Warship (TV series)

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Warship was a popular British television drama series produced by the BBC between 1973 and 1977.

HMS Phoebe as HMS Hero
HMS Phoebe as HMS Hero

The series dealt with life on board a Royal Navy warship, the fictional HMS Hero. It was mainly filmed aboard the Leander-class frigate HMS Phoebe.

Four Leander class frigates played the role of Hero and for continuity, all were repainted with the pennant number F42 of HMS Phoebe, the main warship used for filming. The others were HMS Dido, HMS Hermione and HMS Jupiter. All the crews of these warships were given Hero cap tallies for filming purposes.

The series enjoyed extremely close collaboration between the Royal Navy and the BBC, and - unusually for a TV drama of the 1970s - looked like a documentary. The episodes were written and filmed to reflect the reality of life in the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines in the 1970s. The primary focus for most stories was on the Captain and his fellow officers, but the series also featured life on the lower decks to portray episodes heavily featuring ratings. Episodes featured a variety of events at sea (the Cod War, smuggling, the evacuation of civilians from crisis-hit places, etc.), as well as the personal lives of officers and ratings and the impact their personal lives had on their professional lives and duties.

The originator of the idea for the series and main script editor was a serving Royal Navy officer, Ian Mackintosh. HMS Hero was - quite intentionally - portrayed as being captained by three very diverse officers in the series. Leading cast members included (portraying the Captain): Donald Burton as Commander Mark Nialls, a high flying young officer (in the first two seasons), Bryan Marshall as Commander Alan Glenn, a former Fleet Air Arm fighter pilot (for the third season) and Derek Godfrey as Captain Edward Holt, a former nuclear submariner, (in the fourth and final season). Other actors in the series included John Lee, Andrew Burt, Don Henderson, Norman Eshley, James Cosmo and David Savile.

Four series were produced, with 45 episodes made in total, which became cult TV viewing in Britain, Ireland and Australia.

Ian Mackintosh wrote three books based on episodes of the series. They were simultaneously published in hardback and paperback. The books were:

  • Warship (published in 1973);
  • HMS Hero (published in 1976);
  • and Holt RN (published in 1977).

The opening music of the series was a march played by the Royal Marines, called Warship, and written by Anthony Isaac. It is still played by Royal Marine bands.

After Warship, Ian Mackintosh went on to write the equally successful ITV drama series The Sandbaggers.

The BBC still has the episodes of Warship in store (see the BBC Programme Catalogue website below), but unlike The Sandbaggers, DVDs of Warship have not yet been released commercially. Questions on this should be directed to: The Commissioning Editor, DVD and Video Releases, BBC Worldwide Limited, Woodlands, 80 Wood Lane, London W12 0TT, UK.

[edit] See also

[edit] Reference

Broadcasting the New Navy: the BBC-TV Series Warship (1973-1977), SP Mackenzie, WAR & SOCIETY, Vol. 25, No. 2 (October 2006).

[edit] External links

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