I was picking up my dogs tablets from the vets in Dunmow last friday when 2 Apaches flew very low over the town and headed straight for the landing zone at Stansted, passengers on the Easy Jets must have had brown trousers.
Next, a dark green Sea King flew over Braintree the other day, and another returned about 2 hours ago. Meanwhile, I was painting my fence yesterday when the growl of a warbird caught my attention, couldn’t see it too well, but it looked and sounded like the Wildcat, which I saw outside the hangar at DX last week.

[QUOTE=Arm Waver;1088745]Mostly I have been watching…

The DaVinci Code Far better than I expected. Not too far from the general story of the book and quite watchable. I personally liked the fact people spoke in their own languages and you had subtitles. The casting was good too.

Our doctors surgery sells second had books for 25p and my missus bought me the Da Vinci Code last week.
I thought that the plot and research was good but the writing was absolutely naff. So, we watched the film last night, I thought it was, ok, a bit of manipulation and deviation from the book towards the end, but, sorry, wasn’t impresed with either, at least it caused us to have a discussion afterwards as to why the Catholic church wasn’t impressed with the film and wouldn’t co-operate.
My mate, a Catholic, by the way, not that it has anything to do with it, thought that Tom Hanks was crap in the role of Langdon, I disagree, and , thinking about it, can anyone think of a Hanks role that you hated, or is he hated, we have always admired him as an actor personally.

…I feel rather envious when I see these superb photos produced nowadays and shared on these forums : we are certainly fortunate to have this digital technology at our fingertips today, but that is not intended to dismiss the skill and art in framing these subjects so well. I think back to the days (too long ago) when my son and I frequented Duxford and Mildenhall and we were always shooting into the sun, wrong side of the runways, of course. I suppose safety considerations would be the main objection, but wouldn’t it be good if Duxford were to make available a few open top double deckers on the far side of the airfield on flying days so that photographers, with supervision of course, could enjoy the prospect of shots with the sun on the subject, and for a few hours in the afternoon at least, at our backs, not in our faces or lenses! They could strap me into the bus if they cared to, I wouldn’t mind paying a fee, and I might even enjoy the photography so much I’d forget to eat my piggy-pie! Good idea, or no chance of this ever happening?

I seem to remember that they used to do that at Fighter Meet at North Weald, I presume that they had a link to the tower when they had to cross the runway threshold. The problem with Duxford is that there isn’t an on site road on the other side, only a public road which is closed to through traffic on airshow days and quite a way from the runway, shudder, mustn’t mention this or the holier than thou ‘Freeload Police’ will be on my back again, I felt guilty having my sandwiches up there on friday, no doubt did the occupants of the other half dozen cars parked up there.
Mildenhall would have been exceptional due to the amount of roads and taxiways on the other side within the base, I could imagine a line of ex Yarmouth Corporation open top Leylands being driven in convoy, the occupiers of the top deck paying a fortune in insurance, but polish sausage being barbecued on the back seat area and Budds handed out on the stairs, pursued by the Health and Safety brigade dishing out safety helmets and Kev35 to make sure you had paid, but thats all history now, Mildenhall is probably gone for ever.

This isn’t a complaint, but I’m surprised that the ‘new’ Hunters are painted in the old green and grey camo colours, if they’ve been obtained to perform a role with FRADU, I would have expected them to be either grey or even black like the 100 squadron Hawks.
Anyone remember the Hunter v Shar dogfight at Mildenhall many years ago, the southern spur of the N-S runway had been set up to represent the flight deck of Invincible complete with Sea king AEW’s, I seem to recall that 4 Hunters flew in direct from Yeovilton and bounced the ‘carrier’ resulting in 2 Shars taking off and charged into what looked like an unrehearsed dog fight with much viffing taking place, Shars 4 Hunters 0.
Best dogfight I ever saw was over Woolacombe beach, cliffs and sea in the early 80’s, just after the Falklands War, many Hunters and Shars took part in that and the viffing was sensational.

