BBC2 at 9:30. Should be a good programme. Lot of men from Hull were on the convoys. Brutal. Definitely worth a watch.
Yes I managed to persuade Mrs.LT that watching Benefits Street was low class **** for the masses TV ( all in humour) and once Clarkson came on, she repeated the phrase back to me. Looks a cracking programme though. My late grandfather was in the RN during WWII he was on a mine sweepers twice that were sunk and he survived both. One of the those was protecting the MN convoys. After watching this for a few minutes I'm thinking jeez what a feckin charmed life I've had...
My old man, now long departed, was on the Atlantic convoys....Ended up living in New York, then came back home. I could never work that out!!
He does seem a strange choice for it, but someone I know who watched it last week said he actually did a good job of it despite their reservations when they started watching it. To cover myself, I haven't watched it yet so I may need to revise my views on that person's judgement when I do.
I'm plusing it cos the mrs is watching some rom com **** on beeb 1!! Clarkson did a good programme about the winners of the VC awhile back. I think his mrs' dad won one, if i remember correctly.
Clarky also did that programme on the commando raid in France. Thr one where they rammed a boat into the docks with delayed explosives. Must be his thing.
I just read the write up for it and that sounded **** enough, I don't even want to imagine that being played out over an hour long programme.
Clarkson a strange choice for it? The programme was his idea. Funny how people let their prejudices influence them. I was never keen on Micheal Portillo but I am glad this didn't stop me watching his Great Railway Journeys which was an excellent series (in which he was complimentary about Hull incidentally). So was his European one.
I watched it last week and Clarkson actually presents it well. Massive respect to all those sailors of all Nationalities. What they had to go through is unbelievable. Don't miss it!!
I think that's the point I was making. For people who only know Clarkson from Top Gear, Twitter, and his newspaper column it probably seems strange to give him the job of presenting a more serious programme of this nature, but he actually does a very good job of it so people who are put off by him should give it chance.
Wasn't having a pop at you, Ricardo. Was making a general point. Clarkson's persona on a lot of programmes isn't necessarily the real him but instead a successful way of making alot of money. I think some people are rather envious of him getting well paid for having a load of fun (though he is at the same time making a lot more money for the BBC than any of the right on types liked by the lefties who dislike him).
Clarkson has a fascination with the war, which explains him presenting these programmes. He's also a very good presenter. Top Gear is more of a comedy show, and I think he does a cracking job on that. As Castro said its all a persona.
Oh, the raid on St Nazaire? That was a brilliant documentary. It is amazing that that story is not more well known than it is.
Same with me Duffens...my father (radio operator in the Merch) did a couple of those convoys and managed to survive. He, like many others, talked little of his experiences. He was torpedoed off the coast of India in the late weeks of the war and managed to get through that too. He loved New York, especially the jazz...surprised I wasn't born there as opposed to Hull. Brave lads going through incredible traumatic experiences. Don't realize how lucky we are sometimes. Have a great book on the subject of those Atl;antic PQ convoys (think it's called "The Battle for the Atlantic", which I searched for tonight - & couldn't find) after watching Clarkson's documentary ( which I thought was very well done & sensitive), so if anyone's interested in the subject I'll track it down & post the author etc on here.
Excellent programme. Gave the men some rum n corned beef sandwiches. Never going to give in was they..
It was a good documentary IMHO. I learnt quite a bit. Must have been awful if your ship went down and the convoys just kept rolling on and on and all you could do was bob around in the water and watch... waiting to die.
