“If you’d concentrated on the programme” sorry Pete, I was only called to watch the TV when the ‘crashed plane’ was on so did not know who, what or where things were happening.

I’ll let you off mate, that sort of thing happens to me as well, though we tend to have a good session with the Radio Times these days to check things out, well worth the £1:05p.
What is interesting is that the programme describes Kate Humble as a ‘Naturalist’. Quite frankly, my missus hasn’t much time for her, and if you look up her profile, she’s learnt her trade from experience and probably family influence rather than a university degree, good for her, as far as I’m concerned, theres nowt like learning stuff in the field rather than a classroom.
My son has had the best of both worlds, he’s just got his degree and is an honourary Masai warrior, he can also probably recognise the difference between a Betty and a Zero, and can scuba dive, unfortunately the powers that be want to shunt him off to become a teacher, as they say, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know, with his personality, charm and good looks, he’d take TV presenting in his stride, no problem at all, but where do you start to get in there without the contacts.
He’ll kill me for writing this!!!

This should be on Historic, those pre war German aerial photos of East Anglia were stunning, especially when they were seamlessly blended into modern sattelite photographs.
Having Google Earth is one thing, but these images actually move.
Well done BBC, I love it.

Just considered this picture again, and looking at the date, it’s not Hucknall, it’s Cottesmore BoB display 19th September 1959, I’m certain that they were both there as a tribute to Douglas Bader and Johnnie Johnson, Bader flew himself in in a twin Cessna type thing and Johnson was station commander at the time, the whole show was televised live on ITV in between bouts of wrestling, would you believe, I wonder if the video tapes are lurking in a vault somewhere.

Perhaps the Hurricane was temporarily painted in camo for this special occasion, was anyone else there.

Did anybody see the BBC series on Sunday night ? The series is an excellent wildlife programme following underwater explorers around the Paciffic. Last night showed film of a pratice dive on a WW2 plane wreck, it was identified as a Japanese twin enginned bomber, although missing engines. Any more details of what it was and where it was located, the obvious question is do these wildlife teams report these finds to restorers / military for possible identification or recovery.

If you’d concentrated on the programme, you would have realised that the bloke taking Kate down to the wreck was a miltiary historian, well aware of what was down there, and what they were reporting on.
I thought the programme was pretty cool, Kate seemed genuinely well knocked out about what she was seeing underwater as well as on land, please don’t dismiss all blonde, glam BBC reporters as idiots, it’s not always the case.
Personally, I loved the Japanese tank with the gas mask on the turret, though, a little sad to think how many died on that ship, Japanese or not. How many Japanese tanks have survived the war, it can’t be many, anyone have any idea?

I’m bloody stunned, I had no idea about this.
Steve you cantankerous old git, we’ve crossed swords many times, but I love you to bits, I always look forward to your posts, whether I agree with them or not, it’s always good for a dig on both sides, if by some miracle I ever got to OZ, you would be the first person I looked up.
You’ve always been Mr Obituary, you miserable git, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve written your own you, silly sod, but I don’t want to hear it for many years to come.
I reckon that if you put those crappy old film posters round your bed, the sheer misery of subconciously having to look at them will have you running round the hospital campus in no time.
Good luck old pal, I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Pete.

Hi
Just seen on the the UK tv channel 4 this afternoon 16 August this the film The Battle of Britain.

Crikey, it sounds as if you’ve not seen it or even heard of it before? If so what did you think, having been watching it regularly for the past 40 years, starting off at the premier all those years ago, you get blase and too familiar with it, I’d like to hear a fresh comment.

I’ve had the special edition set for a while, including the great little contemporary documentary featuring Michael Caine, well worth a purchase.
Somewhere I have a paperback that came out more or less when the film was released, I think it’s called, ‘Battle of Britain, the making of the Movie’, the cover being a replica of the film poster.

One question for all you oficianados out there regarding the destruction of the Hangar. The current hangars are I believe, listed Grade 2 on the preservation list, along with most of the buildings on the site. I often wondered whether any listing was in place during the period of the making of the film and whether the local authority were actually approached prior to it’s destruction, from memory, at that time, the fine was next to nothing for the destruction of an historic building, certainly pocket money for a major film company, was anybody on here working for South Cambs Planning at the time?

The Shuttleworth Sea Hurricane must be high on the list of flyers. The wings are 95% original with only light repairs made during its return to flight and the spars are original. The fuselage steel tubes are also mostly original.
The aircraft that Hawker Restorations have produced in some cases have new wings and tubes, just fittings are re-used.
I have no doubt that ‘Last of the Many’ is the most original flyer.

Richard

I recall seeing ‘Last of the Many’ at many airshows during the 50’s and 60’s, still in it’s original blue paintwork. Obviously, it was repainted for the BoB film, 40 years ago, but how much work has been done on it since, several colour schemes we know, but how much has been done to the airframe, knowing the enthusiasm of the BBMF for originality, probably not much, but let us not forget that this wonderful aircraft has been flying almost constantly since it was built in 1944, it must be in fact one of the most original, flying WW2 aircraft in existance, despite the fact that it never flew in combat.
I gather that Mr Tatchers Hurricane had more bits replaced than we thought, so what, it’s fantastic to see it flying, but I doubt whether it it compares to our Last of the Many in terms of originality.

A very exciting day, a silver DH Rapide at very low level over the house, heading towards DX, followed by a Gryphon Spitfire an hour later, heading south.
Currently experiencing a very savage thunderstorm, no one would want to fly in these conditions.