A Typhoon squadron, ‘making do’ at an Advanced Landing Ground in foul weather during the battle of the bulge. Initial shock of the German thrust, strafing attacks from 262’s, frustration at the weather meaning no chance to fight back, all against the background of the bloody ground offensive. Then the weather clears, and bitter revenge from the rocket-firing Typhoons as the opposition is driven back through the snow… well, it’s a vague idea, but I don’t think it’s been done before.

Well, to be precise, the RAF crews were Commonwealth, Polish crews flew in an all-Polish unit, and there was a major contribution (and sacrifice) of SAAF units/crews. Plus there was the ‘Frantic’ operation by 8th AF B-17s. And there was an RAF ex-PoW escaper in the city itself, brodcasting news in English on the free Polish radio.
Certainly this would give opportunity for some exciting flying scenes with the heavies. There are accounts, for example, of a Halifax and a Liberator approaching the same drop zone (a square in the centre of Warsaw) from opposing sides and the crews seeing each other on the very last moment, resulting in very violent and steep turns to avoid collision – and that on rooftop level over the blazing city in the middle of the night…

I stand corrected.. not most of the RAF crews, then – thanks! Although the all-Polish crews were flying with 1586 Special Duties Flight of the RAF, there were indeed three other units involved, RAF and SAAF. My bad! Still, the feelings of the Poles involved must have been running pretty high, and there’s some serious potential for drama in that.

The scene you describe looks fantastic in my head!

One day I will sit down to write a Battle of Britain movie that includes a genuine cross-section of those who took part, but which at the same time contains ’rounded’ personal stories. Didn’t say I’d manage it, though! Getting this balance right is possibly the Holy Grail of war film writing. The problem is, war is narratively messy and often confused and so are real people’s lives!

Why do it again after the 1968 epic? Well, historical accuracy in film has come a long way since then (sixties hairdos and six-stub exhausts) – as has the room modern cinema allows for more complex and genuinely human ‘heroes’, even in action films. And I think there’s room for developed black, Asian and Eastern European characters in there too.

[QUOTE=DazDaMan;1486251]The Last Enemy by Richard Hillary, although the chances of that being made are about as high as me being an Olympic athlete…*

Of course, any film of Richard Hillary’s life would need to go beyond ‘The Last Enemy’ – which ends on a rather (dare I say it) contrived note, as if he were writing his own hollywood biopic at the time. I would love to see it too! In fact, I have written it – at the age of fourteen, on a ropey Russian typewriter. Still got it somewhere!

The story really only works when we see Hillary wrestling between the knowledge of the fact that his burned hands made any kind of flying extremely difficult, painful and almost certainly fatal for him, and his urgent desire to be seen to be doing the right thing, in the style of British heros struggling against the odds (Bader et al). To me, this is a fascinating dilema, and of course is not covered by the book – as all this and his subsequent decision to go back to flying happened after it was completed.

The fact that he died in training for his new role as a night fighter pilot from a lonely, windswept Scottish airfield, and it only happened because of the decision he made, makes for a poignant end.

I understand that there WAS a TV adaptation of the book, back in the fifties / sixties? But his autobiography is only part of the story.

James May clearly realised that rather than being another middle aged bloke (like me) grumbling into his real ale that the ‘kids just don’t get it’ he’d do something about it, reach out and try to explain. Furthermore, he’d do it on national television. Surely this is a GOOD THING.

If only one kid asks mum or dad ‘What’s a Spitfire? Why is it famous?’ then it’s worthwhile (assuming they get sensible answers..)

I’m another who built them 1/72 when little, and build them full-size now (as well as 1/72 every now and then) – that’s what Airfix (and Matchbox, etc, but mainly Airfix) did for me, and, indirectly, for our heritage. Sorry to sound so grand about it, and being British we don’t like that kind of talk, but it is an elephant-in-the-room fact.

Regarding the gay thing – Mr May is one of those blokes who occasionally forgets to apply the ‘grown-up, and on telly’ filter. Its not big, and not clever – but hey, it’s also nothing major. It was mildly offensive to some, yes, but no-one died. And you should hear what TV personalities say about redheads to get a laugh. My Missus has to deal with that pretty much every day.

Good programme!