Wow, thanks Archer. That realli is impressive. I wonder why the port wing is missing.

What a shame it appartently no longer exists. It shows how an impressive replica could be constucted for film or musuem purposes though – I doubt they’d have had a massive budget for itin those days but the results are stunning. Thanks again.

Yes, ‘Over Here’ was very good. It starred Timothy West and his son Samuel West. It was a mini-series, but i only have one episode of (I think) four. It was written by John Sullivan, who also wrote Only Fools And Horses, and it had some great comedy in amongst the drama. Clunes was, as always, excellent as the stuffy station commander. Several Spitfires took part I think, and at least one Me109 but I don’t know which one/s as I don’t have those episodes. :confused:

Cheers Tim, great story.

So I guess really it was indeed simply down to the technicalities of the day. These days the scene could be done six times with one aircraft and all put together to look like six.

I shall look out for you playing Barry Foster next time I watch the film. 🙂

Ooh, Tales of the Golden monkey was a favourite when I was a kid – it would probably be trash if I watched it now though. I heard it was recently released on DVD. It starred that guy who is the father in 7th Heaven, didn’t it?

I think now when I said Fantasy Island was filmed in Hawaii I was getting confused with magnum PI, thanks for pointing that out John.

Hogan’s Heroes has been released here in NZ on one of those massive sets by Time/Life Video. They advertise it heaps and on the advert there’s a quick shot of a plane flying over Stalag 13 real low, in light blue with mottled grey Luftwaffe scheme. I’ve wondered for ages what it was. It looks like a Miles Messnger – would there have been any of these in the USA at the time of filming? I love Hogan’s Heroes – Shultz is so cool.

I remember the MH434 appearance in Poirot too.

Does anyone remember the series Perfect Scoundrels? It starred Peter Bowles (of To The Manor Born fame) and Keith Barron (of, er, To The Manor Born radio series in the same role!!) as con men. In one episode they went to, I think, the Channel Islands and faked finding a crashed Spitfire. They were wanting to sell the wreck and make a quick quid somehow. I wish I’d taped that series now, itwas pretty good, in the mould of Lovejoy really. Anyway, my vague recollection is they had a flying spitfire in that episode, didn’t they?

And in an episode of Peak Practice I recall seeing two Spitfires in formation flying over a lake with a dam (Derwent Water perhaps?).

As for adverts with warbirds. Recently the NZ Warbirds Catalina has been seen in Lotto adverts. The Warbirds Dakots did a series of classic adverts in the early 1990’s for Bluebird chips (crisps) where an Indiana Jones type battled baddies on boad and hung out of it on a rope ladder. One of them saw him do a transfer from it to a truck. And the clothes washing detergent Cold Water Surf used a Grumman Goose all painted up in their blue, yellow and white colours, dragging a washing line through the sea as it took off. I saw that plane in the same colours at the 1990 Ardmore airshow so it was around that time. Sadly it left NZ about a year later. And there was Sqn ldr Rupert Baddiley-Bent in his Spitfire for Twisties crisps in the 1980’s, though it didn’t use a NZ based Spitfire. Plus I have to mention the advert for Tiger Beer made in NZ that I worked on, featuring P51D, Corsair, Harvard and other types.

Thanks Ant. Gosh, it really sounds like they went all out for realism, actually destroying hte plane. Shame. The Li2 was obviously old and clapped out, having just left a long career, but think of those lovely new turrets burning up.

I have been thinking, I wonder with today’s modern materials such as carbon fibre, could a similar skin be created around a C47 that would be aesthetically looking like a Wellengton but also light enough to actually fly? I don’t know how it would go for aerodynamics, but C47’s have been known to fly with more than half a wing missing, so perhaps an added skin won’t make it too unstable. Imagine, if we never saw a real Wellington in the air again, at least a lookalike might be worth it.