Aviation Films

I didn’t see “The Brylcreem Boys” in that listing of TV shows. This was an excellent one off play by the BBC about an RAF sentry who, following frostbite, is sent, in error, to a psychiatric ward full of RAF aircrew suffering from various disorders. Every night, they re-arrange the furniture in their ward to approximate with the crew positions in a Lancaster and more or less re-enact the horrors that resulted with them ending up in a hospital.

Chilling, and moving, stuff. Shown by the BBC around 1980.

“10 Civilian Norseman/Wacos/Fairchild 71 floatplanes at North Bay, Ont. (on Lake Ni****ing and Caribou Lake). The RCAF Manning depot was real, it’s now part of the Canadian National Exhibition Grounds in Toronto. “

Hi Dave

This movie is a very good movie and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen the original but we play an excerpt from it in front of the Fairchild 71 CF-ATZ which is the one they fly in the movie. You could see it at www.albertaaviationmuseum.com. You will also see a Norseman on skiis and in the restoration side we’re putting the finishing touches on another Norseman that’ll be on floats and mounted out front of the museum.

Thanks Gerry

Cool, I’ve been to Thetford a couple of times. Great place for fans to visit. Quite historic too in its own right. I had a pint in the Anchor and another in the Bell. Yes, I can imagine the goings on in those bars too after a days shooting, expecially in the days when Jimmy Beck was still with us.

I’m fortunate being able to call all the surviving cast, and the writers Perry and Croft, my mates thanks to the society, and it’s true what they say, they really are nice people. I wish I’d had the chance to share a few pints with Arthur Lowe and the others too, especially John Laurie (whom I’m writing a book about).

Have you been to the Dad’s Army museum within the Bressingham steam museum, not far from you?

My website about the society:
http://www.whispersfromwalmington.com/daasnz/

Dave

Originally posted by Dave Homewood

By the way, it was a Scot who invented the phone, Alexander Graham Bell. I think he came up with it in Canada from memory.

Since when has that sort of minor detail bothered Hollywood?

Cheers on the Dad’s Army support. A great prog.

I live in the area where all the exteriors were filmed. The entire cast used to spend a few weeks in a local hotel each summer and then film on the STANTA traing area and in and around Thetford.

I would love to have been in the bar afterwards.

Moggy

Oh crud, that’s a stupid typo. Cheers Moggy.

I was getting mixed up with the Dad’s Army episode The Lion Has Phones, which is a pun on the real film The Lion Has Wings. I run the Dad’s Army society here in NZ, and typing that phrase was a force of habit.

By the way, it was a Scot who invented the phone, Alexander Graham Bell. I think he came up with it in Canada from memory.

Re: Bomber Command in Films, Radio and TV

Originally posted by Dave Homewood

Films

The Lion Has Phones (1939)

😀 😀 😀

That I must see 😀

Are you absolutely certain the last word shouldn’t be ‘Wings’????

😀 😀 😀

Sorry, must rush, have to write a short screenplay on the role of (USA invented) telephones in the Battle of Britain.

“Scramble two squadrons of Trimphones and have them orbit over North Weald at Angels 15”

“Rog that, Bud”

Moggy

Bomber Command in Films, Radio and TV

I have just come across a book in the library called “RAF Bomber Command in Fact, Film and Fiction” (Sutton Publishing, 1996).

As well as sections on the real Bomber Command it also details all the films that Bomber Command was portrayed in, and all the TV programmes and Radio shows. Very interesting book indeed. A few of the films are not mentioned on the website as linked above by me. The book has has details of:

Films
The Lion Has Phones (1939)
Dangerous Moonlight (1941)
Target For Tonight (1941)
A Yank In The RAF (1941)
An Airman’s Letter To His mother (1941)
One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942)
The Big Blocade (1942)
Flying Fortress (1942)
Millions Like Us (1943)
The Way To The Stars (1945)
A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
Journey Together (1946)
Appointment In London (1953)
The Dam Busters
633 Squadron
Mosquito Squadron

Radio
Squadron ‘X” (British Forces Network, 17 May 1950, 39 mins, based on Guy Gibson’s ‘Enemy Coast Ahead)

Bomber – by Len Deighton (BBC Radio 4, 18 Feb 1995, 230 mins)

One Thousand bombers (BBC R3, 11 mar 1995, 30 mins, documentary)

Television
Pathfinders (1972-72, Thames TV)

The World At War – Part 12; “Whirlwind – Bombing Germany September 1939 – April 1944”

Dresden: Forgotten Anniverssary? (Channel 4, 13 Feb 1995)

Letters From A Bomber Pilot (Thames TV, 18 June 1995)

One of our Aircraft is No Longer Missing (BBC2, 30 Dec 1985, 40 mins, doco on loch Ness Wellington)

The Watchtower (BBC2, 2 Jan 1986, 30 mins, Supernatural tales from old bomber airfields, including East Kirkby – sounds great!!)

