Judging by the way the crew seem distracted by the cameras I would not be at all surprised to find the TV presence at some point had a bearing on what happened. At what point did the cameras vacate the ship? Just a thought.

The incident occurs in November on the return trip. By my reckoning should be around day 192-ish in the programme timeline.

I think it’s just Chris Terrill on his own.

​​​​​​​Thanks for that.

There are lamberts in every generation! I had one in my division years ago who though if he had a cheque in his cheque book then he must have money left! Spent many an hour discussing with him what bouncing a cheque meant!! Great AEM, good for morale whether onboard, a run ashore or at an eagle base but a nightmare with money!

I've done a bit of sailing and flying in NZ. Even though I understood the reason, weather maps showing clockwise winds around lows just looked wrong!

There's a good example in NZ right now:


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....76ebaf6f57.png

I was happily giving this one the benefit of the doubt, for exactly the reasons you give, until he started clowning around during the damage control exercise. Not only is he degrading the value of the training for everyone near him, but I doubt he'll be much use when the real thing happens.

With all the clowning around, it appears to be a great place to work and will probably entice numerous people to enlist.

I think most of us here know that it is a far more serious endeavour and some of those new recruits will be in for a shock when reality hits home.

Particularly when they are taught some of the lessons from the Falklands (which I hope they are).

Notwithstanding the antics of that clown, the fact that so many ship's systems seemed to have failed is rather disturbing. These carriers are surely supposed to be our most modern warships?

Rather than all the 'pride' segments of the programme, I'd have liked to have seen how the ship's officers were putting urgent steps in place to fix so many faults!

I think that was illustrated by the young writer who expressed her surprise they might be going to war rather than just doing humanitarian work.

I was actually surprised by the candour of some of the younger crew (both officers and ratings). I would have expected more guarded measured comments when talking to a documentary crew.

Not entirely sure how many ships systems you think have failed? Seems to be the pyro plants that have fallen over - quite often you'd suspect from unsorted gash, which is why they've got a sorting team. Not sure there's many other systems gone t1ts up - other than an internal comms terminal in one space. It's a ship, four months into a work-up and operations cycle, this stuff happens. Its why you have redundant systems and onboard maintainers.

I think the Pride bit's quite important, to show a significant proportion of potential recruits that the Forces really have changed since they days you couldn't get a security clearance without being straight, and that they'll be welcomed and allowed to be their true selves. Previous series have given similar coverage to religious observance, so it's just about showing a diverse workforce.

I'd still prefer to see more from the ops room and flight deck though!

Edit: That's what rankled about the young Jack The Lad: Everyone else is showing you can be yourself and have a diverse workplace without impacting on your professionalism and ability to do the job, then you've got Clowny McClownface disrupting an important training exercise with endless one-liners and willy jokes.

I would suggest, by now, the rest of the programme content has rendered his "comedic " inputs null and void.

You might know that, but it came across that 'nothing works' and that trained members of the ship's company had had to become garbage collectors. Also that the comms terminal just didn't work, with no mention of how / when it would be fixed.

Beag's, At the moment I think that you should be tallking in the singular regarding our carrier force!
Bill

Nice little clip of the ships "comedian" in the last episode seen removing a packet of bacon, I think, from a box and complaining about the packaging......walked away leaving the package on top....along came another member of the crew, quietly picks up the package and returns it to the box.....it was the look, and direction, on said crew members face that said it all.

Presumably the celebrations for his leaving party took place after he left.

Otherwise, a nicely developing series.

Well, after last night's finale - Lambert we learn, failed a drug test and was kicked out of the RN. Too much of a Jolly Jack Tar there I'm afraid.
The female AS who was the musician as well as having expressed concerns about what she had "got herself in to", with regards to warfare, was nowhere to be seen which was a pity.

A good final episode saw them back alongside Portsmouth. After a hesitant start I have thouroughly enjoyed the series.

That was slightly strange, as she was one of the main focus of the early shows- although she did feature quite prominently last night in the tug of war celebrations!

I thought it was a good series that showed the RN in a positive light. They even resisted the temptation to make fun of the Yanks!

Well the producer/cameraman is a highly respected and accomplished individual, famous for being awarded the Green Beret at 55, amongst other things. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Terrill

Ronnie 'know wot I mean' Lambert... I found him more and more annoying as the series went on. I've worked alongside a couple of similar guys in the past but at least it was only for five-day eight-hour shifts. I can't imagine being cooped up in the same mess with his like for months on end. :eek:
I assume he'd have been weeded out of any submarine posting?
My favourite character was the unflappable radar screen analyst (or whatever they're called). The sort of guy who gives the vibe of being utterly dependable in action.

Yes, the style was very much in line with his previous two series on HMS QE. He's obviously trusted by the RN Command.