Program Alert

[PartTimePongo]

  Fighting the War    
Into Battle

Channel: BBC2  
Date: Sunday 15 June  Time: 9:00pm to 10:00pm


Review
A seven-part documentary series charting British involvement in the Gulf conflict earlier this year, told through the eyes of politicians and the military personnel who fought it. With the help of exclusive access to Permanent Joint Headquarters in north-west London, the first programme reveals what went on behind the scenes as MPs and defence staff realised that invading Iraq would prove far more difficult than they had anticipated.

Previews look good...

 

[Captain_Crusty]

Excellent...

During the war, we all thought Col Vernon was doing a great job. Now it is clear that we were only shown the polite bits. Thank goodness that the press were told exactly where to go when necessary!

 

[Blackcat]

Favourite quote :

Journalist - " We have to build our own tents?, I Thought Someone Would do it for us."

Tosser :

 

[Chuzu]

Favourite quote :

Journalist - " We have to build our own tents?, I Thought Someone Would do it for us."

Tosser :

oh no QLR cant go to war today there putting up tents for the fcukingLyingcnuts jounalists

 

[PartTimePongo]

"Well it looks , as we feared, like the Iraqis are putting up a fight ..... Good for them" lol

Anyone see the slimy Whitehall press limpet being equally despised by CV and the Journo team?

 

[wHoSaIdThAt?]

They had unlimited acess to everywhere, including about 60 hours of filming in the PJHQ bunker ops rooms!

No.10 directive: they can go anywhere, film anything!

Not quite as bad as the  US jessica lynch story but we will have to wait til the next war for season two!

 

[Gunny Highway]

I was quite impressed by what I saw last night.  I got the impression that the majority of these so-called journalists were neurotic, chain smoking idiots.  Loved the bit about putting up the tents !  Plus the bit were they demanded a helicopter NOW !   Well done some of the officers with the way they dealt with some of the questioning.  Looking forward to next week, when they will have spent time out on field conditions.  Like to see how they coped !

And the Black Watch Captain.  Feek, he looks like the bloke who fist fights in my local !!  Don't fcuk with the Black Watch.  

 

[El_Pato]

Did everyone else on this board see a different program.

We in the army have grown used to the incompetence and Clusterfcuks that mean our soldiers go into battle with the wrong boots, have no faith in the chain of command to give them Nerve Agent Pretreatments that don't mean their kids will come out with two heads and fcuks the journos around unnessecarily. But the civvies watching, whose impression of the army will be informed by this sort of thing will be horrified.

The guys on the ground came out of that first episode smelling of roses, the female signaller who gave an articulate summary of why she was there and why that was better than the alternatives her home town offered. The guys giving the briefings. The SDG Squadron OC.

But I really don't think CV came across as anything other and a bit of a pompous Supercilious Tw@t, was it really nessecary for him to munch through cheese crackers whilst effectively telling the regional anchors of most of the UK news networks that they were going to have absolutely nothing to give to their newsrooms for the first few days of the war.

And the absolute worst thing, was to hear all that sh.t about the importance of securing Umm Qasr "so that the when the journo's arrive there isn't a firefight going on in the background." I mean Christ Almighty if you are going to misinform the press deliberately try not to do it in front of a camera! And if you are going to risk soldiers lives do it for a better reason than that.

The reason we in this army try to be up front with the press is that we have learnt from bitter experience that if you try to fcuk them about/tell them lies, it will rear up and bite you right on the Arrse.

We need to do so much better than this.

 

[Prodigal]

I'm with El_Pato on this one. I have to admit whilst I enjoyed CV munching on his jammy dodgers whilst briefing the journos, if I'd been a journo I'd have been livid.

The quid pro quo was we give them access and they give out accurate information.....if we didn't keep to our side of the bargain, why should we expect them to?

It was bad bad handling of what are (whether you like it or not) important opinion formers. Mind you, making them put up their own tents was a sound move......and very funny to watch!

There must be a more mature way of conducting relationships with the press......

 

[flash_to_bang]

I think the two heroes were definately the Marines Sgt with the clear no nonsense approach and the Sigs SQMS who managed to blag kit for his lads.  One question though, what is the famale to male ratio in 204 Sig Sqn, cos there was an awful lot more girly footage than bloke footage.  My petty rant aside, it was a good prog and I expect that clips will turn up on JOLP, EFP and CLM courses as well as at staff college on a regular basis.

 

[woopert]

Does anyone know if it is being repeated, was out last night and missed it  

 

[El_Pato]

Unfortunately don't think so. BBC progs are sometimes repeated on Digital channels but there is no mention of this on the Website. DVD Boxset on Xmas list perhaps?

 

[Padwife]

Woopert - I taped it if you want a copy.

 

[Unknown_Quantity]

Padwife, me too please - my video recorded one minute of it then conked out  

 

[Oracle]

Flash,

I too noticed the plethora of girlies with 204 so asked around in work today - apparently there are loads of girlies in that Unit.

 

[vespa]

in that case i want to join up with 204  
*thinking unholy thoughts*

 

[Eggbanjo]

Good prog, well balance and very interesting to see events pan out in 'real time'

Also spotted two of my old CO's in various clips (one was excellent the other a knob)

As for that t*at CV   was it just me or did he come across as everything you dont like about officers

 

[Archimedes]

In return for 'access all areas' did MoD get the chance to say 'er... no. You're not showing that' or to have some input in the editing?

I suspect that even if they did, the involvement would have been minimal. I have a nasty feeling that much of the footage making CV look a bit of a tw*t will have survived, while much of that which makes him look good will have mysteriously found its way to the cutting room floor. As it appears that CV didn't stand for any media foot-stamping/rattle-throwing when he said 'no' to the 'we want, we want, we want...' bleating, it may well be that revenge will come via the editing suite.

 

[Prodigal]

I cannot believe that the MOD would allow any programme out that hadn't passed their censors first.

It is my opinion that CV is the type of personality that you either love or loathe............I don't think anyone reacts to him with indifference. From what I remember of him at RMAS he was very charming on occasions and viciously sarcastic on others. But I didn't really have a lot to do with him (being a mere 2Lt!).

But I think it is unwise to p*ss about a lot of journalists who represent some very powerful media. After all I, for one, would never believe the party line and would rather have taken my chances on my own.............definitely more preferable than being stuck in a remote location being drip fed uncorroborated information by a supercilious and bored bloke in combats......

 

[mushroom]

I met part of the team several times and apparently they were allowed a great deal of freedom. They filmed some (at the time) very secret stuff and handed the tape in, without being asked, until it lost its significance.
Can't say whether or not tne MOD types had a go at it afterwards.

Not that many girls in 204, but the RQ was as good as he came over- (many thanks for the camp cot).