http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016w3nc
Cheers,
shredward

Thanks for sharing Shredward !

"April 1917 was one of the deadliest months for British pilots operating on the Western Front in World War One. "

Illustration: a scrap between Sop.Camels and Fokker D VII...

Nice interview. It's a shame they used a known fake picture for this.

Very true.

I hope the BBC's 4 years of WW1 coverage is not going to be peppered with such avoidable errors.

The inevitable dumbing-down we'll have to live with no doubt but I hope they acknowledge feedback and improve as the programming goes on.

I read the great book "Sagittarius Rising" by Cecil Lewis - but it's great
to actually hear the man telling the story! Thank you for sharing, Shredder!

Those are very famous fakes - surprising oversight on their part.

Has anyone else always been a little surprised anyone fell for those pics as authentic?

Yes, I've got copies of all of those pics... they probably think most people are gullible, or their researcher needs sacking, lol!

That clip is about the memories of Cecil Lewis, not about the lazy research.

He must have been an extraordinary man

Sagittarius Rising was one of the first WWI aviation books that I read, and listened to the radio clip, it's good stuff!
But we were talking about the pics that were used on the site.

I've emailed the Beeb with your concerns.
Cheers,
shredward

Cecil Lewis served his country with distinction in what was quite possibly the most devastating war in its history, then went on to live a long life full of accomplishment, happiness and a little adventure here and there. He also immortalized himself in history by publishing one of the greatest accounts of the air war. I hope he's resting in peace because we should all be so lucky to have a life like the one he had.

As an aside, as an admirer of Lewis and his book, it was a pleasure to hear his voice for the first time. Thanks for posting!

That's great... I'll be able to sleep tonight

Then you obviously didn't have a look at the WOFF credits. There you have the vid and afterwards some very interesting original WW1 interviews, one of them with Cecil Lewis. Definitely worth a check. Was already in in P3

Many thanks, Shredward,

really brings the book to life.
I'm a sentimental old fool, but I can hear the emotion
in the old boy's voice, very moving.

Btw people, Lewis also features in the iviews under
"credits", check them out if you haven't already.

I wonder if there are any recordings of French/German/American/Canadian
pilots?

Kind regards.
RS

There was at least one lengthy recorded interview with Rickenbacker IIRC.

If you've ever played Rise of Flight's training missions, it seems like the oddly start & stop voicing for 'ole Eddie is actually his recorded words chopped up individually and put back together for the voiceover in the movies between those missions.

I may be wrong but it definitely sounds like his voice and what they did. That's why the flow of sentences sound rather odd - the patchwork words and phrases put back together in Frankenstein sentences.


There were also a couple short old interviews with British pilots in some documentaries I saw recently. I'm sure there are more and lengthier ones out there than those, however.

Just quickly checking around, I did find a long interview with Rickenbacker much later in the '50s. It's about an hour long:

http://www.myoldradio.com/old-radio-episodes/biography-in-sound-eddie-rickenbacker-ep-93/2

I think there were some similarly long ones from when he was younger, too. Most of the interviews on this one are other pilots, though.

Personally, I've always rated 'No Parachute' above 'Sagittarius Rising'. I wish there were a like interview with Arthur Gould Lee.

Nevertheless, Cecil Lewis certainly was a remarkable man, he lived a life that many might envy, including me, for it's fullness.

Thanks Nefaro,

I'll check that out.

Of course I had completely forgotten abt ROF.

Sorry Creaghorn, didn't see your earlier post.
Comedy of errors today.

RS