![]() The experience of flying with an Australian squadron results in the Pommie gunner and his young family emigrating to Australia post war as 10 pound Poms. The life of a civilian, Roy's future wife, explores the trials and tribulations of wartime England. The experiences and fates of the crew are contrasted with those of RAF and RAAF aircrew mates who were mostly not so lucky. The Trimble crew survive numerous fighter attacks and accidents and with their tour of operations completed, move on to training roles and life after combat. The lives of aircrew on a Bomber Command squadron during 1943/44 are explored. Led by an Aussie pilot, Vic Trimble, the crew transfer in mid tour to 463 RAAF Lancaster squadron. ![]() The origins and experiences of the other Aussie and Brit crew members are explored during the same timeframe. ![]() The story follows the journey of a young Pommie gunner, Roy, the author's father, through volunteering for the RAF, training, joining a crew and then flying with 207 RAF Lancaster squadron. And yet, by the end of the night, it felt churlish to complain.A biographical and social history of Bomber Command crews on operations at the height of the WW2 bomber offensive explored through the experiences of a surviving crew.Ī tale of Australians and Brits joining the RAAF and RAF and coming together to fly a tour of operations over Nazi occupied Europe and having the skills and luck to survive a full tour, including eight trips to Berlin. That’s a lot of money to watch Terry Jones read his lines off a cue card and see some of the original television sketches being beamed onto a big screen. The tickets cost a fortune, too-there were still quite a few on sale for around $190 on Tuesday afternoon. “It’s not easy doing these kind of shows. After several clunky link sequences, one gap between sketches simply comprised some messages projected onto the big screen above the stage: “Sorry these captions are a bit boring, we’re changing the set,” it read. The show was full of those little touches, some self-deprecating, some self-reverential, and some that were a little too close to the bone. The opening line had been updated for the farewell tour: “Who’d have thought, 40 years ago, we’d be sitting here doing Monty Python.” Palin, in particular, was in dazzling form. First up was the famous Four Yorkshiremen sketch, in which middle-aged men compete to tell the most miserable of hard-luck stories from their upbringing. Most of the show, however, was dedicated to joyfully reliving the classics. He had been involved in an accident while he “was lightly hovering.” With an admirably straight face, Fry explained that he had fallen and “rectally ingested a lightbulb.” Asked why he was being blackmailed, he explained that it was all a misunderstanding. The 21st-century updates (“You don’t know whether to titter or Twitter”) were thankfully few and far between, although a cameo from Stephen Fry was exquisitely realized in one scene. There was something jarring about an updated version of the Bruces’ Philosophers Song sketch: “You hear about the Pommie bastards who got their sleeping pills mixed up with their Viagra? They ended up with 40 wanks.” It’s probably unfair to say an exuberance that was welcomed when the comedians were in their 20s feels a bit grubby now, but it did. Amid the Python’s greatest hits, it’s easy to forget quite how many sex jokes always ran through their shows. One can only imagine the awkward silence between several thousand fathers and sons when a pair of candy-striped pink-and-white penis-shaped cannons rolled on stage and exploded bubbles all over the front row. The crowd was predominantly middle-aged, but there were also a huge number of dads with their teenage sons, including George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer, who told The Daily Beast it was his 13-year-old boy who had dragged him along.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |