David, I was really commenting on what I perceived to be criticism of Tangmere1940’s role in the proceedings, rather than commenting on the programme as a whole. Within the limits of my own experience, Tangmere1940 is in the clear.

On the whole, I don’t much like celebrity-driven programmes but this is clearly how it was set up from the start. RADIO TIMES listed it as “RAF at 100 with Ewan and Colin McGregor“. Alhough it got categorised as a documentary, we pretty much knew what we would get before it was aired. RADIO TIMES said that the brothers would ‘take to the skies in aircraft from across the air force’s history’ and gave some examples and isn’t that just what they did? The trailers didn’t dress it up as anything more than that. We got what it said on the tin. This was a Sunday evening programme on the BBC’s main TV channel, aimed not at ‘us’ but at an average viewer sitting down in front of the television set, on the evening before starting a week at work. This is not a defence of the programme but more an attempt to put it into some sort of context.

Would I have preferred a more serious and comprehensive documentary spanning 100 years of the RAF’s history? You bet, but ‘RAF at 100’ was never intended to be that programme.

Incidentally, the BBC News weather programme this morning (I forget its name) came from RAF Brize Norton and RAF Marham. It wasn’t so much about the aircraft as the role of the RAF’s meteorologists and the role of those whose tasks include keeping the runways clear when it snows – not exactly an aviation programme but at least something about those backroom personnel without whom … etc … etc.

Following the ‘philatelicdatabase’ posting above, with its descriptions of the time it took some mail to get from point of origin to destination in WWII, I thought it might be appropriate to mention a few copies of AIRCRAFT RECOGNITION – THE INTER-SERVICES JOURNAL that came my way several decades back. They came in a dreadful state [loose pages, some photos removed, pages missing etc] but information on the front covers may be of interest because they were stamped on the day received by the AIR ATTACHE – BRITISH EMBASSY – BUENOS AIRES. I cannot say that were sent by air but, assuming they were, the time they seem to have taken to arrive may be of interest here:

January 1943 issue -arrived 15 Feb 1943
April 1943 issue -arrived 16 June 1943
June 1943 issue -arrived 30 September 1943
August 1943 issue -arrived 18 November 1943
September 1943 issue -arrived 29 November 1943
October 1943 issue -arrived 14 January 1944

As I say, I cannot vouch for their transmission by air, nor the date they were sent or the route they took and only hope that someone reading this may have some use for the information. Meanwhile, here’s part of the front cover of the April 1943 issue:

Not quite so vintage as my previous contributions: mid-1960s in South Africa. They benefit from being clicked on, to make them larger on screen, and then toggle between the two.

This is a philatelic website covering the “Onward Air Transmission” markings on covers (envelopes). It displays a number of such covers with a description of each cover, its various markings and the ‘route’ it took from sender to recipient. There are quite a few mentions of Lisbon in WWII within the article:

http://www.philatelicdatabase.com/great-britain/onward-air-transmission/

Thanks, Graham. At least my memory of the story isn’t fantasy. Perhaps they handed out a few good cameras or maybe put agents aboard the fishing boats. On the other hand, possibly it was just a story and nothing more. I wish I could recall where I read it or heard it.

Thanks, too, for the tip about the new version of the book. I have had a copy of the original HMSO publication for over 55 years now. It was probably the one book that sparked my interest in the subject of the ‘civvies’ at war. Yes, maybe it was short on cold details but, in my youth, I found it just fascinating. Then, it was the Air Ministry account, it was ‘prepared’ by the Ministry of Information and, even so young, I knew enough to expect a certain amount of what we would now call ‘spin’.

I’m not quite sure why a reprint was necessary, nor why it has appeared at this moment, especially as I’ve seen second-hand copies of the original book going for £5 to £10. Moreover, the original has stood up well to the ravages of time – the paper quality was pretty good, so that the pages haven’t tanned, the text is sharp and the photographs are still clear. I only wish I could say that of some modern books. Nevertheless, I will check it out, so thanks again.

I’ve looked up the new version on-line and there is reference to “text alterations and additions”. I wonder what they will be.

There is still a great book to be written on BOAC in WWII, in my opinion.