Peter Rhodes on turkeys, technology and a TV clue laid two years in advance
Back in October 2022 I wondered in this column: “How many viewers of All Creatures Great and Small (C5) grasped the significance of the hat band worn by Mrs Hall's sailor son? It was 'HMS Repulse'. Prepare for heartbreak.”
Sure enough, the 2024 Christmas special featured the sinking of Repulse by Japanese warplanes in December 1941. The C5 programme-makers inserted a plot alert that would be understood only by people with a grasp of naval history, and then chose to lay the clue more than two years before the event. Admirable.
Old salts' corner. The correct naval term for the hat band bearing a ship's name is, of course, a tally.
