Whirlybirds star passes away

Whirlybirds, Seahunt and Ripcord were three of the TV programs I grew up with and thought were fantastic.

“He’s de man that moidered my fodder”
Moggy

His accent, or lack thereof, and that dialog has been the butt of many jokes over the years, including some by himself.
His accent wasn’t quite deep Brooklyn (watch any WWII film, and one of the American GIs will have it)…but awfully close.

Black Shield of Falworth, I absolutely love that film. As for Whirlybirds I used to enjoy that very much.

Just watched the trailer. :eagerness:That’s it!! Found it on instant download so away we go……

Whirlybirds definitely but the Black Shield of Falworth…? Help me out there, Moggy!:)

You have missed a real treat!

It’s a knights in armour classic with Tony Curtis as an English peasant who turns out to really be noble (or something like that). He makes no attempt at an English or medieval accent, playing the whole thing in broad Brooklyn

“He’s de man that moidered my fodder”

Terrific romp.

Moggy

The theme-tune from any of these take me straight back to the school-holidays and early-morning TV…

Does anybody remember that dubbed black-and-white French series called ‘the Aeronauts’?

Vaguely on the aeronauts , always remember this tune but not always the programme itself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR6z8GUywyc

…Flashing Blade, White Horses, Robinson Crusoe…

The theme-tune from any of these take me straight back to the school-holidays and early-morning TV…

…starting about ten-ish!

Strangely I have no recollection of the ‘Whirlybirds’ apart from the name and, perhaps, some memory of a piston-engined Whirlwind (helicopter) starting-up very noisily? I’ll have to check-out YouTube for a clip!

Does anybody remember that dubbed black-and-white French series called ‘the Aeronauts’?

Whirlybirds was one of those weird `black n white` shows that used to fill the gaps between the regular `colour` stuff when I was a kid.
Whirlybirds, Flashing Blade, White Horses, Robinson Crusoe and Heidi. At a time when Why Don’t You, The Double Deckers Katweazle and the Banana Splits was on.
Lunch times at home watching Pipkins before going back to school. Oh happy days! (well, not realy as I hated school but you can dream).

We are showing our age, aren’t we?!!;)

None. Dixon’s wife died in an air raid and the other leads were Constance Fraser and Ruth Dunning. I think you are confusing them with The Huggets – Jack Warner and Kathleen Harrison and a very young Pet Clarke.

That’s the one. :eagerness:

None. Dixon’s wife died in an air raid and the other leads were Constance Fraser and Ruth Dunning. I think you are confusing them with The Huggets – Jack Warner and Kathleen Harrison and a very young Pet Clarke.

Both hands are raised – of course!! And at street level – The Appleyards, The Grove Family and Dixon of Dock Green!!:D

Which one of those had Kathleen Harrison as the female lead ?

Hands up those who remember Ivanhoe? And Richard Greene as Robin Hood.

You forgot William Tell. Conrad Philips who starred in it, also had a part in an episode of “Robin of Sherwood”
The chap who sang the song in Robin Hood, was Dick James, who started the DJM record label.
Funny how you remember these things 🙂
Ivanhoe must have been one of the first things that Roger Moore did. You never see any clips of it on TV though.

Both hands are raised – of course!! And at street level – The Appleyards, The Grove Family and Dixon of Dock Green!!:D

I remember Whirlybirds too. One of the first series I watched after we got a TV. That and one about some chap whose horse was always covered in a table cloth. Hands up those who remember Ivanhoe? And Richard Greene as Robin Hood.

Interesting snippets there, JB – thank you!:)

Oddly enough, I think the board game was a UK only product.
There were two comic books produced as well as a coloring book I had as a child.
A friend, a Bell test pilot and helicopter historian/author and model collector, gave me an unused coloring book about 15 years ago, I was shocked at remembering certain pages after 40 years (and no I haven’t colored in it 🙂 ).

Also, his Whirlybirds co-star, Kenneth Tobey, who played pilots and military men in several productions ranging from The Thing to the film 12 O’clock High passed away in 2002.

One other Whirlybirds-related note, the Bell 47J Ranger used in the series still survives, and the open framework G “N975B” was actually played by several G-2s from National Helicopter Service…so perhaps one of those survives.

I used to love watching the Whirlybirds.
I even had the board game, although never actually played it.

Great stuff – thanks. Curtis and Leigh starring! We had a TV but as a film it wouldn’t have been shown on TV until much much later, and I have no recollection of it as a film at the time.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046789/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1

Ah yes, The Black Shield of Falwaorth, never heard of it! Before we had a TV!