BBC. One you either missed or saw. The McGregor BoB programme thread

Thoroughly enjoyed the programme. The McGregor brothers will have brought in a younger audience who now know and understand more about what happened in 1940.

Am I losing the plot?? Sure I replied to this…but its gone!

Yes you did. That’s why I replied back. It sure seems gone.:confused:

Oh, sorry for that horribly phrased sentence of mine. This is exactly what I meant, I didn’t refer to him being paid massive amounts of money, but rather that he did it with modest pay because he is truly interested in the subject, and not because it’s one of those “come and we will pay you lots” deals.

Am I losing the plot?? Sure I replied to this…but its gone!

…and if you won millions on the National Lottery, Graham, what would you do about all the begging letters?

…just keep sending them?

Mark

Well I don’t do the lottery I think too much money makes you miserable. Not that I’m likely to ever find out if that’s true, could you enlighten me?;)
By the way what’s your address? I believe you are a bit of a celeb !
For those who need a sense of humour transplant that was of coarse a joke I don’t really write letters, I demand with menaces. :diablo:

I can assure you that the BBC (or, rather, the production company) would not have given him “a big chunk of money”. Far from it. The fees paid for even the ‘talent’ in these programmes is surprisingly modest. He might earn millions from a film, but literally peanuts from something like this. You’d be very very surprised!

Oh, sorry for that horribly phrased sentence of mine. This is exactly what I meant, I didn’t refer to him being paid massive amounts of money, but rather that he did it with modest pay because he is truly interested in the subject, and not because it’s one of those “come and we will pay you lots” deals.

I agree, its a habit of mine to right begging letters to celebs, 😀

…and if you won millions on the National Lottery, Graham, what would you do about all the begging letters?

…just keep sending them?

Mark

I agree, its a habit of mine to right begging letters to celebs, thought I would try my luck with Eyan. Apparently he only got paid £25 for the show and he had already lent it to some author and aircraft historian called Andy something or other?? 😀

I can assure you that the BBC (or, rather, the production company) would not have given him “a big chunk of money”. Far from it. The fees paid for even the ‘talent’ in these programmes is surprisingly modest. He might earn millions from a film, but literally peanuts from something like this. You’d be very very surprised!

I thought it was a great piece of professional TV.

Don’t go down hard on Ewan McGregor just because he’s a celeb and an actor. He clearly got an interest in this, and most likely wanted to do it because of that, not because BBC gave him a big chunk of money. Besides with Colin being a Tornado pilot, I thought it fitted perfectly. Great seeing the scenes from the pub where they discuss it with Wellum (and Jones was it?).

Plenty of rudder on that Spitty landing though! 😀

Didn’t know Bader was leading 11th group though, oh well, one learn something new each day. :diablo:

I watched this programme tonight and really enjoyed it. As has been said, the enthusiasm of the brothers really came over and it was great to see them with the pilots over a pint in the pub. Colin’s post flight moment in the Spitfire cockpit reflected how many of us would feel had we had the same experience. Great TV.

🙂

30 years old ,possibly not bought up with model kits and airshows so need someone they can associate with,
16-30,never heard of the BoB or a Spitfire ,let alone made a model kit ,well you will need a younger star BUT that wouldn’t get everyone else involved.
I bet statistics would show that more people who wouldn’t have normally watched did because he was in it than people who deliberately didn’t watch it because he was in it.
Bottom line is ,we didn’t finance it ,we didn’t make it so we have a choice to watch or not to watch.:)

P.S Don’t forget you are preaching to the converted on a specialist forum such as this,99.9% of the population are not on this forum of have an interest.

Bit of a generalisation- I’m 29 and watched it because I am a Spitfire/Hurricane/BOB enthusiast (and have been for as long as I remember) and I wouldn’t have cared who was presenting, but then I guess I am the exception! I agree that most 29 year olds are probably not as enthusiastic as I am on the subject.

Nicely put Rob and welcome to the forum.

Hello guys,

I am new to these boards and I am currently 16 and have just started college.

