Piece of Cake

1988

Piece of Cake

8.1 | en | Drama

The life of a Royal Air Force fighter squadron from the day of the British entry into World War II through to one of the toughest days in the Battle of Britain.

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Seasons & Episodes

EP6 Episode 6

Nov. 06,1988

It is August 1940 and Hornet Squadron regroup at a cliff-top air station on the South Coast of England. Morale has been low but fresh aircraft and pilots are arriving to prepare for the mighty attack that the Luftwaffe are suspected to be planning. The new boys are ribbed by the 'old hands' and, with the tension of constant readiness, simple pranks can easily get out of hand. But the glorious days of high summer mean that the enemy come over in endless waves, and Squadron Leader Barton has his hands full keeping the hard-pressed pilots at their sharpest.

EP5 Episode 5

Oct. 30,1988

It is May 1940 and Hornet Squadron are billetted with their Spitfires in France, near the German Border. The 'phoney war' is over with a vengeance and France is being attacked by the Luftwaffe. The two young brides of Hornet Squadron members are leving for England, but there is now a danger at every crossroads and the RAF are being pushed back at every encounter. With the death of Squadron Leader Rex there is an urgent need for new tactics, new aircraft and a new fighting spirit if the young pilots of Hornet Squadron are to survive. 'Fanny' Barton, the quiet Australian, takes over...

EP4 Episode 4

Oct. 23,1988

It is March 1940 and Hornet Squadron are billeted with their Spitfires in France, near the German border. As the young squadron pilots bore of the phoney war, they enjoy the delights of the local village and two of the pilots decide to take local brides.

EP3 Episode 3

Oct. 16,1988

It is December 1939 and Hornet Squadron are billeted with their Spitfires in France, near the German border. But like all young men away from home for the first time, the pilots find ways to amuse themselves with all the delights that France ha to offer. Squadron Leader Rex is determined not to let efficiency slip and decides to test his pilots.

EP2 Episode 2

Oct. 09,1988

It's Autumn and Hornet Squadron are billeted with their Spitfires in France, near the German border. For most of the young pilots, their posting to France is the first time they have left the shores of England. They spend the initial lazy days of 'the phoney war' billeted in an idyllic French chateau pampered by their charismatic Squadron Leader, but straining for real action and dreaming of romance.

EP1 Episode 1

Oct. 02,1988

For the 12 young RAF pilots of Hornet Squadron, September 1939 is the moment they have been waiting for. Flying beautiful aircraft in perfect formation, they face an enemy better trained, better armed and better experienced than they are.

8.1 | en | Drama , Comedy , Action & Adventure | More Info

Released: 1988-10-02 | Released Producted By: LWT , Holmes Associates Country: Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:

Synopsis

The life of a Royal Air Force fighter squadron from the day of the British entry into World War II through to one of the toughest days in the Battle of Britain.

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Cast

Neil Dudgeon , Jeremy Northam , Nathaniel Parker

Director

Peter Jessop

Producted By

LWT , Holmes Associates

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Trailers

Cast

Neil Dudgeon

as 'Moggy' Cattermole

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Jeremy Northam

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Nathaniel Parker

as 'Flash' Gordon

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Reviews

PLRD There's plenty to appreciate here: spectacular locations and flying sequences; period costumes, props and sets; and competent writing and acting. However, to enjoy a drama, we need at least one principal who exhibits some qualities that we can like or admire. In this bunch of catty snobs, we found only one character who is at all likable a hapless enlisted man in a fleeting peripheral role as their helpless victim. From the reviews here, it is clear that we are completely out of step, but we did not find their malicious-schoolgirl behavior amusing or entertaining. Even the dog is detestable. We threw in the towel after two of the six episodes, so you should discount these observations accordingly, but what I could find written about this mini-series gave us no cause to expect character transformation or redemption.

