Len Deighton's Bomber - BBC R4 1995 - Retransmission

[basys]

Len Deighton's Bomber - BBC R4 1995 - Retransmission

Hi Folks

Radio 4 Extra are retransmitting the 1995 BBC R4 real-time adaption
of Len Deighton's Bomber - as 4 episodes spread across this afternoon/evening.

A bit late for episode 1,
but it'll be on iPlayer shortly.

Episode 2 - Today, 17:40 on BBC Radio 4 Extra
Take-off - 6 bomb-laden RAF Lancasters take off targeting Germany's industrial heartland.

HTH
ATB
Paul

[DaveB]

Cheers Paul

ATB
DaveB

[Tomliner]

I've recently re-read this book.Marvellous. EricT

[Paul K]

Heard it first time round; interesting that it was broadcast throughout the day to match the time intervals of the raid's events. As is often the case with radio and TV adaptations, it lacked the depth of the book. Worth a listen though, if you haven't heard it before.

[speedbird591]

Co-incidentally, I've just re-read the book as well. It's even better than I remembered it. I also remember listening to the original radio play but, as Paul says, it lacks the depth of the book and your mind wanders. Well mine does ...

You can buy the book second hand (vgc) at Amazon for 1p if you want to lash out a bit Bomber by Len Deighton

By the way - if anybody's following the ongoing saga about my Lancaster website (cousin kia on 1943 Essen raid), I've now traced the nephew of another crew member of K Kitty who's thrilled to see the pictures and read the story of his uncle's time in the RAF.

Ian

[Hot_Charlie]

Co-incidentally, I've just re-read the book as well. It's even better than I remembered it. I also remember listening to the original radio play but, as Paul says, it lacks the depth of the book and your mind wanders. Well mine does ...

You say it lacks depth, well, maybe that's more a reflection of the superlative nature of the book itself - often (wrongly IMHO) accused of being too detailed an even slightly morbid. If they'd gone into any more depth in the radio play, I doubt it would ever have been made, or listened to in full. I think it still gets the particular point over that those on both side suffered terrible fates, albeit thankfully often very quick (but generally horrendous - such as the description of the deaths of a mid upper and rear gunner - possibly where some of the criticism comes from).

The radio play, with Tom Baker's dignified narration, and simple soundtrack (Elgar's Sospiri as I eventually discovered), and an excellent cast (Sam West, Jack "Wycliffe" Shepherd, and Emma "Alice from the Vicar of Dibley" Chambers) is as good as you'll get for TV or radio, considering most books are condensed into under 2 hours. Nice little interjections taken from recordings of veterans too.

[speedbird591]

I totally agree with you, HC. However, I didn't say that the radio play lacked depth per se. I said that it lacks the depth of the book, which would be unavoidable anyway.

It's interesting that you speak of the morbid detail of the story and the description of the deaths of two of the crew members. I've been researching the death of my father's cousin in a Lancaster in 1943 (for a website which I've mentioned on here at least one time too many!) and recently discovered some German eye witnesses of the crash. I knew that the aircraft had been shot down by a night fighter but details which emerged about the crash site led me to ponder the events inside the aircraft between being attacked and hitting the ground.

I put the question to forum members on the Lancaster Archive website, where there are one or two surviving crew members who are still active. One member made a statement that just about sums up what you said. "There were so many ways to die in a bomber ... and all of them were horrible."

Writing the website over several months has made me quite familiar with the crew and re-reading the book and transposing those familiar characters with those in the book made it a very emotional experience for me.

I've just received very flattering praise from a retired curator of the Canadian War Museum saying that it's one of the best individual war websites that he's ever seen. (His uncle was the mid-upper gunner on the crew). http://www.teddy.speedbird747.com

Ian

[Hot_Charlie]

It's interesting that you speak of the morbid detail of the story and the description of the deaths of two of the crew members. I've been researching the death of my father's cousin in a Lancaster in 1943 (for a website which I've mentioned on here at least one time too many!) and recently discovered some German eye witnesses of the crash. I knew that the aircraft had been shot down by a night fighter but details which emerged about the crash site led me to ponder the events inside the aircraft between being attacked and hitting the ground.

I put the question to forum members on the Lancaster Archive website, where there are one or two surviving crew members who are still active. One member made a statement that just about sums up what you said. "There were so many ways to die in a bomber ... and all of them were horrible."

Indeed. The only consolation one can draw though from Len Deighton's research, and subsequent descriptions, is that thankfully some of them would have been mercifully quick. Others, sadly not so, and a nightmare knowing what was to come, save a miracle occurring.

I said that it lacks the depth of the book, which would be unavoidable anyway.

Sorry, my mis-quotation!

[Paul K]

I think where books succeed, and particularly one as well written as 'Bomber' is in the fact that while you read them, you build up your own mental picture of whats going on, what the people look like, how their voices sound, their characteristics and so on. So although the book tells the story, its the brain that creates the picture, and of course that picture is perfect for each individual reader because its based on their own perceptions of what it was like to be in a Lancaster over Germany at night, the sensations, smell and sounds and so on. A book also tells of people's thoughts and emotions, which can't usually be done as well or in detail elsewhere. Its no fault of the script writers, or actors - its just that the radio play or movie can never be as detailed as the movie/play your own imagination created when you read the book. Its why I didn't bother watching the recent BBC adaptation of Geoffrey Wellum's First Light on Iplayer - I knew it wouldn't be the First Light I had read and enjoyed.

Thinking about it, I can't recall any film, TV or radio adaptation of any book I'd already read that ever gave me the same enjoyment. Curiously, the opposite is true - I enjoy the book and film equally if I see the film first. After watching The Cruel Sea many times over the years, I recently read the book and now love both film and novel. In fact, I think the relationship between Lockhart and Julie Hallam was over done and a distraction in the book. The film dealt with it far more discreetly, and got on with the main story.

By the way, I never knew that Kingsley Amis reckoned 'Bomber' to be one of the 10 best books of the 20th Century. Quite an accolade, and a well deserved one too.