More poignance in real life than drama

THE other day the Western Mail published a photograph of the largest Royal Navy ship ever built, the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, sailing off the coast of Anglesey.

Also this week there have been endless compliments about the drama series Happy Valley on BBC1. One comment caught my eye: “At last, a totally believable and compelling series free of explicit sex and woke statements.”

I only watched the dramatic and fiery final 10 minutes of Happy Valley because it overlapped the ending of episode 3 of The Warship – Tour of Duty on BBC2, a documentary based on HMS Queen Elizabeth and her first ever operational deployment, to the South China Sea, as part of a 10-strong taskforce of destroyers, frigates and supply ships.

The fleet was not only overtaken by Covid, a souvenir of shore leave in the nightclubs of Cyprus, but by a sudden and dramatic death, a suicide victim on board HMS Queen Elizabeth, the young man having been moved from an escort ship, HMS Kent, in an effort to save his life. How the news was communicated, and how it affected the crew, was exceptionally moving.

As was the body being transported on a helicopter for the beginning of its journey home, the helicopter flying slowly between the two ships with both crews standing to attention on deck (shades of the late Queen’s funeral procession down The Mall).

Also, the captain of HMS Queen Elizabeth – and commanding officer of the taskforce – Captain Angus Essenhigh, sprinkling the ashes of his 48-year-old brother who had died suddenly in December 2020 of a brain tumour, adding to the emotional rollercoaster of this particular episode.

It proved yet again that reality is more poignant and punchy than even the best fiction. It’s worth 60 minutes of anyone’s time, if only to embrace what goes on in the real world.

Huw Beynon Llandeilo