Lancaster bomber film was nearly lost to Covid lockdown

THE director of a feature documentary about the Lancaster bomber, which was screened yesterday evening in Guernsey, has said the movie may never have happened at all if the Covid pandemic had hit a few weeks earlier.

Bob Leedham was among more than three dozen interviewees – all aged between 95 and 99 – that director and producer David Fairhead interviewed for the film.

David Fairhead has worked as an editor for almost four decades – principally on feature documentaries such as Neil Armstrong: First Man On The Moon but also on TV series such as The Planets and the BBC comedy series The Day Today – but he turned to directing when an opportunity came to make films about the subject he is most passionate about – Second World War aviation.

He spent five years working on Spitfire (2022) and by the time of its release, he had already begun filming on an equivalent documentary about the much larger aircraft.

‘We were at RAF Coningsby, where the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight is based, making the Spitfire documentary, and the Lancaster there dwarfed these little fighters,’ he recalled.

‘I found myself pointing over to it and saying “that’s our next film”.’

The film crew were able to use NX611 – Just Jane – based at East Kirkby – for static shots. (Picture by Andy Jones)

However, the second film, entitled Lancaster – Above and Beyond, became ‘a much bigger story’.

‘The aeroplane is really just the vehicle for the veterans’ stories and, whereas the Spitfire was a single-seater, the Lancaster had a crew of seven,’ Mr Fairhead said.

The documentary is told in ‘mosaic fashion’, whereby the recollections of the ex-crew are cut together to tell the stories of the Dambusters raids and the bombing of Dresden, among other missions.

The testimony of the 38 interviewees – all aged between 95 and 99 – was therefore essential.

‘During our filming of these interviews, the Covid pandemic hit,’ he said, ‘but fortunately, by the time the first lockdown came, we had done 37 of them.

‘If it had hit just a couple of weeks earlier, we wouldn’t have had a film, because they were all in that group that were obliged to isolate.’

In addition, the pandemic caused the cancellation of air displays, meaning the Lancaster needed to find alternative reasons to get airborne so that the RAF could ‘keep it current’.

‘So in 2020, the Lancaster flew navigational flights and we filmed it,’ he said.

‘We wouldn’t have had anything like as much time with it otherwise.’

Mr Fairhead is currently working on a third feature documentary, this time about the Mosquito. The average age of his interviewees will be 99.