I suddenly remembered last night that BBC4 were doing a war weekend, problem with digital is that there are too many channels to look up.
There was a programme called War Stories that compared the facts and realities of British war movies. It was broadcast at 7 on Saturday evening but I was barbecueing and watching Dr Who at the same time, (Unmissable, greatest series the BBC have ever made ).
It was repeated last night quite late and I forced myself to try to watch it but not long into the programme I succombed to the effects of tiredness and red wine.
From what I saw it looked really interesting, anyone record it, hopefully it will be repeated on terrestial TV.
I did manage to see some snippets of 'A Bridge too Far', a very poignant film for me as my late father was very involved in a lot of the battles, he directed the artillery fire for the Yanks, sorry, Robert Redford, crossing the river to capture the Nijmuiden Bridge and was one of the first across the bridge, lying in a Bren carrier with German fire pouring into it.
Despite critism at the time he always maintained that a lot of the incidents were true, ie when the character played by Redford had a row with the British tank crews for not moving forward, my old man always reckoned that this really happened as he was standing next to the US officer portrayed in the film at the time, himself waiting to advance and set up an artillery position in conjunction with the US Airborne whom he worked with and got p####d with throughout the campaign, apparently they could never work out how a British NCO managed to scrounge and carry so much whisky with him, which he happily shared amongst his US pals.
I still find the drop zone scenes to be quite incredible, all shot without the benefit of CGI.
My only grouse is the use of those Harvards as Typhoons / Tempests, surely there were sufficient Sea Furies around at the time to use instead, ok, not strictly accurate, but at least they would have had the Hawker outline, sound and power.
Posts: 2,290
By: Pete Truman - 1st May 2006 at 09:47
I suddenly remembered last night that BBC4 were doing a war weekend, problem with digital is that there are too many channels to look up.
There was a programme called War Stories that compared the facts and realities of British war movies. It was broadcast at 7 on Saturday evening but I was barbecueing and watching Dr Who at the same time, (Unmissable, greatest series the BBC have ever made ).
It was repeated last night quite late and I forced myself to try to watch it but not long into the programme I succombed to the effects of tiredness and red wine.
From what I saw it looked really interesting, anyone record it, hopefully it will be repeated on terrestial TV.
I did manage to see some snippets of 'A Bridge too Far', a very poignant film for me as my late father was very involved in a lot of the battles, he directed the artillery fire for the Yanks, sorry, Robert Redford, crossing the river to capture the Nijmuiden Bridge and was one of the first across the bridge, lying in a Bren carrier with German fire pouring into it.
Despite critism at the time he always maintained that a lot of the incidents were true, ie when the character played by Redford had a row with the British tank crews for not moving forward, my old man always reckoned that this really happened as he was standing next to the US officer portrayed in the film at the time, himself waiting to advance and set up an artillery position in conjunction with the US Airborne whom he worked with and got p####d with throughout the campaign, apparently they could never work out how a British NCO managed to scrounge and carry so much whisky with him, which he happily shared amongst his US pals.
I still find the drop zone scenes to be quite incredible, all shot without the benefit of CGI.
My only grouse is the use of those Harvards as Typhoons / Tempests, surely there were sufficient Sea Furies around at the time to use instead, ok, not strictly accurate, but at least they would have had the Hawker outline, sound and power.