Forty Minutes: The Quest of Sergeant Miller (BBC2, 12 March 1987, 40 mins, doco on Sgt John Miller shot down in 102 Sqn Halifax on 28th June 1944)

Bomber Harris (BBC, 1989, drama, 90 mins, starring John Thaw as Harris. Was this good? Thaw was superb in everything)

The Valour and The Horror – (Canadian Broadcasting Company, 19 Jan 1992, doco)

The Dam Busters Raid (Channel 4, 3 Feb 1994, 60 mins, doco)

Bomber Command: Reaping the Whirlwind (C4, 10 Sep 1996, 55 mins)

There are some great sounding shows there, and many films I’ve never seen (I’ve only ever seen The Dam Busters and One of Our Aircraft is Missing 🙁 ).

If anyone wants more details on any of these let me know and I’ll go back to the library.

Three radio shows I’d love to track down about aircraft/pilots are as follows:
The Road To Biggin Hill (adaptation of Vincent Orange’s book on Johnny Checketts, RNZAF ace.)
The Life Of A Hurricane (BBC, aired 29 Jan 1942, starred John Laurie)
Birth of a Bomber (BBC, no air date known by BBC, probably wartime, starring John Laurie).

I found out about the latter two as i’m writing a book on John Laurie, the Scottish actor. They are both held in the BBC archives but I doubt we’ll ever hear them. They may have been docos and John the narrator.

The other one is mentioned in Johnnie Checketts’ This Is Your Life – I’d LOVE to hear that show/series

Has anyone else noticed that there seems to have been more films made about Americans in the RAF than there were Americans in the RAF?

I’m pleased to see one or two RCAF films have been made, Their contribution to World War Two was huge, but is often understated, like so many of the Empire countries who fought alongside Britain from the first day of the wat till the last.

Only one RAAF film mentioned on the list. I know of another one.

Still no RNZAF films made yet. I’ll have to make one and corner the market. 🙂

Do you feel history is going to repeat itself there Snapper? 😉

Now here’s one that sounds great – not quite Air Bud, but this dog flies in combat! Cool…

Son of Lassie
1945 *v
RAF- Peter Lawford; actually the RCAF. Dog owner flies WWII Bristol Blenhiem strikes against Norway along with his collie.

Filmed in *colour* in Canada, during Aug.-Sept. 1944 at RCAF Stn. Patrica Bay in British Columbia, probably with 8 (BR) Squad RCAF.

Curtiss Kittyhawk Mk.Ia’s, Fairchild Bolingbroke Mk.IV (Canadian built Blenheims) Lockheed Ventura V. The Venturas are still in their USN Navy scheme with the USN markings painted out with darker paint. Also used a Bolingbroke cockpit section (which was still on the MGM backlot in 1969).

Appropriate?

Eagle Squadron
1942 *
RAF- Robert Stack; First US guys in the RAF Eagle Squadrons. Quite a bit of footage was shot for it on actual RAF Eagle squadron bases, but the movie itself was shot on a Hollywood backlot with mock-up Spitfires and Bf 109’s. Models.

The real footage was of Spitfire Mk.IIa, Vb of 71, 27, and 222 squadrons by their codes, Westand Lysander, Wellington (“German Bomber”), and a Lockheed 12.

Apparently the real Eagles, who were invited to the premier were intensely embarassed by the final result – making it sound like the handful of Americans was winning the war for the RAF.

I’d like to see this one! It says its in colour! All those lovely planes in colour – has anyone seen this???

AND it has a Hurricane playing a Bf109 – now there’s a role reversal on BofB if ever I heard one.

Captains of the Clouds
1942 *v
RCAF- J.Cagney; Cocky Stunt pilot joins the RCAF then RAF Ferry Command. Filmed with the RCAF on authentic locations. Stations included 6 Bombing & Gunnery School, Mountain View, Ont, 1 B&GS Jarvis, Ont. (March 1941), 2 Service Flying Training School, RCAF Uplands (now Ottawa International Airport), also at RCAF Dartmouth (Halifax), RCAF Trenton.

10 Civilian Norseman/Wacos/Fairchild 71 floatplanes at North Bay, Ont. (on Lake Ni****ing and Caribou Lake). The RCAF Manning depot was real, it’s now part of the Canadian National Exhibition Grounds in Toronto.

Stars, in colour, RCAF Harvard Mk.II, North American Yale (BT-9), Avro Anson I, Fairy Battle IT, Northrop Nomad (ex A-17’s), Fleet Finch, Lockheed 12A.

6 RCAF Hudson’s from RCAF Dartmouth, along with Hurricane MK.XII (as a “Bf 109”). The officer making the speech at the Wings ceremony was actually Billy Bishop V.C., WWI ace, by then an Air Marshal. Paul Mantz flew camera duties in a Stinson Model “A” Tri-motor. Models. Mock-ups.

A quick google found that Steven Pacey of Blakes Seven was in it, and it was TV, not a film it seems.

That sounds great!

“””””””””The Purple Twilight
1982
RAF- ex-Lancaster crew fixes up an old wrecked Lanc and flys to Berlin in 1982!. Filmed in RAF Museum B.Mk.I Lancaster at Hendon (R5868) with lots of special effects.””””””””””””””

Anyone know anything about this?

This list seems to havefilms under their us titles. Ie, ‘A Matter of Life or Death’ becomesm ‘Stairway to Heaven’ in the list