Purple Plain

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 979

LAST EDITED ON 06-11-01 AT 12:47 PM (GMT)[p]Ok you clever lot here's a teaser.
No disrespect to you Ant.H. I think you missed this one in your last "what's on" round up (to be honest I only tuned in to the last 45 minutes by accident).
1954 adaptation of the H.E.Bates book was shown last week on UK tv, starring Gregory Peck as a Canadian Mosquito pilot in Burma. Whilst still coming to terms with the loss of his wife in an air raid he undertakes a flight with his navigator and a government civilian passenger in the bomb bay, suffers an engine fire and crashes on the edge of the jungle. Hopes of rescue fade causing passenger to go mad and shoot himself, Peck carries injured nav through miles of jungle and desert to safety,you know the sort of thing.
Mossies and Ansons feature in the flying bits that I caught, locations are given variously on the net as Burma or Ceylon now then....nothing serious just a bit of fun to tickle the old grey matter aircraft? units? locations?
Incidentally whilst having a quick surf in search of some answers I came across this site that has a small reference to the film but is actually more to do with the Red Arrows and may be of some interest.
http://www.redsaway.co.uk/ a site by Tony Cunnane who is the former Reds press officer and now a freelance writer. The site will eventually become the web companion to a childrens book and accompanying tv series that he is writing but at present contains some interesting tales of his RAF days in the tropics, the Victor tanker force and the Red Arrows.
Regards to all,
Phil.A.

Original post

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 781

RE: Purple Plain

Not seeing the film I can only guess at the Mosquito variant, but I would think it would've almost certainly a RR 34 or a B35. I say this because these 2 variants were still on active service in the RAF, then. It would've been relatively easy for a film company to borrow these aircraft for filming.
Regards,
Neilly

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,228

RE: Purple Plain

saw the first part of the film, and the close us did seem to be of FBvi from canopies and armament etc, def not glased nose aircraft.

coanda

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 3,000

RE: Purple Plain

Apologies for my lack of 'what's on the box' postings,but I've been rather busy recently and haven't had much time to look at the forum.
I can tell you that the Mossies used in Purple Plain were B/TT.35's,and what's more,they were still in RAF sevice.All the flying sequences were shot in a matter of days,with the ground crews working overtime to modify and then 'de-modify' the aircraft within a short space of time so as not to affect normal operations.The plexiglass noses were given a coat of a washable paint and wooden Browning muzzles were literally stuck on to imitate an FB.VI.
I saw the film quite a while ago,but missed this recent screening.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 781

RE: Purple Plain

Hi Whalebone,
RAF Units flying FB VI's in the Far East:

27 Sqd.
45 Sqd.
47 Sqd.
82 Sqd.
84 Sqd.
110 Sqd.
211 Sqd.
Also No 1 Sqd RAAF

If you want bases then that'll take a fair ammount of time!!!
Neilly
ps I don't think it would be very safe in a FB VI bomb-bay, if, indeed a man could fit in!