Silent_Cal In the very first scene of "Piece of Cake", a squadron leader lands his plane in a ditch, and breaks his neck on his way to the ground. Things go from bad to worse: it's September 1939, and Britain and Germany have just declared war. RAF Hornet Squadron's first successful dogfight turns out to be an embarrassing friendly-fire incident. The young pilots' enthusiasm doesn't wane, however, and a new commanding officer soon arrives in a red sports car and immediately orders a bottle of champagne.In France the squadron enjoys their comfy château with its full bar and squash court, as well as good food, good wine, and local women. In the air there is much confusion, as the pre-war RAF's tactics are gradually revealed to be inadequate in the face of the veteran German air force. The war heats up, things start to fall apart, and it all ends with the Battle of Britain in September 1940.That should give you an idea of the tone and style of "Piece of Cake", a six-part miniseries based on Derek Robinson's 1983 novel. Much has been lost on the route from page to screen, including several characters and subplots. That's all right, since there were a lot of them to begin with. The cast fit into their roles smoothly and naturally: Neil Dudgeon plays the bullying Moggy Cattermole with easy charm; Tom Burlinson is the stalwart Australian flight lieutenant; Richard Hope is brilliant as the egg-headed intelligence officer Skull Skelton; and Tim Woodward brings an appropriate air of stubborn romanticism to the aristocratic Squadron Leader Rex.There are plenty of vintage aircraft on display for those who like that sort of thing. The Spits are anachronistic, but excusable. You can also see a pair of Spanish-made Messerschmitts standing in for the Germans, and a few other old warbirds in the background. It's a relief to see the real things: not models, not computer-generated, and flying under bridges to boot.Is it realistic? Is it true to history? Who knows. The survivors of the battle are not likely to appreciate their warts-and-all portrayal, as you'd expect. That's fine. "Piece of Cake" does nothing to tarnish their legend, nor does it try to: the idea is to show the heroes of the Battle of Britain as people the audience can understand, and it works. Humor, irony, and tragedy are the stuff of real life. I'd rather have the daunted, wearied, and worn-out men of Hornet Squadron than the cardboard cutouts of myth.

pepperanne14 I bought this DVD set, sight unseen, and wish I hadn't. The script needed some serious rewriting as it seems to be completely devoid of any feeling and pales in comparison to the book. The lighting is horrid, very unpolished, but if it was just that I could overlook it. The script doesn't focus enough on the characters...there is hardly an introduction to various characters making it a tad difficult to distinguish who is who(especially in the planes--no idea who dies when).I have long felt that the key to a good film is in getting the audience to care about the characters; if you don't have that you don't have anything. There was no focus on the characters at all--you never got to know them--who they were, what they liked..what made them do the things that they do. The series is 5 hours long and split up into 6 parts...I bet you are wondering what they did with all this time if they didn't detail the characters---they put a lot of filler in it....I will say at least an entire hour is spent watching them land and take off in their planes LOL (I mean do we really need to see that over and over again???). I would have given this a much higher rating had they just improved our knowledge of the characters.

woodguy Very good mini-series, but it falls a bit short of the excellent book by Derek Robinson. Air combat sequences are taken from the film "Battle of Britain". The acting is very good across the board, however, I'd like to see some more character development and lines for a few of the characters. See the film, but read the book as well. Also recommended are Derek Robinson's "Hornet's Sting", "Goshawk Squadron", and "A Good Clean Fight".

darencogdon Forgiving the various historical inaccuracies (Spitfires instead of Hurricanes, aircraft colour schemes, etc) this is a very enjoyable piece of TV.Though it may be hard to choose one truly great character in the programme, as there are so many, I really have to admire 'Moggy' Cattermole. Moggy gets the best lines, without a doubt, and he is undeniably the one we'd all want to be. Unbelievably charming, absolutely dashing and the definition of wit itself, Moggy steals the show on the ground. But it is the aerial content that I wanted to watch in this - the fight scenes are well done, and the way in which the whole thing is brought together (well explained in a very informative and thought provoking book, 'How They Made.....') is quite remarkable.Throughly enjoyed over and over on video, too.