I happened to be parked up eating my sandwiches at DX yesterday and saw RW386 for the first time go off on a test flight at about 14:00, I assumed it wouldn’t be up for very long but it flew off to the north and hadn’t reappeared when I left about 40 mins later.
I also saw another spitfire fly over earlier when I was having a meeting, due to the quietness of it’s engine and shape, I assumed it was a Mk V, I saw it being shoved into one of the small hangars near the main building after much shuffling about with the silver Rapide.
It was a lovely day yesterday compared to the last week, I assume it was possibly only the second flight of RW386, I had my camcorder with me, but never got the chance to use it.

But enough of pulling at petes hackles:diablo: :diablo:
Id like to add to the list the great Stanley unwin.
http://www.stanleyunwin.com/home2.htm[/QUOTE]

Nice one, have you listened to Ogdens Nut Gone Flake by the Small Faces, if not, appreciate the input by Staney Unwin. Unwin was an unrecognised genius in my opinion.

I tend to think of the Goons as the originators of modern comedy, whatever that means, and thats led me on to another comedy hero, what about Michael Bentine, who remembers ‘It’s a Square World’, a classic of it’s time, much discussed in the playground in the 60’s and largely forgotten about, do the BBC have any of these recordings in their archives, I wonder.

Lets turn this into a ‘I remember’ comedy thread.

I can’t imagine a bronze statue of Fred Dibnah sitting happily in Bolton town square, can you, I’d sooner see a plaque on a plinthed seam roller, and that would be a waste of a steam roller, statues are for dead Victorian generals, I don’t find them very tastefull, I think that Eric Morecambes statue is out of place and a bit strange, I would sooner have seen the local theatre restored and dedicated to him instead, they could have done with the money as well, bronze and sculptors come at a price.

Here we go, knocking modern comedians because you are trying to compare them to your heroes of the past.
I’m an old git, and not only do I remember the old boys but I’ve seen alot of them onstage as well, yes, I used to curl up in front of the steam radio and listen to The Goon Show and pretend I understood it, I remember Round the Horn, the Navy Lark and even Archie Andrews, they were fantastic, but we live in a different world, like it or not. The last series of Ricky Gervais Extras was absolutely fantastic, I was crying with laughing all the way through it, but on the other hand, I am quite capable of watching a repeat of say, Porridge or Hancocks Half Hour afterwards and, despite having seen it 10 times before, it will invoke the same reaction. Ah ha, you say, will the same thing happen to Ricky Gervais in 30 years time, who knows, people were no doubt making comparisons between Ronnie Barker and Jimmy Handley, Stinker Murdoch, Arthur Askey etc etc etc. Incidentally, I think that Russell Brand is brilliant, hackles rise……….
This is all beside the point, my nomination for a statue is for the late great Harry Secombe, a wonderfull man, please read Mulligans books starting with Adolf Hitler, My Part in his Downfall, to find out how they met.
Secombe had the ability to not only involve himself in the dark side of comedy, but to present himself to the public as a classical singer and a very religious man, he must have been a very complex character.
I once saw him in a live show at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal with Jimmy Clitheroe, it was awesome, the fishermans sketch I remember in detail to this day.
One day I was on my lunch hour in Nottingham, walking through the Vic Centre when I heard this histerical laughter, who appears but Mr Secombe, striding through the centre without a care in the world, I approached and he said, ‘Hello mate, how are you doing, I’m having a lovely time here’, I was struck dumb, off he went to talk to the next batch of people, what a lovely man.
A few years later I went to see the Lord Mayors Show in London, me and the kids managed to get a good spot opposite the Mansion House. All the way through the show, someone was causing mayhem amongst the Glitteraii in the official grandstand opposite, who was it, of course, Mr Secombe, in fact, when the show finished, a group sat surrounding the great man, it was quite amusing to watch this scene of empty grandstands and a large group of people refusing to move because of him.
On the other hand, statues have an aura of the British Empire and ‘famous generals’ from battles that we have forgotten.
I’ve seen Eric Morecambes statue and I’m not sure about it, Morecambe is a very run down place and it doesn’t work.
Please note, I have relatives in the town and we had connections to the great man, perhaps things will be better when the Midland Hotel is restored, but who will stay in it it is another matter.
OK, I nominate the great Harry Secombe for a statue, it should be out on a headland in Cardiff Bay and only accessible to those who appreciate the great man.