BBC News 24 this afternoon

Plea for help…..

Any comments on the Spitfire programme, BBC4, 7:00.
Made in 1976, introduced by Raymond Baxter and featuring some classic characters, including Bader, Johnson, Tuck et al.
I don’t remember seeing it before, it must have been first broadcast the year I first moved down here and we didn’t have a telly at first.
I would be interested to know what spitfires were flying then, apart from the BBMF and RR examples featured, I can’t think of any. Apart from just discovering fledgling Duxford with Sally B parked outside, I wasn’t involved in to much aviation activity at the time, possibly Mildenhall but probably not till the fogged out Coltishall 40th BoB anniversary when several spitfires were due to attend, I’ll have to get at me slide boxes out and see.

Would anyone who recorded this and still has it be able to make me a copy?

I had it on Sky+ and fully intended to copy it off to a DVD for safekeeping, but apparently the hard disk structure on my Sky+ box is corrupt and I keep randomly losing previously recorded programmes.

This is the only thing I’ve lost (so far) that I was particularly bothered about……. 🙁 Now frantically copying everything else off before I have to reformat the bloody thing. 😡

i agree with everyone regarding the mistakes that were made by the beeb, but at the end of the day, they were the only news corperation who bothered to do a largeish programme on it. to give an example, the mirror (yes i read the mirror – but only when i’m at work and i can’t find the star!!) had one picture of mr henshaw and a very brief description of the events. At least they bothered, and i for one are glad, as its always a privelidge to see five of those wonderful machines in the air, whether it be at duxford every year or on any telly channel.

Whilst there were some factual errors in the BBC broadcast none of them were earth shattering. … Good try BBC.

Hmmm. You’ve made some good points. However, I ask again:

Airframe Assemblies certainly have a right to expect that the reporter gets their name right, given they’ve thrown their doors open. Do you think that BMW would let the BBC call them BWM? I don’t think so. In other words it shows a level of contempt for the importance of their subjects and audience that gives the reporter and BBC a serious black mark.

So getting a participating business’ name wrong is acceptable? Wouldn’t British Aerospace (or whatever they are called this week) expect the reporter to get it right? I think so, don’t you. I’m sorry, chapter 1, rule 1, cub reporter – GET THE NAMES RIGHT.

Going live

Whilst there were some factual errors in the BBC broadcast none of them were earth shattering. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of cameras being used. To get all this to marry together perfectly on a live broadcast when the participants could not be as predictable as a sports event was asking for a miracle. Sometimes in life you have to aim high, try and not always get 100 percent. Good try BBC.

For those who have never tried it,covering a live event on air is a nerve wracking experience,no second chances.

What the coverage lacked was an anchor who really “felt” for the subject matter and the related history. That’s why folk like Raymond Baxter were so good. They knew when to stay quiet and exactly what note to strike in their reporting.

Also, being knowledgeabe about the topic being covered would have prevented the howling “gaffs” and inaccuracies.

None of those factors are a function of budget – just a function of the type of people who work in the media these days i.e people whose entire professional career is “media” based. Reporters of Baxter’s generation all came to the media having already had careers in more “meaningful” areas – such as flying Spitfires 🙂

Hi Septic,

I posted links at the top of this page.

Cheers
Stephen

The Western Morning News which covers Devon and Cornwall has a large article re yesterday’s events on Page 3 (not much else to cover down here, it seems) and guess what its very inaccurate. Has a lovely photo of PV202, but credits this in a somewhat lengthy writeup as the ‘Grace Spitfire’ and goes on and on about the rebuild at St.Merryn. I’m not going to bother to email and correct the chap who wrote it, he just wouldnt understand. Why, oh Why do the press make such glorious mistakes?

Perhaps because they don’t get told any different and don’t know who does know?

If you were to write and provide the correct info they might bother to try a bit harder next time. Telling us they’ve got it wrong helps no-one. Who knows, if you offered to help next time, they might ask you before running an aviation article? It has happened.

Media works on feedback. If you don’t feedback, it’s just Mary Whitehouse doing it… 😉

PS Great screencaps Bob. Thanks.

Seafuryfan,

Would you have a link to the news 24 video, I can’t seem to find it.

Thanks.

Septic.

