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Director : Peter Cregeen Script : Barry Thomas Synopsis : When the great war began, flying was the dangerous hobby of wealthy sportsmen, and the general staff thought that flying machines were entirely useless as weapons of war. Many young men disagreed - those who saw their opportunity of learning to fly. In February 1915, commissioned officers and the sons of "the gentry" are finding it hard enough to be accepted for training as pilots in the Royal Flying Corps. So what possible chance has young Alan Farmer, the son of an Essex blacksmith? Notes : This season was transmitted from 7:25pm to 8:15pm on BBC 1.
Director : Jim Goddard Script : Barry Thomas Synopsis : "If your engine fails on take-off, never turn back". Alan Farmer is all too aware of the error that caused his father to burn to death.
Director : Gareth Davies Script : Barry Thomas Synopsis : Alan joins the squadron in France, meeting an old friend and a new enemy - a Hun with a machine gun.
Director : Donald McWhinnie Script : Arden Winch Synopsis : A general pays a visit to Saint Marie with a special task for "C" Flight …
Director : Jim Goddard Script : Arden Winch Synopsis : . Beckett's Hill joins the war effort, while in Saint Marie "C" Flight springs into action under Captain Triggers.
Director : Peter Cregeen Script : Julian Bond
Director : Jim Goddard Script : Julian Bond Synopsis : A proposed trip to Blighty. Charles is delightful. But Alan is not looking forward to his promised meeting with Lorna.
Director : Desmond Davies Script : Barry Thomas Synopsis : The German plane armed with a machine gun has become more than troublesome. Alan and Charles decide to hunt "the hunters".
Director : Peter Cregeen Script : Julian Bond Synopsis : A problem for Captain Triggers: how to shoot down a German kite balloon. And a problem for Alan: Kate is in Paris.
Director : Jim Goddard Script : Arden Winch Synopsis : Captain Triggers is puzzled by his pilot reports. Why is a French plane shooting down British machines?
Director : Desmond Davies Script : Arden Winch Synopsis :When Alex Farmer is accused of cowardice and faces a court marshal, Charles Gaylion decides to defend him.
Director : Peter Cregeen Script : Barry Thomas Synopsis : Alan comes home on leave not to quite the reception he might have expected.
Director : Peter Jefferies Script : Barry Thomas Cast : Stephen Riddle (Second Lieutenant Julian Cornblow), Simon Cadell (Major Colin McAdam), Roger Elliott (Sergeant Mills), Daniel Hill (Lieutenant Koch), Richard Wren (Lieutenant Stein), Paul Chapman (Major Lancing), Richard Mayes (The General) and John Dryden (Corporal Harris). Publicity : Winging Their Way - A slight flicker of emotion crosses the stiff upper lip, a white silk scarf flutters in the turbulence from the propeller and it's chocks away for the second series about the fighter pilots of the First World War. Here Bob Smyth meets the three actors who play our heroes: Nicholas Jones, tall and fair-haired, lounges in a chair trying to pretend the bleak Television Centre conference room is comfortable. "Why did they choose me? Because they wanted a short-dark-haired man". Captain Triggers, the part he plays, is seen by producer Peter Cregeen as having "a degree of unpredictability and latent aggression, but also vulnerability". Michael Cochrane as the upper-class Gaylion was a more straightforward selection. "They'd considered me for Colditz but hadn't used me. Anyway my name had been banging down on Peter's desk for quite a time, and this part was not far removed from the sort of work I've done a lot of". The choice of Tim Woodward as the sergeant pilot Alan Farmer shows how haphazard, if eventually successful, the casting process can be. "It was only a couple of weeks after we had rejected him for the part of Gaylion," says Peter, "that we realised we'd been seeing him for the wrong part". Tim enters in leather jacket and disorder, his motorbike having sprung a puncture. He lights a pipe and puffs Hulot fashion, head cocked to one side, sentences petering out, ending with a delightful grin. "In this new series Alan Farmer is more mature, less … what's the word?" "Ingenu?" suggests Michael, leaning forward and half-pleased, half-embarrassed to articulate the acting opportunities the new stories offer. "In the early days the fliers were schoolboys. Now they've been in the war for a year their characters have changed. This means more levels to explore as an actor, more to get your teeth into". All three actors went to public school and Tim admits he hated school and left early: "I've come to resent all the things it represented in the way Alan Farmer resents them - and perhaps more so than him". Nicholas went to Westminster and sees his time there as "something suppressed, but an experience I suppose I can call on when it's necessary in my work". Michael, from Cranleigh, agrees the ideals his school attempted to instill were similar