Danger UXB

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Danger UXB was a 1979 British ITV television series about a squad of Royal Engineers with the duty of defusing unexploded ordnance in England during the Blitz in World War II. It starred Anthony Andrews as Lieutenant Brian Ash, a newly commissioned officer assigned to 347 Section of 97 Tunneling Company, Royal Engineers, which has been assigned to explosive ordnance disposal duties. Maurice Roëves played Sergeant James, his section sergeant. Naturally, the series primarily featured military storylines, but there was a strong and touching romantic thread provided by Susan Mount (Judy Geeson), with whom Ash falls in love.

The programme was titled and partly based on the memoirs of Major A. B. Hartley, M.B.E, RE, Unexploded Bomb ^[1], the UXB standing-for UneXploded Bomb. The series was filmed in 1978 in and around the Clapham/Streatham/Tooting area of London.

The program appeared on U.S. television on PBS as part of Masterpiece Theatre from 1980 to 1981.

[edit] Episodes

Dead Man's Shoes
Unsung Heroes
Just Like a Woman
Cast Iron Killer
The Silver Lining
The Quiet Weekend
Digging Out
Bad Company
Seventeen Seconds to Glory
Butterfly Winter
Dead Letter
The Pier
With Love From Adolf

Notes

Hartley's book provided many of the plot details.

Many of the bomb-disposal scenes were filmed in what appeared to be deep, freshly-dug holes lined with wooden shoring (the way real bomb disposal often happened). In fact, these scenes were shot using two different physical sets interlaced:

a short above-ground wooden fence that appeared to be the top of the shaft down to the bomb (but was not in fact excavated), and
a 30-foot above-ground hollow wooden tower with a muddy area inside at the bottom (often shot from above, looking down). (A side of the bottom was also removeable to facilitate "bottom-of-shaft" close-ups.)