BBC: "Battle of Britain" - Ewan and Colin McGregor

[cultcross]

Did anyone see this last night? Brits can watch it on iPlayer, bit of blurb about it here.
While googling for an article for this thread I discovered a number of editorials complaining about 'celebrity historians' and saying that the show was a travesty. This really came out of left field for me, because I was going to post about how good I thought it was. For me, it was exactly the right blend of history with boyhood excitement about the planes and the people involved, and a fitting tribute to the pilots without being over sentimental or forced. Ewan McGregor filled the role of the general public with his excited reverence while his brother gave a more expert opinion from his position as an RAF officer. An interesting different take on what could have been just one more in a very long list of Battle of Britain pieces.

What did others think? A good or a bad idea to involve the McGregors? Is there a better way it could have been handled?

 

[Starkers]

I haven't had a chance to watch it yet but I'm hoping to catch it later in the week. Can't really comment on the McGregors till I see it but I don't see the harm as such, sounds interesting and I never realised Ewan's brother was in the raf.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I thought it decent enough, although it would have been to see more about the modern RAF's role in protecting these shores. Most of the historical stuff had already been covered in Peter and Dan Snow's documentary on BBC4 about a week earlier, although I think that was a repeat from 2004. It was interesting to see how Colin McGregor coped with flying prop aircraft after his time in Tornados. I would have thought he originally trained in Bulldog T.1s if he entered the service in the 80's so it was probably only a matter of waking old reflexes.

 

[FPAlpha]

It was a nice deviation from the usual war documentaries. Not so much about the facts because those have been done to death but what it really meant to be a RAF fighter pilot in those days.

Having the brothers McGregor (one of whom is/was an actual combat pilot) provided also an unique insight and i thought having Colin McGregor retrace the steps of pilot training was a very nice idea.

The Battle of Britain is one of my "favorite" (if you can call anything related to war "favorite") battles in WW2 and i enjoy seeing documentaries and especially interviews by people who have actually been there.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I meant to look this up on iPlayer but haven't done so yet. might check it out tonight or tomorrow morning.