morrowmmm

A very realistic film although one has to get used to the old English accents which are rarely heard these days. The pilot of F for Freddy was ultimately to be Gp Capt P C Pickard, DSO, DFC, at this time playing a Sergeant Dixon, although I am unsure of that. Pickard became one of the best specialists at pin point low level missions, mainly using Mosquitos and a great air leader. In 1944 AVM Basil Embry, selected him to lead the raid on Amiens prison, a raid of very great daring. Unfortunately after his run to the target a FW190 attached itself to his tail and he was shot down. Gp Capt P C Pickard, aged 28 years of age and his navigator Flight Lieutenant J. A. 'Bill' Broadley, aged 23 years old, were killed. Rest in peace.

The BBC used to be known for some of the most nail biting and well written drama. It still does some great period work from the Victorians but the days of greatness have long passed as the BBC has descended into its present moralizing role. This series has started out in quite a good way but,as usual, the BBC has to tick all the equal opportunity boxes so we have the standard white/black mother/father family fairly portrayed. While I applaud the BBC in its quest for equal opportunity in British drama, it does somewhat affect the authenticity of the plot when you feel someone from the racial discrimination department is standing over every location making certain the correct, and approved, democratic UK profile is presented throughout. I await furtherepisodes with a good anticipation of a script which is well written andexciting and not seemingly vetted by big brother.

I came across this and downloaded it as it referenced the RFC in WW1. A major surprise in that it explained all the problems of the RFC in the early stages of the war head on whilst switching to show life in a small village at the lower middle class level. The flying scenes are not bad at all dealing well with the dangers of reconnaissance and initial forays into dog fights and the realism is extremely effective with a mature intelligent script. There have been a few flying WW1 films with Basil Rathbone, Errol Flynn such as The Blue Max, Dawn Patrol,Hell's Angels and a really awful film made two or three years ago of which I cannot remember the name (thank goodness). It also deals sensibly with the problems of class between NCO and Commissioned pilots with the two leads featuring one of each But this is a series! And a damn good one at that. I have seen series one and am now downloading series 2 but so far this is a real gem.