Verrico2009 Posted 31 October , 2010 Share Posted 31 October , 2010 Featured in yesterday's Times: BBC1 "The programme gives a unique overview of the Western Front, stretching from the Belgian coast to the Swiss Alps. It also features film shot by Jacques Trolley de Prevaux, an airship pilot, above the Western Front in 1919, after the guns had fallen silent." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archangel9 Posted 31 October , 2010 Share Posted 31 October , 2010 Sounds interesting. In the diary now. Thanks John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eveanne Posted 31 October , 2010 Share Posted 31 October , 2010 Thanks for the link, it sounds an interesting and new perspective on the battlefields. I look forward to watching the programme next Sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gixsermalc Posted 31 October , 2010 Share Posted 31 October , 2010 Hi thanks for the heads up looking forward to this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Banning Posted 31 October , 2010 Share Posted 31 October , 2010 I've seen the airship footage and it is absolutely spectacular. The programme has a decent budget and it looks like it will be very good. I know that Peter Barton and Nigel Steel participated and am sure that others are involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archangel9 Posted 7 November , 2010 Share Posted 7 November , 2010 Just a bump up as this will be starting shortly. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandy hall Posted 7 November , 2010 Share Posted 7 November , 2010 We have just taken in a vote in our house on whether to watch this or Downton Abbey and The First World War from Above won. Mandy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithfazzani Posted 7 November , 2010 Share Posted 7 November , 2010 It didn't in mine so record button is set! But I imagine Downton Abbey will have some WW1 content tonight, it's the obvious way to complicate the inheritance issue and I expect the house will become a hospital. Here I go giving ideas to the scriptwriters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rayessex Posted 7 November , 2010 Share Posted 7 November , 2010 Hi All. Was that area refered to in the programme, that was owned by the French family and preserved, High Wood? Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archangel9 Posted 7 November , 2010 Share Posted 7 November , 2010 Ray, I'm not sure, think so. I would like to see more of the film shot from the airship. Facinating footage but there must be much more. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 7 November , 2010 Share Posted 7 November , 2010 The computerised film of the 19 mines at Messines was absolutely terrifying. Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rayessex Posted 7 November , 2010 Share Posted 7 November , 2010 Hi John. Yeah, said the whole front line had been filmed, so imagine there are many hours of footage, yet to been seen. Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towisuk Posted 7 November , 2010 Share Posted 7 November , 2010 Hi All. Was that area refered to in the programme, that was owned by the French family and preserved, High Wood? Ray Looked like the Tambour at Fricourt to me... regards Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rayessex Posted 7 November , 2010 Share Posted 7 November , 2010 Thanks Tom. Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithmroberts Posted 7 November , 2010 Share Posted 7 November , 2010 I was a bit disappointed. I suppose its inevitable. For the mass market it may well have been excellent. I was just frustrated that I wanted to see so much more of the original film, and less clever manipulation of modern imagery. Still it was worth it for that which we could see. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archangel9 Posted 7 November , 2010 Share Posted 7 November , 2010 I was just frustrated that I wanted to see so much more of the original film, and less clever manipulation of modern imagery. Keith, I agree. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Le_Treport Posted 7 November , 2010 Share Posted 7 November , 2010 Think he said there was around 80 mins of original footage. Hopefully, when we all get our jet-packs in a few years (as promised in the 1960s ) it would be a great way to view the battlefields from the air! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted 7 November , 2010 Share Posted 7 November , 2010 With all due respect, I don't think the programme was aimed at us. I would have been quite happy had the programme been just all 78 minutes of the original film, but would that have been what the general public would watch? I suppose anything at peak viewing time that increases public awareness has to be a good thing. Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truthergw Posted 7 November , 2010 Share Posted 7 November , 2010 I enjoyed the prog but was rather uncomfortable watching the narrator wring every last ounce of drama out of the revelation to the pilot's daughter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Tomlinson Posted 7 November , 2010 Share Posted 7 November , 2010 Prominently billed as footage from an airship; what we actually got was the same 15 seconds or so of aerial footage repeated at least four times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bierlijn Posted 8 November , 2010 Share Posted 8 November , 2010 I thought it was a totally unfocused programme, forgetting a lot of the time about "from Above" for just random bits about the war. As usual with that reporter, over emotionalising at every stage, and capped by the conversation in the modern airship. Keene and his expert adviser were floating over the mine craters of the Messines offensive. And then came one of the biggest howlers I've ever seen in a BBC documentary - they identified the ornamental lake on the Palingbeek golf course as a "double mine crater". What they were looking at was the first of the chain of ornamental lakes made from damming the Palingbeek, which was part of the landscaping of the grounds for the White Chateau in the 1890s. Tee hee! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate Wills Posted 8 November , 2010 Share Posted 8 November , 2010 What a mish mash. "Prevaux did not fly over the Somme battlefields..." so why devote so much of the programme to the Somme? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw Posted 8 November , 2010 Share Posted 8 November , 2010 Oh dear, I haven't watched the recording yet and now I suspect that I will be disappointed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Baker Posted 8 November , 2010 Share Posted 8 November , 2010 Disappointed. The show did not live up to its billing. The film shot from the airship has been shown (and indeed, a lot more of it shown) quite recently and the rest was of a style and quality that you could see a hundred times a week on the History Channel. Sure it was not aimed at afficionados, but even so I think it was a missed opportunity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seadog Posted 8 November , 2010 Share Posted 8 November , 2010 Hi All.Was that area refered to in the programme, that was owned by the French family and preserved, High Wood?Ray Here is a Google image of the Tambour at Fricourt: Red arrow = Tambour Blue arrow = Fricourt New British Military Cemetery Two Blue arrows = Fricourt German War Cemetery More aerial photos here Norman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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