Daz, please continue with the excellent idea of a Battle of Britain website. It would be great.

As for the Battle of Britain forum on Yahoo, I would join and contribute if it wasn’t on Yahoo. Those Yahoo groups never ever work properly for me. I sign up, and then next time i want to go in it won’t accept my password. So I change it – doesn’t work. So I request the password they say I have – that still won’t work on the sign up. I have had this problem many times when trying to join several groups. I think the Yahoo system is crap. I belong to one that I did used to receive messages from, but i could never get into the actual site to look at the message archive. Nowadays i don’t even get messages by email so either this flourishing forum collapsed or Yahoo’s curse has struck again.

Does anyone else have trouble with Yahoo groups?

So, I have tried to join your group, but cannot get any joy. Sorry. That’s why I ask my numerous related questions here still.

You’re right Lancman, the character was a Kiwi in the book, but when it came to raising funds for the TV series an Austrailian broadcaster was signed up to help pay for the costs. Because of this the makers decided to adapt Fanny Barton into an Aussie to please their financial backers and the now-guaranteed audience in that country.

I have just discovered to my horror that I must have pushed the wrong button and watched episode 6 before episode 5 on the DVD. Doh! Oh well, at least i have another episode with Moggy in it. I had wondered why the White Cliffs combat that Daz had mentioned was in my ep 5 when he said ep 6!

Lots of replies…

Lancman, that piece where AUSTRALIAN Fanny Barton swears is indeed in it. What I think is an edit is just a little bit before that. Kellaway gets the bill, and pulls out Rex’s cheque book.They decide to use it. Then there is what seems like an edit because it comes back into it with Barton arguing with the restaurant guy. It is easy enough to understand what’s going on, but to me it simply looks like a small edit has taken place because the argument scene begins really abruptly as if we’ve missed a small portion of the beginning of that scene. I may be wrong, and if I am, it is technically a shoddy edit transition in the original piece

Daz – well I’ll be jiggered. I never noticed a second pointy one.
In the scenes where Rex is killed they actually had six Spifires in the formation – this is the first time I saw six flying, usually only five were seen at one time. Did an extra one pop in for a short film stint or was this done with film layering?

I agree that Susanna York was a bit soppy in BofB, but that’s they way they liked female characters in those days. But her scenes in that underwear made up for it.

As far as TV and films with Spitfires in I’d rate BofB probably No1, with Piece of Cake at a very close second, and then DBW a close third. After that, probably Perfect Hero but there really wasn’t enough flying and too much Nigel Havers in that one for my liking. Still nice to have seen, I wish I could see it again. And fifth would maybe be Over Here which was great too.

There are little programs that you can get for PC’s that allow your DVD player to become multi zoned for ever. I use one called simply DVD Region Free

Come on guys, this is serious. Let’s not start another of ‘those’ threads.

Does anyone think that a pilot could have flown, even if not operationally, without a left left or left arm?

Was it an achievement in itself that he had been given command of a station? It certainly can’t have been a big one as he was only a Sqn Ldr, usually stations went to Wing Commanders and Group Captains.

I have just watched episode five (edit, actually episode six – see below..). Wow, the combat sequences are stunning, especially round the white cliffs. It is difficult to see where the old stock footage meets the ‘new’ stuff, except when they used shots from BofB of the models blowing up. A pity they didn’t make some new models for these scenes, the film stock seems quite different. But other than this it is brilliantly edited.

However I did note a strange edit in episode four where Fanny is paying the bill in the restaurant. Was something cut out of that? Perhaps something cut for the US market?

Also, each episode begins with a narration of what’s been happening so far. In this there are often scenes not seen in the actual prior episode. Does this mean they were edited out? Or were the film makers using this as a clever way to condence all the information in the original book into six episodes by skipping over some and merely mentioning it in a recap? Plus, who is narrating the intros? I thought it was Moggy, but it cannot be. Hmmm. Is it Uncle? I think David Horovitch is outstanding in this role by the way, as is Richard Hope as Skull. Good to see that they gave a personality to the intelligence officer and the adjutant, people often overlooked.

The attention to detail as far as historical accuracy is superb (notwithstanding the four-bladed Spits and no Hurricanes issue). Those early morning scenes in ep 5 with the mist linguering as the station comes to life are great. Seeing little things like the cooks setting up breakfast on the airfield for the aircrews simply said to me that they had really researched it well and thought it out. Well done to the makers.

It does make me ask though, why was one Spitfire left with a pointy tail? Did the owner not want to change it for the earlier type? pity.

Exactly how many flyable Blenheims have there been since the 1980’s – am I right in thinking it was just two – the one that crashed on the golf course and the one that crashed last year?

Just watched Episode four – wow. Indeed there is a lot of action. That first bomb during the wedding scared the bijeebers out of me.

I vaguely remembered the scramble scene where the Spitfire drove into the crewroom. Poor old replica bought the dust.

Sad to see Sqn Ldr Rex go so potty and then buy it, I thought he was a great character. And poor old Riley, I just about cried. I thought he was a fantastic addition to the ensemble, especially his filthy habit.

At least Episode Four had less of the Yank telling the RAF how to do it. He was getting right on my wick.

Moggy is such a great character, and it must be Neil Dudgeon’s finest performance. He’s the true epitamy of many fighter pilots I have met. Such skilful writing to have someone you dislike so much that you love him.

Sadly I shant be getting down to Ohakea. Tomorrow I am filming an interview for my documentary on the wartime RNZAF. It would have been nice to get back down there, but oh well.

It has been ten years since I left the RNZAF and I only spent a few months at Ohakea. Those names you mention are not familiar I’m afraid. I hated Ohakea – a cold, wet, desolate hole. However, nowadays i do think of those times there with nostalgia, and having read books and talked with many veterans about the station during World War Two, I have warmed to like it. Imagine that place then, two P40 OTU’s, a Hudson OTU, and numerous other schools for gunnery, etc. It must have been a Warbird heaven!