BBC 2 now Castles in the sky

[rollondeath]

Gets a good write up.

[mickk]

Eddie looks different.

[strummerville]

I enjoyed it - a bit of obvious artistic license (fully built radar station, untested until the eve of the Battle of Britain) but good to see a well acted drama.

More usage of the 1969 B of B film, too!

[Halmyre]

Overall I liked it, but I think it suffered a bit by trying to spice things up for dramatic purposes, e.g. RWW's marital problems, although he and his wife did eventually divorce. I now need to read a bit more on the subject (radar, not divorce).

[option click]

Enjoyed that, but I really struggle seeing Eddie Izzard in a serious role.
I think he's a pretty good actor but I'm always expecting him to say something daft, particularly as his Scottish accent kept on reminding me of his Noah/Sean Connery routine.

[Vipers]

Bawdsleys worth a visit. You can see the magnet I donated. (Honest).

What they didn't mention, but is explained at Bawdsley exhibition, was that as the frequency of the radar was quite low, and therefore the aerial arrays big, the Germans didn't think it was worth bombing.

The only thing which stuck out in the programme was the reference to the frequency in Hertz. I know they are referred to Hertz now, but when I joined communications in the navy in 62, they were always referred to cycles, only changing some years later to Hertz in recognition of the guy Heinrich Hertz.

So was they called Hertz when radar was invented?

Throughly enjoyed the programme.

From Wiki :-

Hertzian waves

Between 1886 and 1888 Heinrich Rudolf Hertz publishes the results of his experiments where he was able to transmit electromagnetic waves (radio waves) through the air proving Maxwell's electromagnetic theory. Early on after their discovery radio waves were referred to as "Hertzian waves".






P.S. If Heinrich hadn't carried out these experiments, he probably have gone into the car rental business

Edited by Vipers on Friday 5th September 10:01

[Halmyre]

option click said:

Enjoyed that, but I really struggle seeing Eddie Izzard in a serious role.
I think he's a pretty good actor but I'm always expecting him to say something daft, particularly as his Scottish accent kept on reminding me of his Noah/Sean Connery routine.

Heh, I thought that too ("An ark? No, I'm building a shpeedboat"). I wonder if David Hayman gave him any grief!

[Beati Dogu]

Vipers said:

The only thing which stuck out in the programme was the reference to the frequency in Hertz. I know they are referred to Hertz now, but when I joined communications in the navy in 62, they were always referred to cycles, only changing some years later to Hertz in recognition of the guy Heinrich Hertz.

So was they called Hertz when radar was invented?]

I think they were both used, but in 1930, the International Electrical Commission (which was based in London) agreed that 'Hertz' would be the official unit of frequency.

http://www.iec.ch/about/history/overview/

[Vipers]

Beati Dogu said:

I think they were both used, but in 1930, the International Electrical Commission (which was based in London) agreed that 'Hertz' would be the official unit of frequency.

http://www.iec.ch/about/history/overview/

Thanks for the link, very interesting.

[The Don of Croy]

An enjoyable 90 minutes, and worthy of an award if only for the apparel used in the cricket match.

Only gripes - the term 'cover all the bases' might be a bit modern, and the hotel he and his missus stayed at looked proper 21st C nice, lastly the 'abandoned' facilities at Orford shirley would have been more modern in 1939?

[Nimby]

The Don of Croy said:

An enjoyable 90 minutes, and worthy of an award if only for the apparel used in the cricket match.

Only gripes - the term 'cover all the bases' might be a bit modern, and the hotel he and his missus stayed at looked proper 21st C nice, lastly the 'abandoned' facilities at Orford shirley would have been more modern in 1939?

Also "mole" for the informant . Wikipedia confirms my recollection that it was only in common use since Tinker Tailor in 1974.
The other thing that bugged me was Mrs Watson Watt; she looked so familiar. Then it clicked - Lydia from Breaking Bad (Laura Fraser).

[rollondeath]

I was expecting Izzard to annoy me but I quite enjoyed it.

[Mr_B]

Lord Percy as Churchill.

[JonnyxM]

Really did enjoy this. Got me very interested in the people behind the inventions in this period. Wondered how much of this was dramatised?

[CooperD]

I enjoyed this. Found it really interesting from a personal perspective as my father was a RADAR technician during war and then stayed on to complete 31 years service. His final tour of duty before he retired was at RAF Bawdsey where the manor house was the officer's mess. He also worked at Orford Ness which was also featured in the programme. Not usually a fan of Eddie Izzard but he was very good in this.

[RichB]

Eddie Izzard certainly gained my respect after running 43 marathons in 51 days.

Especially given the admiration given to Sir Ranulph Fiennes when he ran 7 marathons in 7 days.

[Morningside]

CooperD said:

I enjoyed this. Found it really interesting from a personal perspective as my father was a RADAR technician during war and then stayed on to complete 31 years service. His final tour of duty before he retired was at RAF Bawdsey where the manor house was the officer's mess. He also worked at Orford Ness which was also featured in the programme. Not usually a fan of Eddie Izzard but he was very good in this.

My father was also a RADAR technician and was posted to Orford Ness and stayed at Shingle Street before being posted abroad. I remember him telling me that they used to travel in plain clothes in an old bread van. Although he really did not talk about it much. He did create an audio tape of his life but it got damaged


I thought I would hate it with Izzard but I found him to portray a warm and likable character.

[hidetheelephants]

Morningside said:

My father was also a RADAR technician and was posted to Orford Ness and stayed at Shingle Street before being posted abroad. I remember him telling me that they used to travel in plain clothes in an old bread van. Although he really did not talk about it much. He did create an audio tape of his life but it got damaged


I thought I would hate it with Izzard but I found him to portray a warm and likable character.

The BBC were running an oral history project a while back and were asking for things like this; even if it's no longer active they will probably be able to direct you to the IWM or similar who would have the equipment to recover the tape even if damaged, as records of things like this are priceless.