Wings

Wings is a drama series about the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in World War I that ran on BBC television from 1977 to 1978. The series covers the activities of an RFC flight in France and their relatives and friends back in 'Blighty'.Twenty-five episodes were made in all.

It features a young working class blacksmith, Alan Farmer (Tim Woodward) turned fighter pilot, who forms an unlikely friendship with another pilot Charles Gaylion (Michael Cochrane), an upper-class Old Etonian, son of a general, a snob who doesn't believe in social mobility. Gaylion becomes incandescent when he discovers Farmer has been dating his sister Kate (Julia Carey) but sees nothing wrong with dating Farmer's fiancée Lorna Collins (Sarah Porter), a farmer's daughter, while Farmer is missing in France, presumed dead.

Their flight commander is the volatile Captain Triggers (Nicholas Jones). His flight's aircraft carry a pilot and an observer, mostly flying reconnaissance missions, but sometimes acting as spotters for artillery on the ground.

The British pilots are struggling with aeroplanes, such as Bristol Boxkites for flying training and Avro 504s for sorties, which are both unreliable and inferior to the German machines, particularly a new Fokker monoplane (Eindecker). The airmen must also face the resentment of British soldiers enduring the horrors of trench warfare, who see them as having a safe and easy life, sleeping in beds at bases far away from the front line.

In the early days of the war the pilots on both sides fly without parachutes and fire at each other with rifles and revolvers, often waving at their enemies. The British thought at the time that if a pilot had a parachute he would jump from the plane when hit rather than try to save the aircraft. By 1918 some German aircraft were equipped with parachutes, although these were dangerous and often got snagged in spinning planes. The series explains the transition to the fitting of weaponry to British biplanes. Lacking the Germans' interrupter gear, they had to be fired at an angle rather than through the propellers.

Farmer is eventually commissioned because he is the only non-commissioned pilot left in his flight. Thereafter he faces resentment from some officers because of his background and from some rank and file because they feel that as a working class man he belongs with them.

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.

I believe its available on Youtube. In any event well worth the time to watch it.

The "Wings" BBC TV series about the adventures of a fictional group of Royal Flying Corps personnel was most interesting and I have been searching for the series on video and/or DVD for a number of years.

The BBC seems never to have considered releasing the series, however.

The series was repeated on the UK Gold digital TV channel some years ago.

I succeeded in recording a few episodes, with the inevitable lengthy advertising breaks, but for some reason the series came to an abrupt end with the penultimate episode!

I believe that the outdoor and flying scenes were filmed at Lasham airfield in Hampshire, using a full size non-flying model of the BE2c aircraft, which apparently showed an urge to fly when it was taxied across the airfield, while the flying scenes used large radio-controlled models, many of which were destroyed during filming.

The combined hangar, office, and officers mess film set was displayed for some time at the Imperial War Museum in London in the 1970s.

Does anyone know if the series was ever released on DVD or video tape, or who owns the copyright?

I remember watching this at about 2 am in the morning on Channel 7 in Sydney after episodes of the Inspector Dalgleish series and The Duches of Dukestreet and The Onedin Line. Probably the finest night time viewing in history.

This was a terrific "little" series with fine acting and storyline and a sincere attempt to recreate WWI from the viewpoint of a young English bloke trying to become a fighter pilot. This glam job was usually reserved for the "toffs" who had money so we see the class war in action. Although not overly dramatic or meaty in content, the series does get you in and is worth enjoying until the end.

I am surprised that no one has ever commented on this little gem and I for one will grab it if I can on DVD.