The Spitfire: Britain's Flying Past

[BenVK]

Just wasted another hour of my life tonight watching this nostalgic and melodramatic nonsense produced by the BBC.

Apart from some beautiful in flight footage of a combat veteran MK.9 Spit (all of about 4 minutes out of 60) there was absolutely nothing new of interest here. The usual inaccuracies and all too obvious intentional flag flying and emotional tear jerking scenes were embarrassing to watch.

I mention this only because I'm always paying for this kind of lazy and pointless documentary out of my own pocket by way of the TV licence fee and it makes me so angry.

Give me the half million quid it probably cost to make and I'll give you something interesting.!!

I just don't understand it. Just like most documentaries on BoB, Stalingrad, Kursk or U Boats etc etc, this one fell into the same old cliches. Why do TV production companies continue to re-tell the same old inaccurate and uninformative crap time and time again and think that it's a worthwihile project?

Just out of interest, Has any one here ever been approached by a TV company?

The most interesting fact I've ever learn't on TV about the Spitfire in 30 years appeared on a programme last year and lasted about 30 seconds. I forget the programme but a newly rebuilt flying Spit wasn't flying level so the pilot got hold of a mallet and started banging the traling edge of one of the aerilons so that it had more surface area into the airflow. He turned to the camera and said, "That will do the trick!"

Maybe I'm a total geek but that caught my attention and I was screaming at the TV, tell me more please!!

[paddywhack]

yeah i saw that on the schedule and thought it would be like that!i dont even bother looking at them!wasted a hour last night watching "missions that changed the war" on discovery and i dont see the point of making it cos there was NO mission at all just some veiled suggestion that the US pilot they interviewed MIGHT have shot down Gunther Rall while the Rall interview was good it was about 15 minutes total!!!complete waste! why do they both making these documentaries at ALL!!!

[BenVK]

At least with the BBC there is no repeat after the ad breaks. Out of an hour long programme on Discovery or History, at least 5 minutes is taken up by repeating what you've just been watching before the ads!! Drives me nuts!

My favourite is that you sit down to watch a doc about the battle of berlin for example and the first 20 is about how the Nazis's came to power!! If you add that onto the ad breaks plus the usual 5 on the end about preaching why it should never happen again , that's about 30 minutes in total about the actual subject matter.

[hucks216]

I don't have a tv. If I see anything in the schedules that might be worth watching I just wait until it has aired and then watch it on the iPlayer afterwards which is free to use and doesn't require a license.

[thatswar1944]

I don't have a tv. If I see anything in the schedules that might be worth watching I just wait until it has aired and then watch it on the iPlayer afterwards which is free to use and doesn't require a license.

hhhmmmm i've often wondered about that
Wayne

[hucks216]

hhhmmmm i've often wondered about that
Wayne

What - the iPlayer thing or that I don't have a tv?

[thatswar1944]

if you needed a licence to watch bbc iplayer or not...good for you power to the people
Wayne

[hucks216]

If you use the BBC iPlayer to watch a programme as it is being streamed, so basically as it is aired on the tv then you do need a license but if you wait until after it has been shown on tv then you don't need one. I've had a letter from the tv license people confirming that they are happy with that arrangement so it is all above board.

[Hoss]

At least with the BBC there is no repeat after the ad breaks. Out of an hour long programme on Discovery or History, at least 5 minutes is taken up by repeating what you've just been watching before the ads!! Drives me nuts!

Hi Ben
All docs are like that over here. They tell you the whole story in the first 30secs!
The is no intro no beginning no middle no end. Most of em are total garbage. Its so bad I started to enjoy watching the Geico lizard ad talking about his toasted English muffins and a cup of tea, Progressive car insurance, Vonage's 1000yr free cell phone plan or wondering if Proactiv facial cream will remove a boil on me bottom... and not wanting to get back to the program.
A kind of 'flip' where the ads seem more real and interesting than the programs.

Eric

[Hoss]

The most interesting fact I've ever learn't on TV about the Spitfire in 30 years appeared on a programme last year and lasted about 30 seconds. I forget the programme but a newly rebuilt flying Spit wasn't flying level so the pilot got hold of a mallet and started banging the traling edge of one of the aerilons so that it had more surface area into the airflow. He turned to the camera and said, "That will do the trick!"

Maybe I'm a total geek but that caught my attention and I was screaming at the TV, tell me more please!!

Now that is interesting Ben
I wonder if Mitchell would have made further improvements had he lived?
Also if the 'lucky ones' personally tweaked their aircraft for better combat performance.

Eric

[paddywhack]

At least with the BBC there is no repeat after the ad breaks. Out of an hour long programme on Discovery or History, at least 5 minutes is taken up by repeating what you've just been watching before the ads!! Drives me nuts!

My favourite is that you sit down to watch a doc about the battle of berlin for example and the first 20 is about how the Nazis's came to power!! If you add that onto the ad breaks plus the usual 5 on the end about preaching why it should never happen again , that's about 30 minutes in total about the actual subject matter.

jesus your not wrong! i was watching another new programme on discovery and its was called "spy wars" and it looked ok but they spend about 35 minutes repeating the same crap over and over!! waste of time!!!dont know why they bothar to be honest!!!