I thought the program was excellent! Having been interested in aviation all my life,especially the Battle of Britain and all it’s heroes, I too noticed the mistakes noted above such as Douglas Bader leading 12 group however I didn’t let that detract from an otherwise excellent show. Upon later reflection I realized, as stated above, that this may have been done intentionally.

When your in you first years at high school in science, you are taught a concept. When you then progress through the years, you are told that what you were taught the first time was correct in principal but not quite 100% correct. Maybe the producers did this so that the average member of the public would have a familiar name and face to recognize and not feel completely out of their depths?

I thought the presenters were a great choice by the produces, both had genuine enthusiasm for the subject and a great respect for the veterans. Ewan brought the enthusiasm across and undoubtedly his acting skills helped him to convey the message of just how critical the situation was to the general public where as Colin bought the experience and kept it interesting for those folks like us who have a passion for aviation.

I watched the program with my mother and she has no interest in History what so ever, however she thoroughly enjoyed the program because of both the choice of presenters and how it was filmed. All in all, I felt it was well worth watching and a great job done by the BBC, I would love to see more programs like this in the future!

All the best,

Rob.

Very enjoyable viewing. As has been touched on earlier, it was most refreshing to see the modern day equivalent Typhoons being scrambled, interwoven with the BoB footage, very nicely done. With the pathetic antics of the political and banking buffoons over the last few decades, the RAF is now fighting it’s own BoB and anything that underlines the need for the service gets my huge vote.:D

In principle, that’s true, but the level of our investment was very low and if it was yet another BBC co-production, even less! And regardless of that the on/off switch is always available.

🙂
Bottom line is ,we didn’t finance it ,we didn’t make it so we have a choice to watch or not to watch

Actually if you are a TV license holder – you did finance it!

Just caught up with this programme, having missed it at the weekend due to family commitments.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and don’t think the involvement of the McGregor brothers distracted from the story and the history one bit.

In fact, if it made little Johnny put down the Play Station to watch a bit of history because O’B wan Kenobi was flying in the back of an old aircraft, then their inclusion was well worth it.

I would guess he trained on Bulldog ab initio, so handling a prop aircraft would not be new to him.

A tailwheel sign-off shouldn’t take more than four hours.

Harvard? Here the issue would probably be insurance. I needed to show ten dual hours on the Yak 52 before I could solo it. So did Dave Morgan (Harrier / Falklands) though the instructor frankly admitted that after two or three hours he’d run out of things to teach him.

So I’d guess if the filming didn’t interfere with the flying too much I can’t see any reason why he could not have become competent if not insurable on the two less powerful types.

Moggy

Joe P, I agree. I reckon Cliff Spink’s toes were dancing on the rudder pedals during Colin’s Spitfire roll out..it looked like the beginning of a potential groundloop to me. All in all I thought it was an enjoyable programme, well filmed and the McGs were genuine in their enthusiasm.

Question,
Colin was a jet pilot ,i assume he must have flown props before somewhere in the distant past.Could he really convert from fast jets to Tigermoth,Harvard and Spitfire in 3 days? what about the difference between piston engines,prop pitch ,torque,tail dragging,aircraft characteristics,ie undercarriage,speeds,stall characteristics.
I know he never went solo in the programme shown but what stage could he have realistically got to?

exactly !! but my point is !!

if you cannot sell a programme on the real stars ( the spitfire and those who flew in the B.O.B. ! )

in britain !!

a star is going to make little difrence

even non aviation fans know and love the spitfire

if someone has no intrest ewan mcgreggor or whoever the flavour is presently , will not drag any more viewers away from corronation street !!

Its all about the perception of the Commissioning Editors of respective broadcasters. If it is quite big-budget then getting bums-on-seats (or bods before the screen!) is all important and they are likely to make it a pre-condition of the film being made that a “name” is involved – as in this case and with David Jason. The alternative = no commission for a film to be made. In some cases, documentaries run as stand-alone without being presenter led – just voice overs and talking heads of contributors. In this case, that concept wasn’t going to work and the whole idea of the programme was to have the two brothers sparking off each other to carry the programme content along.

Personally, I thought it worked well as an enjoyable piece of informative entertainment – historical errors aside!