Nice to see Neil Copeland talking about his downbird team and their efforts in the Patrol Base - they did a monumental job to strip so much weight out of the cab overnight so that the Chinook could lift it out at first light, he thoroughly deserved his Commendation! :ok:

Mind you, a blade change in about 2 hours in the field during the Falklands and then back into tasking - awesome!! I'm not sure the MAA would let us get away with that one any more!:}

I enjoyed it and think he is definitely one of the better presenters where military aircraft are involved, his bomber command programme hit the nail., top that off with the tactful use of background music, used where needed, but not overpowering and drowning out the narration. :ok: why can other producers not learn from the series of programmes he has been involved with.
Noticed a few Wessex door shots slipped in early on, but nothing to detract from the programme. As for the two George Cross divers on the back of the ship...... Totally well deserved and as in situations like that, totally unassuming, hats off to them, without doubt two well earned decorations, one just hopes they never have to sell them on to pay for their future care... Grrrrrrr.

Was it me or was the ASW role (why the UK had Sea King in the first place) pretty much ignored?

Huey,
The SK has been an overwhelmingly Navy asset; I guess the Navy PR machine was happy to help - and a good job they did too. Of course the RAF SAR guys have done some gnarly rescues but the programme was only an hour....The RAF can't really complain given the coverage the Chinook has had over the past few years.

WEBF,
It was referenced but it's not as public friendly as SAR. As Tourist said there might be a few questions asked within the Bagger community though....

Nice to see the Queenie get her moment in the sun. Having flown her a bit, she's not bad for a 'half-helicopter'!

I didn't know that the SK4 had a gents changing area installed. JS must have used it to take off the dry suit and pop his pink civvy shirt on during the flight out to Illustrious.

Or perhaps the editor thought we wouldn't notice? :E

Bugger - missed it! Anyone know when I can catch a repeat?

Thanks.

iPlayer - you can watch when you want to.

The resemblance is uncanny.

It's difficult since the last HAS6s went to Sultan or SFDO ten years ago, unlike 771 and 846 where you've still got an active unit to talk about Junglie or SAR.

I'm with Tourist though. Somewhere in 849 squadron building is a very unhappy bunny I suspect.

I think that it was on "The One Show" that they both appeared some little time ago when he said something along the lines of, "We're here to quash the rumour that we're never seen in the same room to-gether" to enormous guffaws all round.