hedehad I must say I really enjoyed every moment when I watched the whole series after buying the DVD-Box. The Music is beautifully, brilliantly fantastic. The production makes the feeling of a school class where the boys in the group are drawn to certain small gangs within the group. Some of them are really close friends while some seem like sworn enemies. It is so exiting to follow them in their journey from unexperienced boys to become real fighters. They do not really understand the seriousness until they are drawn into real action.The American (Boid Gains) does a really good job here, I can't understand why he wasn't used more in Hollywood after his brilliant performance in this successful masterpiece of TV production.Neil Dudgeon is fabulous and why didn't Jeremy Northam and Nathaniel Parker get more of their recognition from Piece of Cake I wonder.I don't really fancy WW2 war birds and that sort of military stuff but I really loved this mini series. So I suppose you don't have to be a "flyboy freak" to enjoy this mini series.

The_Other_Snowman I've read several conflicting reports about the accuracy of Derek Robinson's novels. Some veterans claim that the pilots of the RAF never behaved in such a loutish manner, while others say that "Piece of Cake" is closer to the truth than most people would like to admit. Robinson researches all his books, and states that everything in them actually did happen at some point, and that he only dramatized reality by putting all the characters and events into one story. Characters like the cad Moggy Cattermole, the unbalanced Flash Gordon, or the abjectly terrified Pip Patterson are the same kind of people you'd find in an English public school -- just like the real pilots of the Royal Air Force. Robinson's artistic license places them all in the same squadron, but I don't doubt that men like them did exist in the war.The behavior of Hornet Squadron's pilots on the ground does not diminish their heroism in the air; the fact that they held off the Luftwaffe is proof enough that they deserve our respect, regardless of what they were like in person. The flawed humanity of its characters makes the sacrifice of the real pilots much easier to understand than if they were portrayed simply as selfless heroes, even if we would be more comfortable remembering them that way.The flying scenes in this series are definitely above average and should be enough to recommend it to aviation enthusiasts. A few clips here and there come from 1969's "Battle of Britain", but for the most part the scenes of Spitfires taking off and landing or flying in formation are all brand-new, including some low-level stunts involving bridges. These were real stunts performed by a real pilot -- they found the longest single-span stone bridge in the country, and flew a real Spitfire under it. It's a hell of a scene.Apart from all that, the series is very well done. The acting is great all round, particularly Neil Dudgeon as Cattermole and Richard Hope as Skelton. The script is funny and extremely quotable. After the squadron adjutant reads Churchill's speech out loud -- "Never was so much owed by so many to so few" -- one pilot asks, "Does that mean we can go home now?"

spitfire-4 "Piece is Cake" is defeatist, revisionist history of the worst kind, whose only point is to unfairly savage the reputation of the (admittedly fictional) pilots it portrays. It left a remarkably bad taste in my mouth.In the March 1989 "Aeroplane Monthly", Roland Beamont wrote a stinging condemnation of the way that RAF Fighter Command was portrayed in the TV mini-series. A few of his comments are worth repeating:"There was no sense of defeatism at any time in any of the squadrons that I saw in action, and a total absence of the loutishness portrayed in 'Piece of Cake'. It would not have been tolerated for a moment... ...The prevailing atmosphere was more akin to that in a good rugby club, though with more discipline. Nor was there any sense of 'death or glory'. RAF training had insisted that we were there to defend this country, and now we were required to do it - no more and no less."There was no discussion of 'bravery' or 'cowardice'. People either had guts or they did not - but mostly they did. But we knew fear, recognised it in ourselves and in each other, did our damnedness to control it, and then got on with the job..."...I could feel no 'glory', but there was a sense of greatness, and none of this bore the slightest resemblance to 'Piece of Cake'."Beamont was, in his own words, "a fighter pilot who, unlike the author and producer of the recent TV series, was there at the time". Beamont served with 87 Squadron both in France and the BoB, before going on to become one of the premier exponents of both the Typhoon and Tempest, and a post-war test pilot."Piece of Cake" is an absolute, total misrepresentation of the way pilots in Fighter Command acted at the time. It is nothing less than a complete and utter disgrace...