The Warship: Tour of Duty
 

What an unusual programme....

I started watching it but turned to another channel after about 20 minutes.
Maybe it’s just me , but I didn’t like the way it was done.

'Sailor' of 1976 was SO much better!

Too much attention paid to ‘characters’ and very little about the actual operations. No-one seems to be natural, they're all playing to the camera in one form or another. The Ch5 programme about the T45s is much better.

Then again, I’m not the target audience, am I.

I too expected it to be more like ‘Sailor’.
The focus on ‘characters’ was what made me stop watching it but I DID think it wasn’t aimed at the likes of me.
I expected more ‘factual’ & less ‘Big brother on an aircraft carrier’.

What a strange series of posts!

I thought that it was very good.

Only difference that I could see between this and Sailor of the mid 70’s was the sharpness, resolution and quality of the TV images and the lack of semi criminal hooligan drunkenness.

Warship - the original - 1970s fictional TV series set on a Leander class Frigate called HMS Hero? Ran to about 45 episodes I think.
Or would that be the true life series set on HMS Ark Royal; started off with a Buccaneer at sea level heading straight for the the ship then rotating into a zoom climb.? Sorry could have been called 'Sailor' after the Rob Stewart theme tune.

The series featuring HMS Ark Royal!

RoD Stewart's 1975 song was actually 'Sailing'...

It was a Phantom, not a Bucc and using "Sailing" as the soundtrack was a stroke of genius

It was essential viewing for us at the time, but, interestingly enough and for reasons I really don't know, whilst there are various clips on YT, the full opening sequence shots have never been available...which is shame really.

As for the programme in the title, I thought it was interesting and informative... hence worth watching.

Cost of copyright of the song on Sailing is the reason the song is not on many versions of the opening sequences following the original BBC Series,

The Able Seaman featured (Lambert?) seemed to have no idea of responsibility, even moaning after his shore leave was cancelled, also too 'gobby'. I hope the series picks up!
I've always thought the RN has a better take on PR than the RAF and their 'minders' must have been looking at the way the thing was going but perhaps that's how it is in the Navy these days.

If it does not improve, I might have to look for a box set of "Get Some In'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Old Duffer

The film-maker was on Breakfast TV a couple of days ago, together with the ship's current captain, and they were anxious to get the message across that it was a "warts and all" documentary.

My first comment to my wife was “I hope we don’t see too much of this guy”.

It just reminded me what a strange old bunch the Navy are. I used to work in a joint staff role and their total adherence to nautical slang even when not on a ship (boat?) made me wish outlook had some kind of auto-translate function.

"Too much attention paid to ‘characters’ and very little about the actual operations."

If you know any TV people you'd know they aren't really interested in facts - its all a story to them..............

I suspect that the 'characters' are a good idea; don't forget that recruitment is an important challenge for all the forces, and the "young person who didn't get the best start in life joining the Royal Navy and making something of themselves" narrative is exactly in line with the RN's TV advertising. If young people with potential watch the documentary, see people like themselves, and sign up, it's a win. Sure, I'd prefer to see non-stop footage from the ops room, flight deck and onboard the aircraft, but it's not aimed at old has-beens like me.

I'm with Pr00ne on this. People and personalities make a ship, not just the kit. I enjoyed it, but I am a tad biased

In the BBC Sailor TV series I always liked Captain Wilfred Graham and 'Little Wilf'. (a wooden ventriloquist dummy dressed like the Captain)......little Wilf would ask 'So Big Wilf (the Captain)....where are we going today.'

The Captain would then explain the days activities.

This was televised on the internal TV monitors to the crew...then the winker band would make an appearance!

Also - not everybody wants to be a 'star' so sometimes we are restricted to those willing particpants like 'Lambert' and 'the Vicar' :)
Hopefully the content will improve as the cruise continues - it will be interesting to see how they treat the loss of the F35 over the sharp end :)

A couple of times on detachment with the company we have had the 'pleasure' of a TV crew with us - I just said to them don't expect me to talk to you and I said to the cameraman not to expect me to be in front of t'camera,he was a nice guy and only caught me when I was in the cockpit being towed :)

It was better in the old days? Phantoms and Buccs better than F-35B? Sea King HAS3 better than Merlin HM2? Escorts with updated versions of Second World War radars and sonars (and things like Sea Cat) better than ones with SAMPSON radar and Sea Viper, or Sea Ceptor and towed array sonar?

During one of the episodes on the 1976(?) Sailor a Buccaneer pilot takes six attempts to land on - not a problem with the F-35B.

With something like a thousand hours of footage to edit into six one hour programmes, a lot had to be left out. They did not mention the participation of the Queen Elizabeth group in the NATO Exercises Steadfast Defender 21 - a transatlantic reinforcement exercise. I wonder if the role of the other ships will be mentioned properly - for example the destroyers controlling intercepts and the frigates working with ASW helicopters from the carrier to keep tabs on hostile submarines?

From the Future Carrier thread - by yours truly on 21 May 21:

Ten hectic days for the Royal Navy's Carrier Strike Group

The Royal Navy was central to the maritime phase of exercise Steadfast Defender 2021, the first large-scale test of NATO’s adapted command structure, with the involvement of two new commands – for the Atlantic in Norfolk, Virginia and for logistics in Ulm, Germany.

As NATO’s biggest exercise this year, it aims to test readiness and military mobility, with forces deploying across land and sea, from North America to the Black Sea region. Twenty ships were involved in the maritime phase 20-28 May. A ‘free play’ scenario involved ships of SNMG 1 and SNMG 2 attempting to attack the carrier strike group charged with protecting merchant vessels crossing the Atlantic to Europe.

This was also mentioned here on another carrier related thread (focusing on sea control in the NATO theatre) on another website. I expect the following episodes will include intercepts and submarine hunting.