Old TV Shows

Having learnt a bit about “Across the Lake” on the Campbell/Bluebird thread, this thread seems like a good one to ask about another BBC production I enjoyed many years ago.

The Brylcreem Boys (not to be confused with a cinema release of the same name) was about a young airman (I think it may have been David Threlfall who has recently been seen in Shameless on Channel Four) who is admitted into a RAF Hospital ward after suffering frostbite after a night’s sentry duty. The rest of the ward is occupied by aircrew, all recuperating after bad operational experiences.

That evening, they recreate a bomber by piling tables and chairs together and then they set off on another “op”.

The airman assumes that it’s all good humoured fun at the beginning but as the “op” continues, he starts to witness the horrors that haunt each one of them as they re-live their last flight.

Perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea – no aeroplanes, CGI etc, but I found it all very moving. Heaps better than Night Flight, for example.

I’ve never seen any reference to it since (about 1980, maybe?). Someone on this board might know something, please help a poor old man with fading memory!

We discussed the film remake theme here and also covered the CGI issue.

I’m afraid CGI is just another ‘special effect’. It’ll date ferociously, yes, it’s impressive, no it won’t look good in a few years. I’d rather (for VERY obvious reasons) that the money was spent on real a/c in the film. Nothing except the real thing behaves like the real thing in reality; that’s fundimentally what is wrong with CGI and flight sims, however convincing, good, etc.

Anyone ever seen ‘Now it Can be Told’? It was a film about 161 (Spydropping) Sqn, made in ’44, and used the Lysander in the RAF Museum…

Cheers

I just found this sight with a list of aviation-related TV shows. There are a load of them. Some I’d never heard of, others I had but didn’t realise the aviation connection.
http://www.tvacres.com/occup_aviation.htm

Another show that just came to me, does nyone remember the excellent comedy drama called Perfect Scoundrels, with Peter Bowles and Brian Murray? It was about two con men. In one episode they went to some place, a beach, may have been on the IoW from memory and they were involved with a buried Spitfire. I think they sold it to someone who thought it was intact or something but it was a fake and the Spit was really a wreck. I cannot recall the full story now. Very good though. In another episode they got a youbg black chap to record a fake ‘long lost’ Elvis Presley record.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098890/

Yes it did feature the Black Knight. I never saw it but would love to. I have been told that Ormond had to fly G-OAHB then land & taxy through the hanger, so it appeared that he taxied straight out of the hanger, took off then when he returned he landed and taxied straight back into the hanger.

As a cross-link to the “G-WGHB” thread, does anyone else remember the children’s TV programme called “The Chinese Puzzle”? I’m pretty sure it featured “The Black Knight”.

And one more….

Attached are two more photos from “Twelve O’Clock High.” As for the B-17 in the bar in Greeley, it wasn’t used in the TV series as far as I can tell. Only two B-17s, 44-83316 and 44-83684, were used, and both exist elsewhere. The history of the B-17 fuselage hanging above the bar has yet to be determined, as far as I know. Its serial remains unknown.

As I mentioned before, the TV show ‘Black Sheep Squadron” was basically a badly done series, the stories going from tolerable to REALLY bad….but it had an effect….it helped to start a burgeoning warbird movement here in the states and to save MANY (and who knows HOW many) Corsair airframes around the world from being destroyed and lost…If it were’nt for this series, we may be looking at about 30 or 40 Corsairs TOTAL these days as opposed to the nearly 100 we now enjoy….

As for the ‘Twelve o’clock High’ TV series, as mentioned elsewhere in these forums, one of the planes used in that series now flies above a bar here in Greeley, CO at the ‘State Armory’, with DC-3 wings rigged to it…someone posted a photo of it under the title of ‘B-17 in a bar in America’ or something similar…

Mark

Originally posted by dhfan
With the aid of Google, it was called Wish Me Luck.

The premise and time frame of this series sound right (hving checked it on IMDb) but I had no idea it ran to 23 episodes. I thought it was just a mini-series of no more than six. Perhaps TVNZ didn’t buy the later series’s or something. Cheers anyway.

Aerovin, any chance of seeing more of the slides please? Thanks.

The exteriors for the TV show “Twelve O’Clock High” were filmed at the Chino Airport in Southern California. Some of the old airport buildings used when the airport was Cal Aero field were dressed up as the headquarters area for the 918th Bomb Group. I visited the set back in 1967 when I was just a kid and my dad shot some slides of the set area. Most of those buildings still exist and are still used. Anyone who remembers the series would recognize the buildings. There were also some “Hollywood” props set up, including the front halves of several Quonset huts, a few tents, and other set dressing. The old “Picadilly Lily” (the Air Museum’s B-17G, 44-83684) was also parked at Chino and most of the taxiing and ground shots were done there. There was also the burnt out hulk of B-17G 44-83316 across the airport that was used for the ocassional crash scene.

