Remake The Dam Busters? Today’s stars aren’t up to it
The points historian Andrew Roberts makes in his piece Damn Madness about The Dam Busters film remake (Mail), echo what I have been saying for some time.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. For one thing we do not have the actors of the quality available in 1955, many of whom had served in the war and knew how to wear a uniform. And remaking the film in colour would spoil its drama, which it had in black and white.
I spent two days with Barnes Wallis (inventor of the bouncing bomb) in 1978, so I know how well Michael Redgrave played the part, and Richard Todd as Wing Commander Guy Gibson is as good as one will get.
Composer eric Coates had been approached to write the whole score, but was advised not to by Sir edward elgar. however, Coates did offer one piece he had written a few days earlier, and it became the most famous war theme ever. The rest of the score was written by Leighton Lucas, who also wrote the score for Ice Cold In Alex.
One small error in Mr Roberts’s excellent piece was that Group Captain John Whitworth, played by Derek Farr in the film, was never a member of 617 Squadron, but the station commander of RAF Scampton in May 1943.
ALAN COOPER, author of The Dam Buster Raid: A Reappraisal 70 Years On,
Hailsham, Sussex.
Called to account
The most recent set of annual accounts for the collapsed Kids’ Company, (2013-14), signed off by the BBC’s Alan Yentob, the c harity’s chairman and its ‘statutory’ auditors, presents a confusing picture of assets and liabilities, made more impenetrable by a series of money transfers.
Mr Yento band Camila Batmanghelidjh, the PM’s inappropriate disciple of his Big Society, should be asked to shed more light on how the accounting figures for 2013-14 and subsequent period were arrived at.
They should be called to account for the £40 million — £37 million in the past year — the charity has received overall, including the £3 million of taxpayers’ money for ‘restructuring’ authorised by David Cameron against the advice of a senior civil servant, days before the charity ran out of money.
Without transparency about how this disaster, which will affect 36,000 children who have depended on i t, was allowed to occur, charitable donations will f all, leading to greater social hardship.
JOHN BARKER, Prestbury, Cheshire.
Passion for peace
I ATTENDED a peace walk in Barshaw Park , Pai sl e y, to r e member t he bombing of hiroshima and the further atrocity three days later of nagasaki.
The points that were put forward at the memorial addresses were man’s inhumanity, not only to their fellow human beings but to the planet which sustains us all and to all its inhabitants.
We heard a stirring speech from a former British soldier who had been used as a guinea pig by the British army in US experiments to test the damage caused by nuclear fallout.
The world should have been at that meeting, so I would like to reiterate the plea from a local councillor to have the facts taught in schools.
In fact, this should extend to not only schools in this country but in all countries so that children grow up understanding the terrible consequences of war and the need for peaceful solutions to conflict.
RAE BRADY, address supplied. I SPENT years as a military padre, and chaplain conferences repeatedly debated the morality of hiro- shima and Dresden – which had similar casualties – in the last days of the war.
The general opinion was that the pointless phosphor-bombing of refugee - packed Dresden was immoral, while the war- ending destruction of hiroshima could be defended – just.
There were alternatives which might have proved effective in prompting a Japanese surrender, such as modifying the unconditional surrender to protect the status of the emperor.
But US President harry S Truman’s decision at the end of a brutal war to save lives on both sides by using nuclear weapons worked and the Japanese did indeed surrender, bringing the Second World War to an end.
Responsibility for Dresden rests with Air Marshal Sir Charles Portal and the apology given earlier this year by his great-nephew, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, was apposite. REV DR JOHN CAMERON,
St Andrews, Fife.
Stonework shambles
In edinburgh, August is the month of the festivals and tourists and the month in which much of the annual income of its guest houses and small hotels is earned.
So which member of the City of edinburgh City Council staff decided that this was the ideal time to replace stonework in Coates Gardens and close off a major route into the city centre from the West?
This work could have been carried out in many of the preceding months.
except of course, July, when the West end of Princes Street was cordoned off so paving slabs could be relaid… another job that could have been done months before. Do the city’s works planners have a brain or simply share one between them?
ALAN Livesey, Edinburgh.
Man up, Dave
We Learn that the French are offering free railway travel for illegal immigrants from the French/Italian border to Calais (Mail) and will be encouraged to dispose of any ID they may have and plead homosexuality as a sure means of entry into the UK.
What is ‘Cool’ Dave’s response? Send a roll of barbed wire and a couple of sniffer dogs.
DEREK ROWLAND, Newport, Pembs.
Decisions, decisions…
FIRST Minister nicola Sturgeon likes to say no politician can impose a second referendum on Scotland because the people will decide.
She does not mean the majority of people of Scotland, though – after all, opinion polls still show majority support for Scotland remaining part of the UK.
Miss Sturgeon refers to the SNP supporters who will vote for that party in 2016, with a manifesto including an open-ended option for a referendum rerun.
Then it will be the First Minister’s decision, which will mean, of course, that a politician will be able to impose a second referendum on Scotland, without the support of the majority. KEITH HOWELL, West Linton, Peeblesshire.