The controversy surrounding PoC was red hot at the time, the veterans really didn’t like it one bit. I’m not sure about the chronology of events, but certainly at one point the novel was subject of a legal case brought by Paul Richey (ex 1sqn Battle of France) who felt that the novel was heavily based on his autobiography Fighter Pilot and that the characters portrayed were an insult to the memory of real people. Did this come after the novel was made into the series?? Sadly Richey died while proceedings were underway, and the case petered out.
When the series was aired it got an equally cold reception from veterans as a whole, the main gripe being that it portrayed nothing like the real spirit of the time and that the war would have been lost if things had really been like PoC (Bee Beamont for one was very vocal on the subject). I’ve heard that ITV ended up promising never to show a repeat of the series as a result.
On a more personal note, PoC forms a strong part of my childhood memories and was probably one of the catalysts of my interest – the plot and characters may have drawn criticism, but the set and the flying scenes were great. I’ve since watched it on DVD, and it’s poignant to see the likes of Ray and Mark Hanna, Reg Hallam and Hoof Proudfoot doing their stuff, including the famous bridge scene flown by Ray.
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