to those that actuated Gaylion. "Chivalry? Perhaps, but I think it was more that you were trained to behave much more for other people than for yourself. You did things because it was expected of you rather than because you believed in it. You spent years being told that the team spirit was very important, but they never told you exactly what this meant". Perhaps partly because of their common school background the threesome are well coordinated off the set as well as on. Michael admits the series has made "an enormous difference" to his career and quotes interesting parts he would probably not otherwise have been offered. Tim says that things are "fairly quiet", but points out that filming the series is six months' full-time work, leaving no time for other engagements. "It hasn't made much difference. I was doing a lot of up-market television before," says Nicholas. "Like Thunderbirds and Crossroads," suggests Michael. Nicholas smiles thinly, looking remarkably like Captain Triggers, but laughs when Tim is asked if Alan Farmer is any more cheerful this series. "Not cheerful, but more confident in himself," says Tim. "More … you know what I mean". (Radio Times, December 30, 1977 - Article by Bob Smyth). Synopsis : Sergeant Alan Farmer's home leave ends just as his squadron in France are preparing for a very special visitor - the General Officer commanding the Flying Corps. Wings brings back to the screen those intrepid fliers of the First World War in a new series of adventures. Barry Thomas, author of tonight's first episode, outlines past and present in the lives of the leading characters: Alan Farmer - A Sussex blacksmith before he learned to fly, Sergeant Alan Farmer joined "C" Flight at Sainte Marie in May 1915. Having been court-martialled and found not guilty of cowardice, Alan is on leave in Beckett's Hill. His girlfriend, Lorna Collins, hopes that now Alan is home he will buy that long-promised engagement ring. Charles Gaylion: Lieutenant Charles Gaylion transferred from the cavalry to the Royal Flying Corps in the belief that "two wings in the air are rather more nippy than four hooves in the mud". But since the appearance of the new German monoplane with its deadly forward-firing gun, life has become much grimmer for RFC fliers and Charles is wondering if he might not have been better off in the cavalry. Captain Triggers: Captain Owen Triggers flew with one of the first RFC Squadrons in France in 1914. For a short time he went back to Blighty as an instructor and taught both Alan farmer and Charles Gaylion to fly. He returned to France as Flight-Commander of "C" Flight at Sainte Marie. A sweet-tempered man when he is not insanely angry about the superiority of the new German monoplane, or in a rage against the deaths of his comrades, or wanting to blast the blinkers off the General Staff. Notes : This season was transmitted from 8:10pm to 9:00pm on BBC 1.
Director : John Sichel Script : Gidley Wheeler Synopsis : Special Flight are ordered to bomb a Zeppelin base. Alan Farmer has other ideas.
Director : Peter Jefferies Script : Julian Bond
Director : John Sichel Script : Julian Bond Synopsis : The punishment for cowardice is death. Captain Triggers is forced to act when one of his pilots loses his nerve.
Director : Peter Jefferies Script : Barry Thomas Synopsis : Posted back to England, Charles Gaylion meets new hazards.
Director : John Sichel Script : Barry Thomas Synopsis : Special Flight has become a threat to the superior enemy monoplane and the German pilots plan a dawn attack on Saint Marie.
Director : Peter Jefferies Script : Barry Thomas Synopsis : What are Charles and Lorna to tell Alan when he arrives home on leave expecting to be married?.
Director : John Sichel Script : Arden Winch Cast : Edward Harwicke (Colonel Ross). Synopsis : Sergeant Farmer is recommended for a commission, but killing an unarmed man is hardly the conduct expected of an officer and a gentleman.
Director : Peter Cregeen Script : Arden Winch Synopsis : An American stuntman has invented a parachute to be used by AFC pilots. But does it really work?
Director : John Sichel Script : Arden Winch Synopsis : Captain Triggers is given the chance to design a new fighter that can save his pilots lives. But he must relinquish his command of Special Flight.
Director : Peter Cregeen Script : Julian Bond Synopsis : The pilots of Special Flight find themselves in an extraordinary dilemma when their airfield is raided by British infantry.
Director : Peter Jefferies Script : Gidley Wheeler Synopsis : Hostility leads to tragedy when Captain Triggers and his flight come under the command of a much decorated French "ace" pilot.
Director : Peter Jefferies Script : Barry Thomas Synopsis : Lorna receives a proposal of marriage and "C" Flight loses its commanding officer.
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The series was created by Barry Thomas. The series was produced by Peter Cregeen. Text © Matthew Lee, 2005. |
