Before a plane could save a country, the people had to build it. This is the story of a beautiful and deadly icon of resistance, built and flown against extraordinary odds.
Ten part documentary series for radio by the BBC World Service telling the story of the Spitfire and the ‘ordinary’ people behind it. Narrated by Tuppence Middleton the series combines a mixture of original and voiced commentary from those involved in the story of the Spitfire with the narration and local historians providing context.
Episodes are released weekly and are timed to run from the 75th Anniversary of VE Day (8th May 2020) to the 80th Anniversary of The Battle of Britain Day (15th September 2020).
Introductory Film
WW2: The people who saved the Spitfire plane
When Britain’s Spitfire factories were destroyed in World War Two, it was ordinary people, particularly women, who risked their lives and communities to rebuild the iconic plane that would help defeat the Nazis.
Link to Video: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08gfypq
Episodes:
Introducing Spitfire: The People’s Plane
Against extraordinary odds they built the beautiful and deadly plane that turned back the Nazis. Tuppence Middleton tells the story of the unsung heroes of the Second World War.
Phoenix
Episode 1 of 10
The Spitfire factory was a priority target for German bombers. The workers endured raid after raid. If vital Spitfires are going to continue to be built, then a plan is desperately needed.
Crowdfunding
Episode 2 of 10
The struggle against the Nazis has to be fought by ordinary people as much as by the army and air force. Communities across Britain are enlisted to raise funds for Spitfires. Villages, sports clubs, trades unions and churches devise money-making stunts and give their names to individual planes and whole squadrons.
Makeshift factories
Episode 3 of 10
Amid the smouldering ruins of the Spitfire factory, a new strategy emerges.
Makeshift wedding
Episode 4 of 10
Spitfire production is getting back on track, but the search for locations continues. Out into the surrounding countryside, from brickworks to country manors to empty fields, the dispersal continues.
Women take control
Episode 5 of 10
The new Spitfires need to be flown to RAF bases The new Spitfires need to be flown to RAF bases desperate for reinforcements. That’s the job of the ATA Girls – the female flyers of World War Two, some of the first women in Britain to receive the same wages as their male counterparts.
The Shilling Factor
Episode 6 of 10
As brilliant as the Spitfire is, it has one major flaw. The solution lies with the fastest woman in Britain: champion motorcycle racer and pioneering engineer, Beatrice Shilling.
New planes, new rules
Episode 7 of 10
Ramping up Spitfire production requires another new factory. Bigger, better, full of cutting-edge machinery and the best workers in the business. But it’s a catastrophe – one that nearly costs Britain dearly.
Faster and higher
Episode 8 of 10
The Spitfire’s designers struggle to find a safe place to improve their plane to deal with Germany’s latest fighter developments.
It wasn’t just Spitfire production that needed to escape the bombs; the designers of the plane also need to find a safe place to improve the Spitfire to deal with Germany’s latest fighter developments.
Teenage pilots
Episode 9 of 10
How does it feel to fly a Spitfire?
Two Spitfire pilots – one 18 year old from the Battle of Britain, one from today’s RAF – compare their experiences of unparalleled ecstasy and paralysing fear.
Scramble
Episode 10 of 10
The story of 15 September, 1940 – a day that changed the course of World War Two.
15th September 1940 was the moment the Germans chose to drive the Spitfire from the battlefield. The people on the ground, guiding the Spitfires – spotters, plotters and fitters- will play a vital role in a day that changed the course of World War Two.
The Supermariners 