| This Sunday’s episode, which features actor Michael Kitchen, is entitled “Casualties of War” and is set around a fictitious research group working on the famous bouncing bombs which were used to breach German dams in May 1943.
To decorate the set as realistically as possible, researchers from the show contacted the Brooklands Museum at Weybridge, where bouncing-bomb inventor Barnes Wallis worked.
The museum forwarded the enquiry to Dr Iain Murray, a lecturer in the university’s school of computing, who also has a research interest in Barnes Wallis.
Dr Murray said, “The TV researchers were looking for authentic calculations and graphs to put on blackboards. Fortunately, I had recently been researching this aspect of Wallis’ work in the archives, so I was able to point them towards exactly the documents they were looking for.
“So the formulae that can be seen on the blackboards which appear behind the actors in the show are the real thing. It was an unusual request, but I was impressed they took the trouble to be as accurate as possible.”
The episode also recreates a machine used to test the bouncing bomb and features shots of the bombs being tested — some of real test drops and others created for the show use computer graphic techniques.
Dr Murray said, “I’ve been interested in Barnes Wallis for 10 years and seriously researching him for three. I’m interested in him as an engineer. He was also a leading airship designer, designed the first supersonic aircraft which flew without a pilot and designed swing-wing airplanes.”
Foyle’s War is screened on Sunday at 9pm. |
