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March 28, 2024, 11:09:36 PM

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Forces TV

Started by monkfromhavana, March 07, 2022, 10:03:13 PM

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monkfromhavana

Moved to a new house and now get to enjoy Forces TV.

What is the point of Forces TV? You've just spend a hard day out with the fusilliers strafing an ISIS (rememeber them?) checkpoint at a distance of 40 clicks whilst the Air Force conducting a bombing run deep inside enemy territory. You were ambushed on the way back and Browny had his leg blown off by a roadside IED and the crew in the tank in front of you were burned alive after being hit by an anti-tank missile. You've now got PTSD and are on the brink of breakdown.

Sent back to base for R&R your spirits are revived by watching back-to-back episodes of "Surgical Spirit" and tanning cans of tinned meat.

Who in the military watches this shit?

bgmnts

Miami Vice and Quantum Leap all day in my experience. Can't go wrong.

BJBMK2

If I was a coke fuelled Disney+ exec, I would be smelling serious money right now.

Buy it out from the MoD.

Stuff it with endless Star Wars programming.

Simples.

Simple.

non capisco

I became briefly fascinated by Forces TV for a period last year. Is it unique in UK broadcast scheduling in that they seem to acquire the rights for one old programme and then rag it into the ground day and night until they buy another one? For a while last year it was wall to wall Citizen Smith then that changed to 24 hour showings of The Man From Atlantis, something from the 70s or 80s with Patrick Duffy in just his pants. Then it was round the clock Dukes Of Hazzard then that changed to a punishing marathon showing of The Brittas Empire.

It's my second favourite TV channel after Talking Pictures. As much as you can have wistful memories about horrendous periods of depression I recall one Sunday waking up and deciding to doss about in bed being miserable with the comforting aural wallpaper of May To December (the squaddie's choice) on in the background and thinking "This is ideal, it's just going to be this shit all day, it's never going to change."

dissolute ocelot

It's definitely a treasure trove. I believe it's shown to soldiers around the world (and their families) as well as to bored nostalgics back in Blighty for whom they are fighting. The Guardian got very excited about it showing V a while ago.

McDead

Absolutely cracking channel. An evening of Forces TV is like a night in circa 1987 - Dear John, followed by After Henry or Surgical Spirit, then Dr Who or Blake's 7. Finally some "dad" programming for late night, Spenser for Hire or the Equalizer or something. Excellent bread and jam TV, imo.

The daytime slots, by contrast, are like a completely different - much worse - channel, all stuff about fighter jets and Hitler's architecture. A very strange station, but long may it run.

Menu

A demographic that would be seriously interested in live coverage of an Only Fools and Three Courses event.


Bently Sheds

It's the one stop shop for 24hr Spencer For Hire repeats. As noted above, there's a great selection of old telly on there. I'm particularly enjoying UFO atm. The Are Brave Boys news sections are a bit shit, but otherwise it's only slightly behind Talking Pictures TV for top notch UK telly nostalgia.

There's also that weird That's 80s channel that's either MTVUK circa 1985 or Benny Hill & Kenny Everett shows.

monkfromhavana

Yes, but if you're stationed out in a warzone, are you really watching this? Is there a whole raft of raw 18-yo privates on their first posting getting stuck into May To December on their downtime?

Pranet

I've often wondered the same thing myself. Perhaps it raises money for forces charities or something?

I've got it on now actually. Watching Doctor Who.

Bently Sheds

"Come on chaps; over the top, one last push into Jerry's trenches then it's back home for tea and biscuits and Brush Strokes. Oh, that Jacko!"

They do do about 1-2 hours of original content a day, they have their own Forces News and (I think) British Forces Broadcasting Service are involved with filming day-to-day stuff for the various armed forces. Does Forces TV raise that much money for the home charity? Not sure, but it at least gives their original material a platform.

Currently watching Doctor Who on it. Which is nice.

Previous highlights were running Piece of Cake and A Perfect Hero side by side back in 2020, two excellent series.

 

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: monkfromhavana on March 08, 2022, 07:58:04 AMYes, but if you're stationed out in a warzone, are you really watching this? Is there a whole raft of raw 18-yo privates on their first posting getting stuck into May To December on their downtime?

I think it's mostly to serve bases where people aren't in warzones.

gilbertharding

I was a teenage Air Cadet in the 1980s. Every year we would spend a week at an airbase somewhere in Norfolk or Lincolnshire getting work experience with ground crews, or engineering flights or something. One of the things I remember was all these rooms off to the sides of hangars, or in the middle of the airfield where blokes would hang around waiting for the aircraft to land so they'd have something to do... rooms with leatherette easy chairs, back-issues of Mayfair, and a portable TV showing Pebble Mill at One.

