Piece of Cake (TV Series) - Trivia

Trivia

• Hornet Squadron also featured in several of Robinson's books about the war in the air in World War I.
• Hornet Squadron was equipped with Spitfires, but in reality, only Hawker Hurricane-equipped fighter squadrons were deployed to France in 1939-1940 (Spitfires were retained in Britain). Other Aircraft deployed by the RAF in France as part of the Advanced Air Striking Force were Bristol Blenheims and Fairey Battles (both light bombers).
• The flag of Hornet Squadron was shown a couple of times during the series. The central emblem of the squadron was a hornet. The motto beneath the emblem reads BEWARE OUR STING.
• There were various marks (types) of Spitfires used in the series: three Mk.IXs, a Pr.XI and a Mk.Ia. At the time that the series was set (1939–40), the RAF only had the Mark I and Mark IA Spitfire in service.
• Six mock-up Spitfires were built as static props. Some were purposely destroyed for the air-raid sequences.
• Veteran Pilot Ray Hanna (1928-2005) performed the stunt where the Spitfire flies under the low bridge. The scene was filmed at a bridge at Winston near Barnard Castle. Hanna, a New-Zealand-born former RAF pilot and Red Arrows member, was 59-years-old when he performed the stunt.
• RAF squadrons are primarily designated by numbers, although some are named.
• The series used footage from the 1969 motion picture 'Battle of Britain' for many of the dogfight scenes.
• Air-to-air filming of the aerial sequences was done by a vintage B-25 Mitchell and an Augusta 109 helicopter, both of which served as camera ships for the shoot.
• For actor Tim Woodward, who played Squadron Leader Rex, this was the second TV series in which he played the role of a fighter pilot. The first was Wings 1977-78, in which he starred as young World War One pilot Alan Farmer.
• Actor Nathaniel Parker, who played pilot 'Flash' Gordon in the series, lost two uncles in World War Two, both of them real-life RAF fighter pilots. After he got the role, Parker's father Peter presented him with a white flying scarf that his uncle Alan had worn whilst serving as a Spitfire pilot during the war.
• The production made use of three vintage Messerschmitt BF 109Es which were actually Hispano Ha 1112 Buchons, a Merlin-powered version of the Me 109 that was used by the Spanish Air-Force up until the late 1960s. These aircraft later appeared in the motion-picture Memphis Belle in 1990 and later in 2001 in the Battle of Britain sequence in Pearl Harbor. In addition, a Heinkel He-111 was also used, again a Merlin-engined version once used by Spain. In addition to the aerial scenes, the Heinkel was partially dismantled for the filming of the scene where Hornet Squadron visit the crash site of their very first 'kill'. The Heinkel, serial no G-AWHB, was flown to the UK from Spain in 1968 to be used in the filming of the movie Battle of Britain and later appeared in the film Patton.
• For the scene where Cattermole and Steele-Stebbing destroy the German Rescue plane, a vintage Junkers Ju-52 (registered CASA-353L) was used.In the original novel, the aircraft is a Heinkel He 59.
• Some of the exterior filming was completed at the old airfield at South Cerney in Wiltshire UK which, in 1988, still featured several period hangars and a control-tower.
• For the French base at "Le Touquet", the producers filmed at Cambridge Airport.
• In an interview in 2010, Derek Robinson, author of the original novel Piece of Cake remarked that when the novel was first published in 1983, the first edition sold poorly in the UK (although it did well in the US). He credits the 1988 LWT production with greatly reviving interest in the novel.