Above and Beyond mini-series

[Dave Homewood]

I happened upon a programme on TV which i'm watching right now called "Above and Beyond". It's a Canadian mini-series set in WWII about the true story of the etting up of the Atlantic Ferry Command, the civil pilots whoflew bombers from the USA and Canada to Britain for the war effort.

As well as several Harvards, a Tiger Moth and a Beeh 18 so far, they also just had a Lockheed Hudson flying over Newfoundland. That was cgi but on arriving at Gander airport it was 100% the real deal, a live, taxiing Hudson.

Now I know Gander used to have a Hudson on poles, but have they got it restored to taxiing status? Or was this part filmed in Australia and was Temora involved? The mini-series is from 2006. The Hudson had codes beginning with T94 but I couldn't see the rest of the serial.

[Bruce]

I've seen "above and Beyond" on DVD, and its pretty good. There were just a couple of odd things that spoiled the aircraft scenes.
For some unknown reason the hudson and the cockpit mockups they used have the cockpit side windows blanked off (probably its easier to blue screen the background with having to put an engine in there!) All the Hudsons ferried had the same serial number (They only had one, but maybe they should have covered the serial!) and in all the apron shots there is a Beech 18 being towed around at random - its as if they had nowhere to park it so it was just towed around continuously! Other than those little quibbles, its a good series.

[Dave Homewood]

Yes I noticed the Beech 18 going round and round. Also there was a bubble canopy Chipmunk in the hangar at one point too. ;D

But wow, a film all about Hudsons... and some pilots etc... how awesome. After I posted the above there were a lot more shots of the Hudsons, and the CGI was nicely done for what was a made for TV mini-series. They could have easily just cribbed footage from the similar film "Captains of the Clouds".

I'd never heard of this Above and Beyond mini-series before. It's not too bad. I'm still curious about the Hudson they used. Is it the Gander airport example?

[corsair67]

Dave, from IMDB:

"The registration number on every Hudson aircraft seen is the same. The reason for this is that there was only one Hudson available to the film makers - it is actually an exhibit in the collection of the North American Aviation Museum in Gander."

www.imdb.com/title/tt0478834/

[Dave Homewood]

Ah, thanks. Wow, it looks in remarkably better condition than in photos I've seen of it on poles. Maybe the film company paid to do it up a bit. Great stuff. Thanks Craig.