Hornblower - what a liberty!

[snowleopard]

while well aware that i'm turning into an anorak, i take exception to the liberties taken with forrester's storylines (ITV friday). a pity, as they went to such lengths to get the history/seamanship right.

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[castaway]

On the subject of TV with a nautical flavour. I believe that there is a new weekly series on yachting and small boats, at 2000hr tonight (saturday), on Discovery Home and Liesure. Started 1st programme last week, which I missed.

Hadn't planned on being home to watch it, but seeing as the Wx is total crap Im going to re deck my bathroom floor instead of taking "Fairweather" for an airing.

Have a good weekend.. regds Nick

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yachtsite.co.uk/fairweather>http://www.yachtsite.co.uk/fairweather</A>

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[Rosa]

I was struck by the historical aspects of Hornblower-historical, as in old TV. I'm sure assembled amongst the various crew, albeit upper decks only, were Dr. KIldare, Sergeant Merton, from Heartbeat, and Citizen, "Wolfie" Smith from, I believe, the Tooting Liberation Front (or was it the Tooting People's Army?). This was, of course, after his distinguished, but unexpected, career in the RN.
But most of all, I recognised, in the scenes of cheering sailors, eg. when war was declared against France, the entire cast of Andy Pandy-I'd know those hats anywhere!

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[snowleopard]

and i thought all the faded actors had been sent to the australian jungle. is there no escape?

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[Guest]

Apart from the continuous interruptions by the adverts the most offputting thing in an otherwise rattling good yarn were the shots of the South Devon Coast over the French Captain's shoulder when our heroes were allegedly adrift in the middle of the Bay of Biscay and Hornblower was using his outstanding navigation skills to evade capture by those pesky Frenchies.

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[qsiv]

Thats nothing - my father skippered the Golden Hind for a film version of Drakes story many, many years ago and the coastline around Newton Ferrers and the Yealm did duty for the South American coast, and Mothercombe passed as a Caribbean beach. Last time I swam/surfed there it seemed rather too chilly!

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[pkb]

Does it really matter? I would join you in taking exception to any undue tampering with historical fact but in this instance we're only talking about fiction - fictional tv dramas based on fictional historical novels.

However, as a behavioural consultant once told me :"It only matters if it matters".

Peter

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[Twister_Ken]

One step further

Do behavioural consultants matter?

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[upstream]

I quite agree, I get a proper dose of reality at my work place, watching programmes like hornblower is a form of escapism, If I want the true facts and historical accuracy there are many books and programmes on satalite that will provide.

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[Chris_Stannard]

You seem to forget that most of the Hornblower stories were based on true incidents in the Napoleonic wars, but they did not all happen to one man. CS Forrester took liberties with the accounts of events for the sake of dramatic events, and also on accasion because the truth would appear too incredible to his audience. I quote an account form 1804 when a sloop, the Arrow was cutting out a French privateer moored in a bay in Greece. The French had attached a cable from the masthead to the cliffs and then gone ashore with their muskets. One of the Arrows crew, Moreci Betty a cornishman, climbed the mast, under continuous fire from the French, and cut the cable so the privateer could be brought out. If you read it in a book you would say that is too far fetched but it is recorded in the Naval Chronicle of 1806.

So do not be too hard on TV, they cater for their audience, which largley consists of the 55 million who don't sail.

Incidentally if you want a really good read and you ever see a copy of CS Forresters book "The Ship" buy it. It is based on HMS Penelope in the Mediteranean in the 2nd World War, when she was known as HMS Pepperbox for the number of holes in her, and in my view it is the best thing that Forrester ever wrote. It is out of print but if you see it in a second hand book shop buy it, I am sure you will not be dissappointed.

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[Twister_Ken]

>The French had attached a cable from the masthead to the cliffs and then gone ashore with their muskets. One of the Arrows crew, Moreci Betty a cornishman, climbed the mast, under continuous fire from the French,<

He probaly got away with it because the French were using muskets. The combination of smooth bores, lack of precision in casting the balls, and a variable powder charge made muskets very inaccurate beyond 25 metres or so. They were effective at volley fire into massed ranks of attackers (so why were the attackers in massed ranks???) but as a sniping weapon they came into the chocolate teapot category.

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[vyv_cox]

Jack Aubrey, too

A great deal of the basis of the Jack Aubrey stories is taken from naval records. Particularly "The Mauritius Campaign" apparently. O'Brien says in the foreword that it is virtually word-for-word.

Agree about "The Ship". A very ancient Penguin version is in my collection, excellent work.

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[Johnjo]

Makes me proud that a fellow Cornishmen had the balls to climb the mast whil'st under
musket fire from the French.

In this day and age though we hope he would have more sense! Its better to keep them where the belong and not get them shot off !!!!

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[hugh_nightingale]

More than a liberty.
Damn TV companies can’t even stick to the schedules.
This was likely to be the programme that was cancelled for which I had set the video.
Completely missed this one.


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[snowleopard]

it hasn't been re-broadcast so maybe we'll be able to catch it later.

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