Bomber

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Read the book! - Rated
Len Deighton is probably one of the most underrated British writers. This may have to do with so called intelectuals' problems in accepting writers who also write entertainment. What makes Deighton great is both the very beautiful prose he writes, his characters and his minute knowledge of the war. Bomber is one of his most impressive offering being a testament to suffering and courage on both sides. I could go on for ages now what a great book Bomber is. However, I won't because this BBC production, impressive as it is, does not do justice to Deighton's great book. First of all, it is way too short. This leads to a loss of all those tales of everyday life and of individual fate that make the tragic events even more shocking. This contrast is one of the great strengths of the book. However, I found the exceperts from interviews with aircrews and victims downright annoying because they distracted from the actual story and broke the illusion of being part of a story. The fake German accents inthese parts didn't help either.

Powerful stuff - Rated
While this work is based on Len Deighton's 1970 novel Bomber rather than an actual raid in 1943 (there is a disclaimer at the end), it has a gripping intensity to it - I found myself quite tense during the second half in particular, wondering who would make it back home. About 20 per cent of the content is comprised of interviews with British and German veterans, who all speak in downbeat, matter of fact terms about night bombing/night fighting.

I'm not always Tom Baker's greatest fan but his gravelly, sombre tones suit the narration here as well as anyone's. As a previous reviewer has remarked, the blow-by-blow description of the effects of a burst of cannon fire from a fighter is chilling.

Another reason why the drama is vivid is the absence of 'Allo 'Allo-style "vee haff vayze of making you tok" cod-German accents, which would have rendered the concept ridiculous had the producers been stupid enough to employ them.

Impressive - Rated
I cannot compliment this drama/ documentary audio enough. You are immersed in the lives of the people impacted by this day and night very effectively and you cannot but feel how terribly tragic circumstances really were for all sides involved. I was greatly moved throughout, especially as many of the more appalling events are underwritten by veterans and civilian testimony.
Excellent

Shocking & Awful - Rated
Originally transmitted on BBC Radio 4 within a real-time framework one weekend in 1995, this dramatisation of Len Deighton's novel still stands among the very best drama productions in the audio medium I've heard, almost ten years later.

Though on the surface this play appears to deal with many elements familiar to those Britons who grew up watching films about our brave boys in the RAF, it is no Battle Of Britain-style flagwaver and quickly descends into the hellish futility and atrocity of the actions those courageous young men were called upon to perpetrate - and the appalling carnage frequently visited upon them in the act of doing so.

Fortunately, this is an intensely humane story, a tragedy which displays compassion towards all parties. A lack of human drama would render the story somewhat souless but production is equally matched with excellent performances, surmounted by the Tom Baker's grave tones as a narrator who effortlessly makes the listener feel like a spectator. The interviews with real veterans interspersed through the drama only adds to its power.

I'd recommend this drama on many levels, but I personally think its worth hearing just to demonstrate the dynamic potential of well-produced radio. The harrowing four minute autopsy of a seven-second blast of cannon fire is, in my mind at least, far more violent and affecting than anything achieved by cinema, and an extraordinary set-piece that shows just what radio can do in the theatre of the mind's eye.

Crudely put, this play is a human drama which is at times like a cross between Saving Private Ryan and Memphis Belle. Being an airman has never seemed such an appalling prospect, and while I shall never comfortably look on a Halifax or Lancaster Bomber ever again, nor - I hope - will I forget what flying those machines often demanded of the young men appointed to visit the whirlwind upon German towns and cities.