3 part Battle of Britain documentary

[gedburke3]

Hi all,
I thought that the Channel 5 programme regarding the Battle of Britain shown over the past three nights was quite good.
However, the description in last nights episode of Johnnie Kent being inexperienced and a headless chicken whilst with 303 Squadron was a bit much to take.
Did any of you see the programmes and what did you think?
Regards
Gerry

[Chris Goss]

Gerry: Having been involved in it, I thought the end result was underwhelming. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story springs to mind as well as every German bomber being a Nazi bomber...............

[Bruce Lander]

Hi,
overall quite good but quite a few mistakes :-
1- Highlighting F/Lt Basil "Wonky" Way in the 54 Squadron Picture as the lost Polish pilot in the combat on August 15th in Part 1 was unforgivable.
2 - Having Archie Mckellar dogfighting in the German raid over the North East
just showed a lack of proper research (plus showing a Me.109 there)

Generally all we can expect from a journalistic attempt at anything like this.

Personally I am fed up of continually seeing that early model He.111 dropping bombs in WW2 when its obviously in the Spanish Civil War

Cheers
Bruce Lander

[Bruce Lander]

Chris,
as you know in today's PC World ( Not the shop) no Germans were involved in WW2 only Nazi's . If they had correct sound and translation on those Hitler Documentaries shown on TV the crowds were obvious shouting "Go away Adolf , we don't like you. !!!

[MW Giles]

The standard of documentaries has declined significantly in my opinion. I know they head for the lowest common denominator in order to appeal to the largest audience, but I think it does not work.

Do we need stars in front of camera to tell us a story and experience things for us? Do we need people in costume going up and down steps into a bunker (several times)? Do we need Kate joy riding in a Spit? Just no, stop it.

I stopped watching the BoB during episode 2. The recent one on the Mosquito was so toe curling that I switched off after the presenter explained that the part of the aircraft where the crew sat was the fuselage.

We need documentaries aimed at adults with a reasonable level of education. If you do a documentary right and pitch it high I am sure people would be interested. I am not interested in, and knew nothing of, the American Civil War but watched every episode of the series broadcast 10+ years ago. it was riveting

I was suckered in to the last BoB one when it said it would focus on three days of the battle and go from minute to minute. I refuse to be drawn in again.

I'll put the soap box away now, there must be beer in the fridge

Martin

[gedburke3]

Thanks for your replies,
Chris, I waan't aware that you had assisted.
It's a shame they don't use someone like you to present it.
I think that would have improved it.

Martin,
I agree with your opinions on stars presenting documentaries like this. I was so jealous of them both, especially getting the opportunity to fly in the Blenheim. I would love to do that.
On the plus side, it was great to see footage from inside the cockpit of the Blenheim in flight. It really showed how vulnerable the crew were. I would have liked to see some footage from the air gunners perspective as well.

Gerry

[Chris Goss]

Gerry-you flatter me. My involvement was photographic & yes, some of the errors they made (like Way of 54 Sqn) without checking disappointed me. Classic-the Hampden bomber.....was designed to drop bombs. No s**t Sherlock! Are we that uneducated?

[harryurz]

I presume on here we are all of that certain age or generation where TV documentaries like this were deemed as a principal method in informing the general public in a very visual and immediate way.
However, I watched with my 22 year old son, who is not "into" aviation in a big way but (like many of his generation) does enjoy all aspects on on-line gaming, including flight-sims.
His comments were that the episodes were 'okay' but he has gleaned far more information - historical and technical- simply reading through the "extras" included with any decent flight-sim game these days and then replicating in game-time what a RAF pilot needed to do to survive.

While I found the footage from inside the Blenheim interesting , my son's comment was " well, I can do that and also get an idea on what it was like to fly and fight in from the BofB computer sim".

I think we forget that these days there are myriad ways to pass on history besides a TV documentary....which makes me feel old!

[Nick Beale]

I haven’t watched it yet but I did see a documentary last week that treated its audience like adults, the BBC2 Horizon one on Pluto. A damn shame we can’t have historical programmes made to a comparable standard.

[Larry]

Its a good job they never found out that the HP Hampden was designed by a "Nazi" and friend of Handley Page himself!