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Old 20th Nov 2019, 4:10 pm   #321
Ted Kendall
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Default Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

Maybe somebody saw "Where Eagles Dare" and assumed that this was established practice, although the story is of course fictional. The Ford Trimotor was obsolete by this time. Many agent drops were by bomber, although pickups needed something smaller and more nimble, like the Lysander. I suppose a "Tante Ju" could have been captured in North Africa, but can't recall any mention of SOE use.
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Old 21st Nov 2019, 12:08 am   #322
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Default Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

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Maybe somebody saw "Where Eagles Dare" .
I like the QSB/phasing on the music the German radio operator is listening to before he is attacked, but my favourite is the radio operator in Ice Station Zebra who blames sporadic-e for his inability to receive a signal from the film capsule.

Corona, while it was very much classified.
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Old 21st Nov 2019, 11:27 am   #323
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Default Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

Where Eagles Dare: The audience would not necessarily have realised they were not using a British or American aircraft. The Junkers 52 would not have aroused suspicion being in the area around the Schloss Adler.
Is the radio apparatus in the Funkraum that is playing the fading music correct?
I bet someone recognised the music that the operator is enjoying so much he doesn't realise he is about to get attacked.

As for War of The Worlds: I was looking for the bloopers of TV Aerials in shot & didn't spot the gramophone. At a time when there were no electronic devices in use (apart from the telegraph) there's nothing in war of The Worlds that is on-topic.
I did note that the infantry had what looked like Lee-Metford rifles. The plot is centred around 1904 as the Dogger Bank Incident is referenced as being what is occupying Parliament's time.
I also noticed a location blooper: Apparent use of the St George's Hall in Liverpool.
You can see a huge Willis pipe-organ in some shots that were supposed to be at the Admiralty or Parliament.
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Old 21st Nov 2019, 2:49 pm   #324
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Where Eagles Dare: The audience would not necessarily have realised they were not using a British or American aircraft.
The operation in the plot was clandestine and the aircraft carried German markings. Granted, the point was not underlined in the script, but most audiences should have picked it up, surely?
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Old 21st Nov 2019, 3:09 pm   #325
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Default Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

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Did the UK have any Ju52/3m stashed away from before the war?
I suppose that it's possible that various individual aircraft may have been flown away from European mainland countries that bought them from Germany pre-war around the time of invasion- it seems that a number of Dutch-purchase He115 sea-planes and Do24 flying-boats escaped, possibly others from Norway, and were used by the Allies for clandestine operations, though this sort of thing is difficult to track down dependable information on.
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Old 21st Nov 2019, 3:17 pm   #326
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Default Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

I met with one of the props buyers for the Netfilx series The Crown. I gave them some very basic pointers of TV at the time.
I also mentioned that the sets in Sandringham for instance were rented. RC Hunt a small shop in (I think) Dersingham provided Sandringham house with TV sets along with a lot of the P.A equipment for outside events.
At the time I supplied some TV sets for use in the recordings.
The first two series in my opinion were spot on in fact I thought they were excellent !
The T.V sets and radios were all correct for the year.
When the Queen mother thumped one of the sets that was playing up the Queen retorted "Don't do that it's rented!" so they did listen...


When we get to the current series things go a little astray... The first episode showed a Dual standard Ekco (which I supplied) showing a black and white picture and when the footman turned the volume up he used the correct control!

From there things went off the rails a little... A 23" GEC dual standard black and white set showed a colour picture, a Hotel room in America had a HMV Thorn 1400 with "rabbit ears" displaying a colour picture.. Sorry, color picture. And worse it was a good picture displaying none of the grotty NTSC symptoms...

I did advise that early colour sets in the UK at least were big bulky things in cabinets and provided some pictures of the type of set. They used a 26" Thorn 3500 which I don't think was quite released by 1969... but I suppose it's near enough.
It is simply a case of the fact that the correct sets were hard to find, buy or hire so they used what they could.
As others have said most people wouldn't notice .

Don't get me wrong this is in no way a criticism of the programme I think it
is excellent. I think a bit of artistic licence is permissible.
I haven't watched the whole of the third series yet but so far Harold Wilson is driven around in a black Humber I don't know if this is correct for his early years but I do hope he gets his Rover P5B soon...
I did get a little moaned at when I kept pausing the programme to photograph one of "My" sets …
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Old 21st Nov 2019, 11:25 pm   #327
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....In BBC 'World on Fire', does anyone know why they chose to depict a Junkers 52 Trimotor dropping an SOE agent behind enemy lines...?
Have another look at the opening titles (and great theme music) of 'Where Eagles Dare'. The transport being used to insert the allied party is an Alpine-camouflaged Ju-52.

