I Watch TV: Danger UXB
This 1979 TV series is set in World War 2, following the exploits of Brian Ash, a recently commissioned Royal Engineers officer who finds himself posted to a bomb disposal company. (UXB stands for UneXploded Bomb). There’s a lot of great period detail – shortages and rationing of course, but also how people get around them, scams and sudden gluts (everyone drinks gin in the early episodes because there’s plenty about). As it opens in September 1940 everyone is paranoid; there are rumours that an invading Nazi army has been driven off, with burned bodies piling up under the White Cliffs. All the signposts removed or obscured and no one will give Ash directions because he could be a spy.
More: everyone assumes bomb disposal sections are volunteers, but they’ve all been assigned as normal, often unwillingly. Each of the sappers has their own backstories and problems, from the one whose wife brought the kids back to Liverpool after being evacuated, to Ash’s batman who gets his landlady’s daughter pregnant, to the driver, who is a petty thief, a slacker, and something of a coward, though when some precision driving is needed he comes through.
Another interesting part is characters turn up, have an episode with their story, then find themselves posted elsewhere, or blown up. It’s quite interesting in that way, not knowing if someone is a cameo, a recurring character or someone who will be killed in the next episode.
Also it’s quite remarkable how tense they made a man sitting in the middle of a muddy hole lined with wood staring at a bomb for ten minutes, every episode.
Watch This: For an interesting look at life in World War 2, with moments of joy, gritty determinations, difficulties with relationships and the way a close knit team of men nevertheless have problems coping with the stress
Don’t Watch This: If a bunch of men digging holes and staring at bombs will just annoy you
Comments