Live BoB dig Channel 5 30 May 21:00

The parts recovered in the time available were great, as was Ray’s presence, but I don’t think this warranted being done live at all, and I think that it was in fact quite an embarrassing and sometimes uncomfortable programme to watch due to the sheer sloppiness of it all, and the constant rushing of a great, but old and clearly overwhelmed man.

They could have made a good hour’s documentary out of this, as Ray was clearly far more lucid in the pre-recorded parts, but done live, it was dreadful.

😮

Nice to see Syd Barrett so happy though… 😉

Hi All,

Sound like it was a great dig, just wondering if Channel 5 is going to make this aviable on Tape, if not would anyone mind making a copy for a Crazy Yank. I would love to watch this program.

Any chance this might make it on to History Un-cover.

Thanks in advance 😀

Ray- Polite, Modest, Humble, Grateful, a genuine hero.

Suchet- rarely said please or thank you throughout.

Such astonishing bad manners. The poor man who had the piece of the Hurricane who Suchet asked to tell his story, he got one sentence in and suchet ordered him to show it to Ray.

Geoff, nevermind if eh got his bit of Hurricane back, make sure you get your exhibit back! 🙂

Is it just me or did suchet also confirm to the viewers that the corgi spit and hurri were smaller than the real thing?

I hope that chap got the bit of the Hurricane back that Mr Suchet took from him to show Ray!

Great program on the whole, with Ray and Vic justifiably in the limelight. Their modesty at their achievements is something the so-called Celebs on TV wouldn’t understand.

Good to see the reaction also of the guy who spent all those years looking for the exact crash site location of the Hurricane.

The only criticisms I would make would be with the duff use of CG, and as mentioned by others, that lady presenter. 🙁

Ray, played her up a bit, which was quite amusing. 😉

Regards,

Paul

Suchet: “Whats this, a rubber tube?”
Ray: “Yes, its a rubber ube. There’s a hole this end, and a hole at this end. And there’s some wire sticking out”

It was around about this point that I half expected Ray to tell Suchet to stop pointing out the bleedin’ obvoius and start getting on with something useful… 😉

Can’t tape Channel 5 for some reason. I thought of you when the grooming set was shown Geoff. Is that the Dornier that 609 finally laid low?

It is indeed Snapper.

As far as I know, this was the only Dornier so equipped, the flamethrower being operated by the Wop/AG Fw Stefan Schmid, who was the only member of the crew to be killed.

Below, a nice painting by our highly ‘steamed leader Mr Nutkins, and the Castle Farm Dornier on Display at Crown Meadow football ground………Lowestoft 😮 (photo via N&SAM & Bob Collis) Any chance of a ‘now’ photo from the same angle for the museum Snapper?

Mark 12 – yes, they got significant bits of the Spitfire out, parts of engine casing, skins, that kind of thing. The engine bearer had previously been discovered, and was featured in the pre-recorded bit with John Romain pointing out the equivalent bearer on SM845. The dig was stopped at a depthe of 25 feet due to ‘gasses’ being present, I’m not entirely sure what that was about, I may have missed something there. Overall though, it was interesting stuff, and useful to have John on hand in Germany to add some substance to the autocue-reading presenters…

Suchet: “Whats this, a rubber tube?”
Ray: “Yes, its a rubber ube. There’s a hole this end, and a hole at this end. And there’s some wire sticking out”

Arrrggghhh. Please somebody tell me they taped it, I totally forgot about it 🙁

Damien,
I have it on tape. If you want the tape, then private e-mail me with a postal address and I’ll send it off.

TJ

I think Ray and co have sharper minds at their age than most of the channel 5 crew have now 🙂

I like how ray explained to Suchet how the wire went in one end of the tube and out the other! 🙂

Spitfire dig in parallel.

For those that cannot raise channel 5 on the television, any news on the Spitfire dig in Germany?