I suppose it would have made sense to use an 'enemy' plane, assuming one was somehow available, if the flight could be arranged to start somewhere not far from the enemy border, from 'friendly neutral' territory perhaps.

Edit: Cross posted with several others who also remembered the Ju-52 in Where Eagles Dare.
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Old 28th Nov 2019, 10:06 pm   #328
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Default Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

Regarding the wind up gram boob in War of The worlds, the same thing was done in the Andrew Marr spies prog on BBC4 on tuesday. arm on the left not the Right. maybe the same machine? Have they got some young sprog in the props dep'nt who has never used a record player?
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Old 5th Dec 2019, 12:34 am   #329
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The one that annoys me is when they say "over & out." We were told on the first day of my army signallers course "if you say over & out you're on a charge."
I never really understood that. How were you told to end a radio communication? Was it " all received and out"?
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Old 5th Dec 2019, 2:42 am   #330
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Default Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by colly0410 View Post
The one that annoys me is when they say "over & out." We were told on the first day of my army signallers course "if you say over & out you're on a charge."
I never really understood that. How were you told to end a radio communication? Was it " all received and out"?
Or Roger. Out.
I don't think an "and" adds anything useful.

Civil aviation is very light on procedural words, and does very well without them. The key thing is for an aircraft to give its call-sign at the end of every transmission.

Over & out makes no sense. Why would you invite the other station to transmit when in the same breath you have ended the conversation, and released the channel for other traffic?
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Old 5th Dec 2019, 10:40 am   #331
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I thought it was '73' and sign off with your call sign.

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Old 5th Dec 2019, 4:20 pm   #332
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Default Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

Saw a good one on "Endeavour" last night. An old valved record player with a record on a still turntable spang into instant life when power was switched on. No warm up for the valves or speed up for the turntable!

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Old 5th Dec 2019, 4:31 pm   #333
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Default Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

I've seen that many times on programs with old valve radios, instant sound and no hum!
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Old 5th Dec 2019, 11:27 pm   #334
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I've seen that many times on programs with old valve radios, instant sound and no hum!
Indeed, but just to play devil's advocate, a battery set with directly heated valves would achieve that.
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Old 24th Dec 2019, 5:53 pm   #335
Ted Kendall
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I've just caught up with "Darkest Hour" - gripping stuff, and Gary Oldman deserves his Oscar. However, in the climatic scene, his speech in the Commons is heard live over the radio. This is of course anachronistic - broadcasting of Parliament only commenced in the 1970s. True, the same speech was have been delivered by Churchill (or Shelley?) over the BBC that night, but this is one more misconception of the kind which led to the Argo issue of Churchill's speeches being bathed in artificial reverberation.

Granted, in the film the dramatic licence works, but it should not be forgotten that the Commons chamber was sanctum sanctorum at this time - only one photograph of the house in session during the war has ever emerged, and that was clandestine.

Oh, and the shot of R.W.Wood asking the bloke on the knobs if all was well is accompanied by ghastly artificial whistles - at that time the OB engineer would not have been monitoring off-air, even for cue purposes.
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Old 4th Apr 2020, 9:53 pm   #336
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Default Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

Slightly different to the other ones here (and mods, if this is the wrong section please move or let me know and I'll repost).

After our youngest left home, I thought I'd do a little gaming on her Xbox 360 - I hadn't had time for much gaming since the early 2000s, and found it was a great way to unwind to play an hour or two of something every so often. The kids love this, and my son gave me his Xbox One seeing he's mainly moved to a mix of PC gaming, PS4 and Switch.

At the moment I'm working my way through The Outer Worlds, and just found the attached on the wall of a maintenance room in a secret research lab (so secret it has a massive neon sign outside saying so).

(sorry about this being photo of the TV screen, for some reason Xbox snapshots aren't uploading to OneDrive for some reason)
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Old 5th Apr 2020, 7:29 am   #337
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Theremin.
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Old 5th Apr 2020, 8:46 am   #338
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Default Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

You're going to shoot that poor, innocent, voltage regulator tube, Arjoll?

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Old 5th Apr 2020, 9:24 pm   #339
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Default Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

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Theremin.
Yup, I must admit I cheated and googled it because it didn't really look right for a radio, then when looking again with the knowledge it was pretty obvious it had two aerials.

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You're going to shoot that poor, innocent, voltage regulator tube, Arjoll?
Haha no, the gun was for the raptidons and mercenaries
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Old 6th Apr 2020, 11:12 am   #340
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Default Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

Is this a Goldring Lenco GL75?

It's screenshot from Saturday Night Fever.
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