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Author Topic: TV Drama - The Sinking of the Laconia.  (Read 2886 times)

tony52

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TV Drama - The Sinking of the Laconia.
« on: January 06, 2011, 02:28:36 pm »

Tonight - 9pm (21:00) BBC 2 - Drama by Alan Bleasdale.
Part two tomorrow - same time.

Looks worth recording.
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DickyD

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Re: TV Drama - The Sinking of the Laconia.
« Reply #1 on: January 07, 2011, 08:41:11 am »

Excellent programme so far. :-))
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roycv

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Re: TV Drama - The Sinking of the Laconia.
« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2011, 10:15:25 am »

Hi, by chance I was watching a cable channel last week, when this and the subsequent actions were shown with film taken at the time, very sad decisions some people in authority take.  They can forget what they are fighting for.

I don't think I would have obeyed the orders if I was the pilot of the plane!  Well that's my opinion anyway.
regards Roy
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The long Build

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Re: TV Drama - The Sinking of the Laconia.
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2011, 01:25:23 pm »

Missed it , but see it is teh watch again channel, from reading some posts on the film seems like there is a lot of errors  see text below

Ref From   http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tv/2011/01/the-sinking-of-the-laconia.shtml

"This production was completely ruined for me by the ridiculous mistakes made in the uniforms. The Captain wore four rings on his epaulettes, and a merchant service cap, fair enough. His second in command wore Royal Navy two and a half rings and a merchant service cap, and poor old Andrew Buchan wore something that would disgrace a fancy dress. He had sergeants best dress chevrons on his epaulettes, Royal Navy Petty Officer No 2 uniform crossed anchors on his left arm, and Royal Navy Chief Petty Officers buttons on his cuffs!

The crew were even worse. The useless gunners wore the insignia of Royal Naval Leading Seaman Gunners, who would be more than competent to operate a 4” gun and twin .50 calibres, besides which they would be merchant Navy men, and of course they had their gunnery badges upside down as did the Royal Navy Stokers, who would also be Merchant seamen. The signal operators would be wearing blue No 2 uniform, No 8 uniform didn’t come in till well after the war.

When it is so easy to get these things right why did the costume department make such a pig’s ear of it?"


##
Also Surprised that the plane followed orders as it would have been quite obvious to me with over 1000 people in the water that a rescue was taking place , and I assume that the plane was not fired on .  (not seen the show yet so not sure)

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Yarpie

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Re: TV Drama - The Sinking of the Laconia.
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2011, 04:18:13 pm »

I would endorse that said above.

Besides the glaring errors in almost all of the uniforms, (referred to above) and the dreadful typecasting of the main protagonists, the most pathetic moment of this drivel was this:

LACONIA had been hit by at least one torpedo, U-Boat commander was surveying the scene through the attack periscope yet a member of his crew, who could see nothing outside the submarine, informs the skipper that "She's not sunk yet Sir". {-) Talk about stating the patently bleedin' obvious!

And I've never seen a WWII submarine with deckheads (ceilings) 8' high. That U-Boat was the most spacious vessl afloat! It also had a crew that was sloshing perpetually in Grolsh bottles.

And to make matters worse, most of the footage appeared to be shot by an epileptic cameraman with hiccups.

Sorry, but I won't be wasting a further 90 minutes of my life watching episode two.

If that was life at sea, I must have been asleep for my 25 years in the Royal Navy. %)
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allnightin

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Re: TV Drama - The Sinking of the Laconia.
« Reply #5 on: January 07, 2011, 04:33:53 pm »

It also had a crew that was sloshing perpetually in Grolsh bottles.

In Das Boot the standard practice for beer onboard was 2 bottles per man total to celebrate the first kill of the patrol.
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Netleyned

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Re: TV Drama - The Sinking of the Laconia.
« Reply #6 on: January 07, 2011, 06:15:53 pm »

The only ratings who would know if the ship had gone down would be the hydrophone or asdic operator who could hear the ship sinking
by the noises it makes going down

DEMS ratings were normally one or two gunners
What were the stokers doing (apart from sewing their badges  downside up


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Jimmy James

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Re: TV Drama - The Sinking of the Laconia.
« Reply #7 on: January 07, 2011, 07:33:12 pm »

Doing what stokers allways do --- Grabbing a crafty smoke
 Jimmy James ex GI
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wullie/mk2

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Re: TV Drama - The Sinking of the Laconia.
« Reply #8 on: January 08, 2011, 03:29:17 pm »

Perhaps this topic should be re-named....Critics Corner....judging by the amount of Rivet counters that have popped up,...me, i enjoyed it for what it was,and for the fact that it showed that the U-boot commander was Humane,...It will be interesting tonight to hear what some of the survivors have to say about the commanders actions,..as for rivet counters,..... :-X
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The long Build

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Re: TV Drama - The Sinking of the Laconia.
« Reply #9 on: January 08, 2011, 05:43:37 pm »

Perhaps this topic should be re-named....Critics Corner....judging by the amount of Rivet counters that have popped up,...me, i enjoyed it for what it was,and for the fact that it showed that the U-boot commander was Humane,...It will be interesting tonight to hear what some of the survivors have to say about the commanders actions,..as for rivet counters,..... :-X

i agree about rivet counters, however if making a film about an Historic and  doumented incident they could have made a bit more effort on the items used for the film , I believe they also used some uniforms which did not come out until after the War..

 
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Netleyned

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Re: TV Drama - The Sinking of the Laconia.
« Reply #10 on: January 08, 2011, 06:56:34 pm »

I am not one of they rivet counters .
All my ships were welded
The amount of money film and TV researchers
command they should get it right

Ned
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funtimefrankie

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Re: TV Drama - The Sinking of the Laconia.
« Reply #11 on: January 08, 2011, 07:09:21 pm »

One of the phones shown had a plastic cord rather than a braided one :police:...

Absoutely disgusting, I was nearly physically sick >>:-(
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Netleyned

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Re: TV Drama - The Sinking of the Laconia.
« Reply #12 on: January 08, 2011, 07:17:07 pm »

RN and Possibly RFA sound powered phones that can be used in times of action if power is lost.

Ned
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Martin (Admin)

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Re: TV Drama - The Sinking of the Laconia.
« Reply #13 on: January 13, 2011, 06:19:20 pm »


I watched this on BBC Iplayer... overall 8/10.

I thought the life size, "semi scale" floating U-boat was done very well.
( Who noticed the fore and aft decks were very cleverly foreshortened, costs I guess.)

I think there were at least one large scale diving model but what with modern CGI, who knows?!


"most of the footage appeared to be shot by an epileptic cameraman with hiccups." {-) VERY True!

Is it fact Werner Hartenstein, captain, U-156, dived with over 250 aboard?!?!?

Andrew Buchan (Mortimer) was excellent.
Ken Duken - Werner Hartenstein, captain, U-156, also excellent.

 
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