Mark

I did notice that Geoff, and wondered whether that grooming set was one of your exhibits. Nice little bit of publicity there, hopefully though people will realise that you’re Shoreham Kent, and NOT the Shoreham that everyone usually thinks of…

Amazed to hear of Dorniers equipped with rear facing flamethrowers, never heard of that before!

As for the programme itself, I’ve already made my comment about ‘her’, so won’t harp on, but other than that, I thought it was very factual. Very much at pains to point out that the Hurricane was the workhorse of the Battle of Britain, good use of the footage of Ray Holmes’s actual action (although over-dubbing it with Stuka sound probably wasn’t too clever… :rolleyes: ).

Ray himself seemed rather nonplussed about the whole affair, and came across – as they all do – as being incredibly modest about his role in the Battle, and really rather amused at all the fuss. I especially enjoyed his “I’m just dreaming of you” comment to the bimbo. Priceless!

Having just watched this, I thought it was amazing that considering the programme was ‘live’, at the end of it, they had the original pilot, the bulk of the engine, the instrument panel, control column and a few instruments and bits and pieces. If they can manage that within an hour’s live programme, there is hope for a lot more potential discoveries.

Very interesting programme but the attitude of the presenters and their knowledge left a lot to be desired. The constant interuptions when the veterans and historians were speaking and the ceaseless perstering was most annoying. There behaviour spoilt my enjoyment of the show I must admit. I was rolling about with laughter when the leo sayer lady came out with ‘thats a great engine’! Still its good that Channel 5 supported the dig and that the valiant efforts of these pilots was given this kind of exposure.

Good to see the Shoreham Aircraft Museum get a mention too. I msut admit though, i wouldn’t have trusted Suchet with those artifacts 🙂

best regards , steve

Can’t tape Channel 5 for some reason. I thought of you when the grooming set was shown Geoff. Is that the Dornier that 609 finally laid low?

Cracking program, though the presenters were clearly out of their depth – just goes to show who the real stars are! Nice to see Ray and Vic making idiots of them:

Blonde bird: “We’ve been dreaming of this Ray”
Ray: “I’ve got something nice to dream of…”

Pratt bloke: “What was the best,aircraft” (ie Spit or Hurri inferred)
Vic: The Mustang.

Laugh a minute that was. Unprepared / unknowledgeable presenters without a clue, up against humble veteran pilots – nice to watch the squirming!

Suchet: “So did you know the story of Ray’s combat?”
504 sqdn member: “Of course, its a well-known part of the squadron history”.

Suchet: “It must be great to finally meet a wartime member of your squadron”
504 Sqdn member: “We meet them quite often”

Londoner: “He flew at him and wallop”

Londoner: “I kept a bit of the plane”
Suchet: “Its in your pocket, can we see it?”
Londoner: “Here. Its worth a few bob”

(Words paraphrased from memory, but general gist preserved!”

There were some bloopers form lack of preparation and research and a couple of moments when I thought “STFU” but it was worth watching to see the look on Steve’s face when he got that engine.

Steve called me on Friday as he had left his copy of my Hurricane book in his office so I took a copy up yesterday (hence the visit). It had a good feel about it and the TV people were already pleased with what was coming out.

As of yesterday Ray Holmes was still not going to appear so I suppose we can forgive some of the lack of preparation in the questions.

Then, at about 4pm today, I got a call from the site to ask if they could use some pictures from the book. In the end they didn’t need to as they got the big prize. At 4pm they had found the engine but were far from sure they would get it out without cutting the water off!

Bearing in mind that this was a dig against the clock they did incredibly well. The fact they got Ray Holmes there and got the engine and cockpit parts out was more than they could have hoped for.

Melvyn Hiscock

Nice to one of our exhibits made it in to the programme, namely Ray’s grooming set. BTW the Dornier which Ray attacked first, with the flamethrower, came down that day at Castle Farm, Shoreham, just a stone’s throw from the museum.

I think the last thing that Kylie mentioned to you was “restraining order”

Restraining? I though she said retraining and I have spent the last three weeks learning how to be a plumber . . .

Ooh, you tease! :p

That’s what Kylie said. . . .

MH