''Sailor'' was a major

BBC television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

series, first shown in 1976, about life on board the fourth HMS ''Ark Royal'', a British

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

. It followed the ship on a five-and-a-half-month deployment to North America in 1976. The series was filmed after the completion of a major refit and coincided with the 21st anniversary of her commissioning. It is particularly noteworthy for its depiction of

fixed-wing aircraft A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using aerodynamic lift. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft (in which a rotor mounted on a spinning shaft generate ...

operation in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

before its demise in 1978, with the paying off and scrapping of ''Ark Royal''. It shows the Phantom,

Buccaneer Buccaneers were a kind of privateer or free sailors, and pirates particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from the Restoration in 1660 u ...

Gannet Gannets are seabirds comprising the genus ''Morus'' in the family Sulidae, closely related to boobies. They are known as 'solan' or 'solan goose' in Scotland. A common misconception is that the Scottish name is 'guga' but this is the Gaelic n ...

, Sea King and

Wessex The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886. The Anglo-Sa ...

air group from 809 Naval Air Squadron, 824 Naval Air Squadron, 849 Naval Air Squadron and 892 Naval Air Squadron.

Series

Episodes

Appearances

Captain Wilfred Graham, who later became Flag Officer, Portsmouth (FOP) (now obsolete), is the ''Ark Royal''s commanding officer during its deployment. Commander David Cowling, who features heavily in the series, was the executive officer. The officer in training featured in Episode 6 is Chris Parry who fired the first shots in the main conflict of the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

in the disabling of the Argentinian submarine ''Santa Fe'' and was later promoted

rear admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...

in 2005. Other members of the ship's crew to feature quite prominently were a Leading Hand named Leading Airman (Aircraft Handler) Sandy Powell (who was shown getting into trouble for not displaying the required level of responsibility), Fleet Master-at-Arms Tom Wilkinson and the Ship's Padre.

Aftermath

The series won Best Factual Series at the 1977 British Academy Awards, while episode 3 won Best Factual Programme and was repeated. The whole series was then repeated from 17 June to 19 August 1978, and again from 11 January to 21 March 1984. This second repeat was the conclusion to BBC Two's 'Fly on the Wall' season, and as with '' The Family'', a follow-up programme was transmitted, in this case entitled ''Sailor: 8 Years On''. Shown on 28 March, it featured updates on the lives of the crew members and also showed ''Ark Royal'' part-way through scrapping at Cairnryan near

Stranraer Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; ), also known as The Toon or The Cleyhole, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on Loch Ryan and the northern side of the isthmus joining the Rhins of Galloway to the mainland. Stranraer is Dumfries ...

, Scotland.

Soundtrack

The theme song for the original broadcast is the 1975 number one hit "

Sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, Windsurfing, windsurfer, or Kitesurfing, kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (Land sa ...

" by

Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British singer and songwriter. Known for his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists of all time, having sold ...

, which remains Stewart's biggest-selling single in the UK, with sales of over a million copies. However, the DVD release uses a different version due to copyright issues. Likewise " Shine On You Crazy Diamond" by

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

was used in the original TV version during sequences showing a

live fire exercise A live fire exercise (LFX) is a military exercise in which live ammunition and ordnance is used, as opposed to blanks or dummies. The term can also be found in non-military usage. Military Militaries usually use live-fire exercises as an op ...

featuring Phantom and

s at the Vieques weapons ranges in Puerto Rico. The DVD substitutes the Pink Floyd track for a

smooth jazz Smooth jazz is commercially oriented crossover jazz music. Although often described as a "genre", it is a debatable and highly controversial subject in jazz music circles. As a radio format, however, smooth jazz radio became the successor to e ...

composition.

References