Warship (1973 TV series)
Warship is a popular British television drama series produced by the BBC between 1973 and 1977. It was also subtitled into Dutch and broadcast in the Netherlands as Alle hens aan dek. Four series were produced, with 45 episodes made in total, and it enjoyed popularity in Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
The series dealt with life on board a Royal Navy warship, the fictional frigate HMS Hero. It was mainly filmed aboard the frigate.
Plot
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, as well as the personal lives of officers and ratings and the impact their personal lives had on their professional lives and duties.Cast
HMS Hero was captained by three very different officers throughout the series. Donald Burton portrayed Commander Mark Nialls, a high flying young officer in the first two series, Bryan Marshall portrayed Commander Alan Glenn, a former Fleet Air Arm fighter pilot in the third series, and Derek Godfrey portrayed Captain Edward Holt, a former nuclear submariner, in the fourth and final series.The similarly contrasting First Lieutenants of HMS Hero were David Savile as Lieutenant Commander Derek "Porky" Beaumont in the first three series, and in the fourth and final series Robert Morris as Lieutenant Commander James Napier.
Other regular actors in the series included Andrew Burt, James Cosmo, Norman Eshley, Graeme Eton, Don Henderson, Nigel Humphreys, Frank Jarvis, John Lee, Prunella Ransome and Colin Rix.
Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy co-operation
The series enjoyed close collaboration between the Royal Navy and the BBC, and—unusually for a TV drama of the 1970s—looked like a documentary. Seven s played the role of HMS Hero and for continuity, all were repainted with the pennant number F42 of, the main warship used for filming. The others were,,,, and., a of the Royal Australian Navy, was also used as Hero for some scenes filmed in 1976 in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The crews of these frigates - and Derwent - were given Hero cap tallies for filming purposes, and their ships were given HMS Hero ships' badges, name plates and lifebuoys. Similarly, their Westland Wasp helicopters from the Fleet Air Arm's 829 Naval Air Squadron were all repainted with the identification HMS Hero, the code 471, and the nickname "The Fighting Forty-Two". Among the Wasps used for the fictional Hero Flight were serial numbers XT419 from HMS Phoebes Flight, XV625, and XV626. These measures, along with the use by all the frigates of the pennant number F42, had the unintended side effect of confusing Soviet spy ships.
Other Royal Navy warships used for the series included the aircraft carrier, the helicopter cruiser, the commando carrier and the submarine. The Royal Marine Commandos took part in the series, as also did the Fleet Air Arm, the Royal Naval Reserve in the shape of the , the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in the shape of and other ships, and the Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service.
Fleet Air Arm squadrons embarked on HMS Ark Royal used for filming included the Buccaneer S 2s of 809 Naval Air Squadron and the Phantom FG 1s of 892 Naval Air Squadron. The Westland Wessex HU 5s of 845 Naval Air Squadron embarked on HMS Bulwark also featured in some episodes.
The series was also filmed ashore in, among other places, Gibraltar, Malta, Hong Kong, Singapore, north-east of Isfjellet in Loppa and Larvik in Norway, the Admiralty Experiment Works in Haslar, RNAS Predannack, Portland Harbour, Plymouth Dockyard, Portsmouth Dockyard and South Uist.
Theme music
The opening and closing music of the series were taken from a march called Warship, composed for the series by Anthony Isaac. The theme was played by the Band of the Royal Marines, Deal, conducted by Lieutenant Colonel Paul Neville, MVO, FRAM, RM.The march is still played by Royal Marine bands. The theme influenced the opening bars of a 2010 march, Scrap Iron Flotilla, composed by Leading Seaman Martyn Hancock of the Royal Australian Navy Band.
Series creators
The originator of the idea for the series and main script editor was a serving Royal Navy officer, Ian Mackintosh, who worked with BBC producer Anthony Coburn after Mackintosh originally approached the BBC in May 1971. Coburn had for some years wanted to produce a series "that would do for the Navy what Z-Cars had done for the Police". Apart from Mackintosh, other scriptwriters included Michael J. Bird, and the series was directed by Michael E. Briant among others. Mackintosh was seconded to the BBC for the series, and was awarded the MBE for his work on Warship in 1976.''Warship'' and ''Blue Peter''
In 1975 the BBC's children's television programme Blue Peter included a feature about the filming of Warship at Plymouth Dockyard aboard HMS Danae; the item was presented by Lesley Judd. The next year, future Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan played a major role in the episode "All of One Company". Six episodes of Warship were filmed aboard HMS Danae around that time.Falkland Islands tensions depicted
One 1977 episode, "A Matter of History", depicted a visit by HMS Hero to a fictional British Overseas Territory—Eddowes Island—at the time of its handover to an unnamed Latin American country. Eddowes is described as being 50 miles offshore, and the islanders are stated as being offered a choice between retaining British nationality and leaving, or staying and becoming citizens of the unnamed country. The tensions this caused amongst islanders, the ship's company - one of whom is described as having been born on Eddowes - and British and Eddowes government officials are depicted in a realistic way. There were very strong parallels with the contemporary Falkland Islands situation, and the episode foreshadowed the events that led to the Falklands War.Much of the episode was filmed on Dartmoor, states the Michael J. Bird website . During filming of this episode, series creator Ian Mackintosh received news that he had been awarded an MBE for his work on Warship.
''Warship'' assessed in retrospect
Writing in 2006, historian Professor S.P. MacKenzie judged that:"Making Waves" was a 2004 series made by ITV, and intended to be in the same vein as "Warship". It proved less successful, and only three episodes were shown out of the six that were made.
Products based on ''Warship''
Books
Ian Mackintosh wrote three books based on the series, which were simultaneously published in hardback and paperback. The books were:- Warship
- HMS Hero
- Holt RN
Board game