mandy hall Posted 11 July , 2014 Share Posted 11 July , 2014 Thanks, just starting. Mandy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fattyowls Posted 11 July , 2014 Share Posted 11 July , 2014 I had to watch 'The Machine Gun and Skye's Band of Brothers' before it dropped off the I-player but I have the pipers programme recorded, thanks for the reminder. However I'm not sure I'm going to watch it now that I know that it is a Sheldon (J) free zone. Pete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anneca Posted 11 July , 2014 Share Posted 11 July , 2014 Really enjoyed watching this. Well done BBC. Anne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KGB Posted 11 July , 2014 Share Posted 11 July , 2014 Listings for Northern Ireland had Scots and Irish pipers and a bit about Gallipoli. I watched the first half but it seemed 100% Scots. One quick shot of a Northern Irish piper at basic training. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevem49 Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 Great programme (even for a bag pipe hater like me) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 Oh dear. I seem to be the only curmudgeon who thought it could/should have been better. Well, me and Mrs B, obviously (she always agrees with me I always agree with her). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoppage Drill Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 Oh dear. I seem to be the only curmudgeon who thought it could/should have been better. Well, me and Mrs B, obviously (she always agrees with me I always agree with her). You are not alone. I agree with you; it was an excellent choice of subject, with huge potential, but the programme makers failed to do it - and the undoubtedly brave men it was memorialising - full justice. Lightweight and weak. It will probably do well across The Pond though, where (at least below the 49th) sentimentality seems to affect critical appreciation. It was Lyndon Johnson wasn't it, who pleaded with Harold Wilson to commit British troops to Vietnam, even if only as a symbolic political gesture . . . . "At least one Scotch bagpiper" was his phrase, if I remember correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 Thanks, Mr Drill. As I said, it was too bitty. Couldn't make up its mind what it wanted to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hartley Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 I found the "sounds of battle" bits somewhat peculiar - always assuming I didnt miss something. If memory serves, Michael Stedman had "commissioned" the work and then says "That's how it was ". Not "that's how it must have been". So, really, just the sound engineer putting together some noise. Is this just the cynic in me coming to the fore? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KGB Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 The sound engineer bit was daft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Baker Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 There was a young lady of Ypres Who was shot in the cheek by two snypres The tunes that she made Through the holes that they made Beat the Argyll and Sutherland pypres. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Cross Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 Dull programme, not a patch on the previous night's Machine Gun study. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BatterySergeantMajor Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 The last sentence of the German text means "they wear nothing on their a**e", which indeed means they don't wear underpants.The program was not bad, but not impressive either. I 'd expected more, as the subject indeed has a strong potential. Thought the comments of the historians (Stedman, Bartion and certainly the historian who made the silly monitor remark) did not contribute in a serious way to the programme, However, it confronted me with two aspects which are puzzling me for years now:- copies of "The guns of Loos" seem to be impossible to find- I never found any trace of pipers engaged in that specific role in "Passchendaele 1917"Any members with greater wisdom?Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ridgus Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 You are not alone. I agree with you; it was an excellent choice of subject, with huge potential, but the programme makers failed to do it - and the undoubtedly brave men it was memorialising - full justice. Lightweight and weak. It will probably do well across The Pond though, where (at least below the 49th) sentimentality seems to affect critical appreciation. It was Lyndon Johnson wasn't it, who pleaded with Harold Wilson to commit British troops to Vietnam, even if only as a symbolic political gesture . . . . "At least one Scotch bagpiper" was his phrase, if I remember correctly. SD Would need to check but if memory serves it was a 'bagpipe band' and was thought to allude to the Black Watch. I'm sure I read recently, although I can't remember for the life of me where, that it was argued that a brigade in Vietnam would have saved Wilson from devaluation and the fatal 'pound in your pocket' speech. However have no evidence to support that contention beyond my shaky memory of someone else's theory! David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 " At least one Scotch bagpiper" was his phrase, if I remember correctly " He might have got one if he'd said " Scottish "? Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 I'd Scotch that rumour. Glad to see I'm not alone in my opinion of the programme: an opportunity lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiegeGunner Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 There was a young lady of Ypres Who was shot in the cheek by two snypres The tunes that she made Through the holes that they made Beat the Argyll and Sutherland pypres. 'The tunes that she played', surely ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawley Jockey Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 I thought it was a reasonable programme, However having said that I was wondering where they had found the pipers grandson who they took out to Gallipoli, he didn't even know his grandfather had won the DCM !! where do they find them ? at least the young lady they had took over to the Somme was proud of her ancestors and had done some research. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Baker Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 'The tunes that she played', surely ... Good spot, Siege. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cullbaggie Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 damn missed it & catchup via BBCi is not listing it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGM Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 Try here CGM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
17107BM Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 Oh dear, what shame. I enjoyed it. So. lets get in to the debate about who the programe was aimed at... Cheers all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ulsterlad2 Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 I enjoyed it. Especially the last 9 or 10 minutes about Piper Newlands of the 15th Canadians. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrockway Posted 13 July , 2014 Share Posted 13 July , 2014 (edited) For those of us less blessed than others in European languages other than English and gibberish, is there any chance of translations for the foreign bits, please? Here's my stab at Simon's extract from the Westfalia book of Honour p.158 "Bei dem Tommy herrschte reger Betrieb. Kommandos wurden laut. Das Rufen und das Auf- und Abpatrouillieren der Posten konnten wir deutlich vernehmen, auch waren die einzelnen Wachtposten zu erkennen. Wir hörten deutlich das Zimmern, Hämmern und Sägen und die Tommys untereinander das bekannte "bloody *******" fluchen. Zwischendurch tönte uns die schwermütige Dudelsackmusik in die Ohren." "With the Tommies, there was much hustle and bustle. Commands were noisy. We could clearly hear the calls and the patrolling back and forth of the sentries. Individual sentries were even recognised. We clearly heard the carpentry, hammering and sawing and the Tommies swearing among themselves with the familiar "bloody f@cking". In between, melancholy bagpipe music sounded in our ears." I've erred on the side of a literal translation over rendering it in natural English! Mark Edit: I see the BB software has censored the English vulgarity in the original German, replacing it with stars, but you'll realise what it said from my bowdlerised translation - LOL! Edited 13 July , 2014 by MBrockway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevmc Posted 13 July , 2014 Share Posted 13 July , 2014 I found the "sounds of battle" bits somewhat peculiar - always assuming I didnt miss something. If memory serves, Michael Stedman had "commissioned" the work and then says "That's how it was ". Not "that's how it must have been". So, really, just the sound engineer putting together some noise. Throwing all the sounds together would not give a realistic impression of how it was. Surely the clatter of a machine-gun would not be close to advancing troops. Your own side would not fire through your ranks and the enemy machine guns would be some 1000yards ahead. Artillery would be well behind you in most instances. Over-emotional response to the battle sounds by the "listener" in the studio did not help my viewing Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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