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Hillary
Aug 21, 2016 19:27:45 GMT 12
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 21, 2016 19:27:45 GMT 12
There's a six part drama based on the Ed Hillary story starting tonight on TV One at 8.00pm
I wonder if the Catalina will be in it.
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Hillary
Aug 21, 2016 19:30:46 GMT 12
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 21, 2016 19:30:46 GMT 12
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Hillary
Aug 21, 2016 21:44:53 GMT 12
Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Aug 21, 2016 21:44:53 GMT 12
I wonder if the Catalina will be in it. The promo which has been shown on television for the past week or so has had a Pilatus PC-6 Porter ski plane in it, which I guess means the series won't exactly be 100% accurate when it comes to aeroplanes. Mind you, I guess it would cost too much money to have an Auster ski plane in the parts where Ed was flying onto the Tasman Glacier in ski planes during the 1950s.
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Hillary
Aug 21, 2016 22:38:40 GMT 12
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 21, 2016 22:38:40 GMT 12
I don't watch TV any more as a rule, but I turned it on to watch this show. Not a bad drama at all, but his RNZAF career was completely glossed over
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Hillary
Aug 22, 2016 22:26:37 GMT 12
Post by Peter Lewis on Aug 22, 2016 22:26:37 GMT 12
I found a few hiccups in the first episode, that I have now watched.
For instance, in the first scene (which is set in 1930) his primary school teacher refers to "the First World War". For the time, this is incorrect - the Second World War had not yet happened. The 1914-18 conflict was described, at that time, as "the Great War".
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Hillary
Aug 22, 2016 22:46:50 GMT 12
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 22, 2016 22:46:50 GMT 12
Yes, I picked up on that error too.
I also found it interesting that he went climbing with that club before he joined the RNZAF, because I seem to recall that the excellent documentary series made about him about 12 years back or so said he discovered climbing when he was based in Marlborough in the RNZAF, while training at RNZAF The Delta. Is my memory wrong or did they change that for dramatic purposes?
They sure glossed over his RNZAF career in a few minutes, sadly, and that Field Service cap he was wearing looked like it had been in the Pacific sun for about ten years!
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Hillary
Aug 23, 2016 9:26:47 GMT 12
Post by davidd on Aug 23, 2016 9:26:47 GMT 12
The tropical version of the RNZAF field service cap introduced in 1944 was very pale blue in colour, and made of light cotton "shirting" material, in fact the same material from which the RNZAF Other Airman shirts were made from. Similar such tropical caps of even lighter materials were manufactured for airmen and officers up till the 1980s to best of my knowledge. It was NOT the normal blue grey cap made from heavy woollen serge as worn up till the early/mid 1960s. The RAAF had a somewhat similar lightweight F/S cap in WW2, but the RAF never introduced such a cap for use in North Africa, India, etc, although they did adopt a wide brimmed "bush hat" for wear by all ranks. However I believe this hat was intended as a replacement for the tropical helmet (solah topee, or "Pith helmet"). Somebody got in touch with Radio NZ yesterday about the first episode of the TV series and wondered why Hillary was shown as a sergeant, and even claimed to have been on the same navigator and air gunner courses as Ed, graduating in March 1945. Of course the reason he was shown as a sergeant was that was the normal rank for all graduates of those courses (unless they were one of the very few lucky ones who were commissioned). Sergeant was the minimum rank for RAF aircrew for practically all of WW2 (starting in June 1940), but in New Zealand this rule did not come into effect until about July 1942. Exactly why the Radio NZ caller did not seem to realize this himself was unexplained! David D
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Hillary
Aug 23, 2016 9:56:03 GMT 12
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 23, 2016 9:56:03 GMT 12
Well that explains the strange hat then. Thanks David, it's nice to know they got it right. I'd seen that pale blue on F/S hats in the 1960's coloured photos, but didn't know they stretched back to the war.
Which programme was that caller on? Afternoons?
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Post by davidd on Aug 23, 2016 12:38:37 GMT 12
Dave H, I think it was in the morning, pretty certain it was Guyon Espiner who passed on the story - do not know how he received it, probably an e-mail or some such. I think he read the story about what the sender seemed to think was an unnaturally swift series of promotions. Dave D
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Hillary
Aug 23, 2016 15:40:45 GMT 12
Post by planewriting on Aug 23, 2016 15:40:45 GMT 12
For those of us who watched it using teletext did anyone notice it referred to "God save the Queen" whereas it should have been "God save the King". Also, did I see a vapour trail at some stage?
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Hillary
Aug 23, 2016 16:08:53 GMT 12
Post by starr on Aug 23, 2016 16:08:53 GMT 12
I didn't watch the programme. I remember when most of the pupils from Papakura Normal School were part of the parade welcoming Hillary in Papakura on his return. I was in my last year at primary school.at the time How the years have passed by.
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Post by shorty on Aug 23, 2016 19:00:18 GMT 12
As he was only in the Air Force until the cessation of hostilities it's a bit rich to refer to it as a "career", that term encompasses someone making a commitment for a much longer time like 12-15 years plus. Given the length of his service and calculating it as a percentage of his 88 years of life the amount allocated in a 6 hour series is pretty proportional, especially considering that nothing special occurred to him during his service (apart from getting burnt while fishing) Finally,remember the series is produced for the general public, not just aviation nutters
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Post by camtech on Aug 23, 2016 19:19:50 GMT 12
Well that explains the strange hat then. Thanks David, it's nice to know they got it right. I'd seen that pale blue on F/S hats in the 1960's coloured photos, but didn't know they stretched back to the war. Which programme was that caller on? Afternoons? Dave, the pale blue F/S hats also originated with servicemen getting tailor-made uniforms while posted or attached to Fiji and Singapore. I got a set of KD made when I was on exercise in Singapore in the 70's - a hell of a lot more comfortable that the NZ issue.
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