Sea of Fire
Highlight
Friday 01 June
9:00pm - 10:00pm
BBC2
On 25 May 1982, at the height of the Falklands crisis, HMS Broadsword and HMS Coventry came under attack from low-flying Argentinian Skyhawk fighters. If I tell you this documentary blends survivors' testimony with dramatic reconstruction, you might picture a ho-hum Timewatch-type affair, but Ian Duncan's artful film about that day is in a different league, searingly powerful yet edged with gallows humour. The mindset of the sailors comes across vividly: how unreal the conflict seemed to them, even in the midst of it. One junior rating recalls how he was reading a lawn-mower catalogue when he heard the ship was under attack, whereupon he grabbed his camera and rushed on deck to get a snap, only to be reduced to screaming terror. Elsewhere, the dramatised sequences make it easy to imagine the experience of being in a burning warship. There's striking imagery - a pair of burning headphones, the deadly blips on a radar screen - and arresting quotes ("My arm was alight and I was putting my arm out with my left hand," recalls one survivor). Of all the recent Falklands programming, this cries out to be seen.
RT reviewer - David Butcher
VIDEO Plus+: 9772
Subtitled, Widescreen, Audio-described