Skies Above Britain - BBC TV Series
 

A five part series looking at Britain's Air Traffic Control system begins next Wednesday 17th August at 9pm on BBC2.

Trailer:
It appears NATS have been heavily involved in the research, and are endorsing the series, so hopefully a change from the 'accident waiting to happen' docos and mockos we have been treated to in the past!

I'm looking forward to it.

Cheers for that, sounds like one to watch!

As long as it's better than Bill Semple's video!!

Skies Above Britain
 

The BBC's preliminary publicity suggests that the subject matter is rather wider than that, although Episode 1 does focus specifically on ATC:

"Over five episodes Skies Above Britain explores the complex, hidden world of the skies above us and discovers the human stories of the people who spend their life in flight."

Thanks to PositiveClimbGearUp for the advance notice of this programme. I hope it has not been made by the same organisation that made the recent series " Cities in the Sky " where, in my opinion, the much lauded academic achievements of the presenters was not reflected in the contents of the programmes.

A Warning
 

Beware: (...)and discovers the human stories of the people who spend their life in flight(...)

It sounds like one of those series where: Capt Horatio Sky-god relaxes by taking his Jack Russell Zeus, for a walk when not flying SLF to exotic destinations throughout the globe occupies; say 50% of the transmission time; to broaden the interest base for the viewers.

Some might say that's entirely laudable, but there comes a time when the presentation of the exciting world of aviation becomes diluted by the needs of the producers to produce "product". Ok that's probably unfair as the series has not jet been broadcast, but by previous experience, for me at least, real communication of the excitement of the various professions has not been good.

Remember its summertime TV :sad:

CAT III

The Beeb's recent "Full Steam Ahead" series started shakily and I thought it was going to remain "populist" with little information, but from the 2nd episode became fascinating (despite some slightly irritating presentation). I hope this Skies programme might be similarly interesting.

Joy Ride
 

The last Full Steam Ahead was rather good, an exposition of the economic and social impact of steam in the Victorian Era.

CAT III ( Former Train spotter at Snow Hill - a proper Station)

Nah it'll be the usual thing concentrating on Heathrow and Swanwick and totally ignoring the fact there are smaller ATSUs like Cardiff and Farnborough which have their parts to play (even FISO units)

Then again, we could always just watch it and find out. :O

Now, there's a radical idea:ok:

I'll just read all the criticism in here and save the trouble of watching myself ... :p

Ahh, c'mon, you know you will watch it!:ok:

Well, Evanelplus, it is booked to record. Whether I watch it will depend on the reviews in here! ;)

PPRuNe's gone downhill lately, there are far too many precious queens here, so if I were you I'd watch it and make your own mind up.

Enjoy!:ok:

A different look at protecting the skies and I hope people take note of just how professional the Coastguard helicopter crew were.

A bit of a hit and miss programme in my opinion but I would recommend every one to watch the part about the Coast Guard rescue of a walker who had fallen and was seriously injured in the Lake District.

To inch their way up the side of the hill in fog with the light beginning to fade was absolutely amazing, they more than earned their salary that day and most likely saved the injured ladies life.

An outstanding rescue mission.

I really enjoyed this, the Typhoon stuff in particular

Well, nowt wrong with that. No over dramatically situations and well presented.

I seriously doubt that the Typhoon pilot on his first solo was doing aerobatics, as was suggested by the way the footage was cut.