BBC4 Tonight

Time?

2000 and 2100.

An excellent documentary, showing just how dangerous flying in a Zeppelin was.

Sadly it would appear that following an extended stay in a Jap PoW camp, Lady Drummond Hay died in 1946; anyone know what the circumstances were, that led to her incarceration?

being in Singapore at the wrong time?

I enjoyed both programmes, although we didn’t learn much new from the first. just lots of lovely footage. My slight frustration with the Zeppelin was the voiced narration of Lady Drummond Hay’s diaries.

She and Karl von Wiegand were imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp in Manila but released at the end of the war, and she became ill. She died of a coronary in New York.

Fascinating programme, really enjoyed it. One thing that I found puzzling was the jettisoning of the water containers over Russia – the crewman cut the tanks away rather than just emptying them. Now surely this could create difficulties down route when you desired to take ballast on again. Or, was the film actually showing waste containers being dumped, and that just happened to be a handy bit of film to use?

being in Singapore at the wrong time?

Well I guessed it was being somewhere at the wrong time…..

Can anyone tell me what the twin engine biplane,in blue,that was shown in connection with Ron Ballantine and his wife? I’m not sure they mentioned it.

Second time around for both. But why does the media want to believe that aviation only involved public transport? There must be miles of archive film footage showing light aeroplanes between the wars. Wouldn’t it be nice if some of this got an airing. But maybe the powers that be think that if they showed this, the change channel button would be pushed the length and breadth of the country. Oh well, back to my little corner!

Thanks for the heads up Joey,am watching it now on the iPlayer. Imperial Airways, Croydon! First in-flight movie 1925-great stuff!

Larry66, I think it was G-AGTM, dH 89A Rapide, it made several appearances throughout the programme ! May be a photo link below (if it works) ?

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/GImages/G-AGTM002.jpg

Keith.

Ah thanks Keith,that’s the one! Quite a pretty thing,especially in that livery!

Larry66, I think it was G-AGTM, dH 89A Rapide, it made several appearances throughout the programme ! May be a photo link below (if it works) ?

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/GImages/G-AGTM002.jpg

Keith.

I just watched the Zeppelin piece. Quite amazing for 1929! It had a feel of a Jules Verne story-rather like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. In fact thinking about it I could see potential for a movie in the story- it has the lot really,even a doomed romance! They could use Lady Grace’s closing words for the title, The Luckiest Girl in the World!

Enjoyable documentary with fascinating views of the Zeppelin.

To my eyes,the sections of film showing the dropping of the the water ballast showed US Navy personnel, and were not part of the original film made on the journey, just handy cut-ins.