And that is the prism through which I watch Forces TV.

monkfromhavana

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on March 08, 2022, 11:46:04 AMI think it's mostly to serve bases where people aren't in warzones.

If you're in a base, regardless of where you are in the world, you probably have access to the internet in some form, and from there Netflix etc etc etc. Unless you're suggesting that squaddies are choosing to watch Don't Wait Up over the latest stateside blockbuster.

My best guess is that it is used as psychological warfare during torture sessions against POWs. Right now I suspect there are a couple of hundred released Al-Qaeda fighters loose around the Middle East all with the dress and mannerisms of "Fresh Fields" era Anton Rodgers.

Sebastian Cobb

It may be a bit redundant these days but don't forget if you're posted somewhere like Germany, unless some fancy networking is performed by the forces to route data back to a UK exit-point or it's on an allow-list by the streaming services, British streaming services will likely be geoblocked.

gilbertharding

They also show the weather forecast for all the tiny God-benighted places British armed forces might be stationed - Belize, Ascension, South Georgia, etc etc. and Sports Report, so you can keep up with how the Royal Engineers fared against the Tank Regiment at rugby.

These programmes make reruns of CHiPs and Get Back (the Ray Winstone sitcom) look like Line of Duty and Get Back (the Beatles documentary).

I grew up in a speck of pink. Weather was one of two choices - hot, or hot and pouring down.

mippy

I don't know about other 'regional' channels, but LondonLive seems to show an odd mix of Norman Wisdom films and extremely low-budget Guy Ritchie knockoffs in the evening, with the occasional episode of Minder thrown in. So I can;t remember now whether it's them or Forces TV that shows Dennis Waterman's 'On the Up!' or Slinger's Way.

mippy

Quote from: non capisco on March 07, 2022, 11:18:51 PMI became briefly fascinated by Forces TV for a period last year. Is it unique in UK broadcast scheduling in that they seem to acquire the rights for one old programme and then rag it into the ground day and night until they buy another one? For a while last year it was wall to wall Citizen Smith then that changed to 24 hour showings of The Man From Atlantis, something from the 70s or 80s with Patrick Duffy in just his pants. Then it was round the clock Dukes Of Hazzard then that changed to a punishing marathon showing of The Brittas Empire.

It's my second favourite TV channel after Talking Pictures. As much as you can have wistful memories about horrendous periods of depression I recall one Sunday waking up and deciding to doss about in bed being miserable with the comforting aural wallpaper of May To December (the squaddie's choice) on in the background and thinking "This is ideal, it's just going to be this shit all day, it's never going to change."

I was quite fond of ABC1 for the same reason - on my day off, when I couldn't be arsed to go out because I had no money or motivation, I'd sit and watch all their second-tier US sitcoms like Hope And Faith, Less Than PErfect and 8 Simple Rules. If we'd been able to afford Paramount I'd never have left the house again.

Sebastian Cobb

ABC did yank style ad-breaks didn't it, instead of between shows they'd smash one in between the end of the show and the credits then let it run back to back with the next show then ads before opening credits. Didn't like it.

Quote from: mippy on March 08, 2022, 06:32:47 PMI don't know about other 'regional' channels, but LondonLive seems to show an odd mix of Norman Wisdom films and extremely low-budget Guy Ritchie knockoffs in the evening, with the occasional episode of Minder thrown in. So I can;t remember now whether it's them or Forces TV that shows Dennis Waterman's 'On the Up!' or Slinger's Way.

Force's TV did Slinger's Way.

Enzo

I think Forces TV was the only channel that residents of the Falklands could watch for a long while.

non capisco

If Anton Rodgers was still alive he'd get mobbed if he went over there, then.

Bad Ambassador

Forces TV and BFBS are not the same thing. The latter is the overseas channel for service personnel and penguins, as well as running other entertainment services for R Brave Lads. Forces TV seems to just be the UK arm of the same, with its schedule filled with stuff they have lying around and a few programmes to meet their Ofcom remit. It's the military equivalent of Pick TV.

superthunderstingcar

Sounds great. I might sign up for a Tour of Duty Free.

This joke will work better if Duty Free is one of the old sitcoms they have on there. Fuck it, post.

mippy

Watching was on last night! I loved that as a child....enough that my mum taped the end credits so that I could transcribe the lyrics to the song.

Norton Canes

Sadly we're not in an area that gets Forces TV. Maybe I should sign up. Do you get it if you're in the TA?

Bad Ambassador