Friday 20 January 2012

Can Biggles sweep the skies again?


Can Biggles sweep the skies again?

With men like those in the article making sure that an aircraft linked to the Biggles mythos can continue to fly, surely the answer must be yes. 

Although it is a shame that a 1960s feature film was never made, at least part of it still survives in the form of this replica built to star in the proposed production.  Now thanks to years of painstaking work by two generations of the same family this reproduction BE2c biplane can and will fly again.  It may not have been able to take to the air for the B.B.C but as the above footage shows, it certainly can fly.

The wider question posed by the article is perhaps of even greater interest.  Should there be a new Biggles movie?  I say yes (well I would, wouldn't I?)!  An attempt was made in 1986 with the somewhat lamentable Biggles: Adventures in Time (almost a "so bad it's good" film, it is rarely spoken about - and even then in hushed tones - by Biggles fans) and a planned big-budget trilogy was in the early planning stages before being canned back in 2001.  But with the recent success of the Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes films amongst others, perhaps the time is right for a new big screen Biggles adventure.  Imagine what a Biggles film could look like with today's special effects!

In the meantime the 98-odd Biggles books still exist to provide many a film in one's mind, and minor triumphs such as that of "Biggles' Biplane" can help to ensure that this dashing British airman is not forgotten, until hopefully there comes a time when he gets his own film(s) worthy of his exploits.  Chocks away chaps!

4 comments:

  1. I love Biggles, but Swedish kids of today will not find him in a public library. He has been thrown out. He is considered a racist ...

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    Replies
    1. Hoho, *do not* get me (or any other Biggles fan) started on the whole "Biggles is racist" issue(!) ;-) I could dedicate a whole thread (or three) as to why he isn't. I'm sorry to hear he's banned from Sweden's libraries - I didn't think anywhere did that. They tried to ban him here in Britain in the 1970s, but reason and sense prevailed.

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    2. I've just asked a Swedish acquaintance on the Biggles forum and apparently it is possible to find a few Biggles books in some Swedish libraries. Biggles Learns To Fly and Spitfire Parade are available in Gnarp and Bergsjö, for example.

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  2. I'm glad to hear that the PC-gospel has not yet reached every corner of the Swedish public library system ;)

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