Sorted, Daz, VMT!

SFF – you can change the viewing settings for the video. There’s a link just under it saying “Change how I view or hear this”, with options for RealPlayer and Windows Media Player.

Hope that helps.

A Mixed Bag

I’ve just finished watching the 26 mins streaming video. Is it my broadband speed or should I expect the picture to be small and quite ‘pixely’?

I enjoyed reading the debate on News 24 on this thread and don’t think its taken away from anything – I’m a bit more educated on things aviation reportage. Thanks JDK, Ren Frew and the other contributors.

The BBC seems to have put a lot of ‘assets’ into the programme (great helo footage, 2 on scene reporters, VT inserts etc). It’s such a shame that it got muddled as it came together. Ren has explained the problems and I can see how a tight budget would cause problems with the end product. And of course, a live event with things happening all the time must be difficult to work with.

* ‘Ron’ could have been credited with a second name, poor chap, esp considering he was involved with the prototype.
* Pity about the link to Mr Henshaw not working, although we could hear him fine. He’s not going to speak if he hasn’t been asked to, poor bloke. Grrrrrrr!
* I felt the female reported could have filled in a bit better, just relaxed a bit and talked to a few more people, it was a people event as well. 10 out of 10 for enthusiasm though 🙂
* Poor old Tony Harmsworth as the Spitfires landed just couldn’t bring himself to easily talk over the engines, and was told, “you can keep talking over it if you want to” ”…It’s a little difficult, it does bring a tear to the eye” was the reply 🙂

So, you know, pros and cons from the media side, but still enjoyable to watch. And at least it can be seen worldwide, too 😉

Seafuryfan,
As you liked that one – here are 3 more. I think there are enough pictures of airyplanes here so makes a change to see some of the pilots back in the seat (even if it is the back one…)

One happy OAP….

A GREAT piece of video capture, Bob. It’s really made my day to know that Alex Henshaw was in the lead cab to celebrate this event.

The Western Morning News which covers Devon and Cornwall has a large article re yesterday’s events on Page 3 (not much else to cover down here, it seems) and guess what its very inaccurate. Has a lovely photo of PV202, but credits this in a somewhat lengthy writeup as the ‘Grace Spitfire’ and goes on and on about the rebuild at St.Merryn. I’m not going to bother to email and correct the chap who wrote it, he just wouldnt understand. Why, oh Why do the press make such glorious mistakes?

Martin

I should have mentioned, it’s streaming video so you’ll need broadband to do it justice.

Link to BBC News 24 report

The first is a brief news report:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4770000/newsid_4776800/nb_wm_4776824.stm

Then theres another 1/2 hour with the live flypast:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4770000/newsid_4776800/nb_wm_4776870.stm

Just came into work and Fridays paper is still lying on my desk. At the top of the open page is a quote from Albert Einstein:

“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters”

I feel the least they could have done was to have got the name of the company right. They where kind enough to allow them into their facilitys.
They realy should have got the number of Spitfires right as well.

Raymond Baxter was otherwise engaged providing an entralling evening at the TFC open evening.

He also did a rather fine job in his repeated Spitfire doc from 1976 on BBC-4 tonight. I’d like to work with Mr Baxter on a decent BBC aviation film, if I had the chance… 😉

It’s about time we did a BA history programme to be honest.

Thanks for some mature debate folks.

I understand your position, Ren, and you make some good points, but there has to be a qualitative line you set yourself you don’t cross. As an ex manager I’ve stuck to my guns when I’ve had to to maintain integrity of what we did, and on another occasion I’ve left the company which was compromised.

Quality drifts downwards unless practitioners and users state they want something better, when benchmarks are set. The BBC has always been a troubled organisation with a mythic golden age, but trying to become CNN reflects credit on no-one. By acquiescing to failures of standards one does ‘condone’ them. Life’s what you make it, not what a bureaucracy gives you.

Very good points JDK, speaking as a BBC camera-man, and having viewed some of today’s footage, I don’t think any qualitive lines were crossed from the point of view I represent ? :rolleyes:

My advice is to turn the sound down, or for those of you with some video editing skills… Overdub the footage with some quality Merlin sound-tracks. 😀 I’ll do it if anyone can supply me with the appropriate material. 🙂