With the aid of Google, it was called Wish Me Luck.

Oh dear.

Can she recall anyone who was in it at all?

Cheers
Dave

I vaguely remember it but t’other half loved it. No point in asking her what it was called as even when it was on she got it wrong.

Regarding TV shows with Lysanders in, I just remembered this morning that there was an excellent British mini-series which was from either the very late 1980’s or early 1990’s. It was set in WWII and was about two women, one posh and one not-so-posh, who volunteered to become spies behind enemy lines.

The early episodes was about their training in the UK (I recall one lady was caught out and told off for pouring coffee and milk the wrong way round as the French apparently did it backwards to the Brits it seemed.

Later they went to France and I’m certain they were dropped in by a Lysander. I cannot for the life of me remember the title. I thought that Dervla Kirwan may have been in it but I checked her IMDb page and cannot find any reference to it so I must be wrong about her being in it.

Does anyone remember this series?

Originally posted by Dave Homewood
Very interesting Wombat.Here is the IMDb lijnk to the show, Frank Overton is certainly mentioned, but not Robert Stack.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057793/

I wonder if the series still exists. So much TV from those days has been lost, but being American it may have a much better chance of survival. Be nice to see it.

Cheers
Dave

Dave

I thought about my reply to you last night and remembered a couple of details I was wrong with.

The original senior officer in the first couple of series was Colonel Frank Savage (Robert Lansing), with Major Harvey Stovall (Frank Overton) as the station “adjutant”? (not sure of the US equivalent.)

Later series had Paul Burke as the OIC, as mentioned by Dan.

Regards

Wombat

Most American series were (and still are) shot on film. They therfore tend to be still around. Many British series were shot on or recorded staright to video tape and were then wiped at a later date. That is why so many episodes of programmes like “Dr Who” and “Dad’s Army” ceased to exist. What has been happening in recent years is that “copies” of video taped shows (both authorised and unauthorised) have been coming to light in places like Audtralia, New Zealand, Hong Kong etc and as a result episodes thought lost have been resurrected.

!2 O’Clock High was my favorite show as a kid along with Combat.
I can remember crawling out to the couch with a 104 temp just so I wouldn’t miss it. Would Col. Gallagher and crew make it back. How many 109s would Sandy in the Top Turret get? Jeez I loved that show 🙂

No Robert Stack that I can remember. I remember Paul Burke as Colonel Gallagher, and Chris Robinson as “Sandy” the Top Turret Gunner/Engineer

All those 1/72nd scale Revell model B17s hanging from my ceiling as a kid were a result of that show.

Black Sheep Squadron on the other hand was gawd awful. If you could stand what they called stories, seeing the corsairs fly was kind of fun. But I rarely could stand the story.

Dan

Very interesting Wombat.Here is the IMDb lijnk to the show, Frank Overton is certainly mentioned, but not Robert Stack.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057793/

I wonder if the series still exists. So much TV from those days has been lost, but being American it may have a much better chance of survival. Be nice to see it.

Cheers
Dave

Re: Old TV Shows

Originally posted by Dave Homewood
Having read a few recommendations for Twelve O’Clock High on this forum I decided to look it up on IMDb. I was surprised to discover that as well as the film there was also a television series of the same name from 1964-67. Does anyone remember it? Was it any good? Did they use warbirds in the filming or simply old stock footage?

Cheers
Dave

Dave

Must be showing my age, but I well remember the television series “12 O’Clock High”. It ran in Australia during the mid to late 60’s and starred Robert Stack (remember him as Elliott Ness in The Untouchables) in the role portrayed in the film by Gregory Peck. (General Frank Stone?) The name Frank Overton also rings a bell, I think he was another senior officer, (his stage name during the show was Harvey, I think) and he was Stack’s boss.

As I was in my teens at the time, but had suffered the aero bug for some years, I loved the show. A great deal of internal shots from the pilot’s seat, with the mid-upper turret (with gunner) rotating in the background. Lots of stock footage of battle and bombing sequences, but I seem to remember that the ground scenes had a few Forts.

Can any other old pharts remember this series and fill in some of the gaps for Dave and myself?

Regards

Wombat

Colour TV came to the UK in 1967. Most British TV programmes made up to then were actually made in Black and White. It took a number of years for BBC and ITV to go completely colour – there were still some B & W programmes being made as late as 1974.

However, some ITV series, particularly those made by Lew Grade’s ITC for the American market were made in colour prior to 1967. In fact, the first ever British TV programme shot entirely in colour was…..wait for it…… “Stingray”. Grade’s main aim was to sell his programmes to the USA, which is why they often had American leads (The Baron, Man in a Suitcase, The Persuadors, The Protectors etc). Even the Gerry Anderson puppet series were often American based or had American voiced characters.