Warship (TV series)

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

Five 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 "Danae", 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.

The BBC's children's television programme "Blue Peter" did a broadcast of "Warship" being filmed at Plymouth Dockyard onboard HMS "Danae", with Leslie Judd in 1975. Six programme's aboard HMS "Danae" was carried out at the time.

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.

ee also

* Children Walking Tall Charity Visited In Goa (Last Episode)
* Making Waves
* Ian Mackintosh
* HMS "Hero"
* HMS "Phoebe"
* HMS "Dido"
* HMS "Hermione"
* HMS "Jupiter".
* "Leander" class frigate
* Royal Navy
* Royal Marines
* Fleet Air Arm
* "The Sandbaggers"
* Frigate

References

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

External links

* [http://www.royal-navy.org Royal Navy History]
* [http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com/ Children Walking Tall - Charity visited while in port in Goa Last Episode of the series]
* [http://www.action-tv.org.uk/guides/warship.htm "Warship" Episode Guide on Action TV website]
* [http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/27878 British Film Institute site on "Warship"]
* [http://www.btinternet.com/~neilavery999/Phoebe-Herobooklet.PDF Royal Navy leaflet on "Warship", from the HMS Phoebe Association website]
* [http://www.michaelbriant.com/warship.htm Comments on "Warship" by series Director Michael Briant]
* [http://www.mjbird.org.uk/Warship.html Webpage (at Home > Scriptwriting > Warship) about Michael J Bird's scripts for "Warship"]
* [http://www.btinternet.com/~neilavery999 HMS Phoebe Association website]
* [http://www.hms-dido.com/ HMS Dido Association website]
* [http://www.hmsjupiter.co.uk/ HMS Jupiter Association website]
* [http://www.hmshermione.co.uk/ HMS Hermione Association website]
* [http://www.opsroom.org/pages/intelligence/ian-mackintosh.html Ian Mackintosh's Royal Navy service record on Opsromm.org]
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