British Ordnance Collectors Network
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Churchill's Toyshop Documentary
- Thread starter roller63
- Start date
pointblank0
BOCN Supporter
Good work. Read the book. Hepefully the doc will be as good. I'll have to watch it later on the net though.
First episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hg6HmpKK2w
Thanks for the link. My steam TV set-up was incapable of receiving the programme on Friday night so I watched it via the link this morning.
I thought it was quite a nice dramatisation and OK, it will have a few errors which MD1 anoraks will have views about. The concentration on the small devices (Limpet, W Bomb, L Delay, PIAT and Sticky Bomb) is understandable but it is a shame that time constraints meant that some coverage could not be given to their larger weapons, particularly the JW Bomb.
There was mention by the narrator that MD1 was the original 'Q Branch' for SIS ('James Bond' etc). It would be an injustice to the real team of people providing this service if this statement was allowed to go unchecked. The organisation entitled to this popular accolade is that set up by Commander Langley in 1938 (Section 9 of Section D) which provided the scientific and technical support to SOE often using the title Inter-Service Research Bureaux (ISRB). Langley devised the Time Pencil which Macrae claimed was inferior to the L Delay but the Time Pencil was made and used in much larger numbers to the L Delay.
I thought it was quite a nice dramatisation and OK, it will have a few errors which MD1 anoraks will have views about. The concentration on the small devices (Limpet, W Bomb, L Delay, PIAT and Sticky Bomb) is understandable but it is a shame that time constraints meant that some coverage could not be given to their larger weapons, particularly the JW Bomb.
There was mention by the narrator that MD1 was the original 'Q Branch' for SIS ('James Bond' etc). It would be an injustice to the real team of people providing this service if this statement was allowed to go unchecked. The organisation entitled to this popular accolade is that set up by Commander Langley in 1938 (Section 9 of Section D) which provided the scientific and technical support to SOE often using the title Inter-Service Research Bureaux (ISRB). Langley devised the Time Pencil which Macrae claimed was inferior to the L Delay but the Time Pencil was made and used in much larger numbers to the L Delay.
It was good to see Major Jefferis given full credit for his inventiveness and lateral thinking, and clearly those acknowledged in the credits had something to do with this. The book "Winston Churchill's Toyshop" by Stuart Macrae seems to put a little too much emphasis on the part played by Macrae, at the expense of Jefferis.
An informative documentary, even if the use of Dieppe footage to illustrate the Dunkirk story might have been slightly awry.
An informative documentary, even if the use of Dieppe footage to illustrate the Dunkirk story might have been slightly awry.
Watched it this morning, did cringe a little when the guy was roughly handling the Mk2 ST Grenade, nice to see the box in the back ground, liked it,,,,, Dave