"Remarkable 'Return to Burma' Ad (UK National Lottery)" Topic

I expect that most UK TMPers will have already seen this, but I was blown away by this advert. Once again, it's left me wondering why, if an advert can have such high production quality and if the BBC can afford to fund US drama such as 'Band of Brothers', why have we never seen a decent British WW2 drama covering Burma, such as 'Quartered Safe Out Here'?

YouTube link

Wow, I would totally watch that if they did it!

Very good RMD,
thanks for sharing that.
Joe

RMD,
Yes, I would totally watch something like that as well. The commercial was excellent; too bad it's for the National Lottery.
BWW

Still the 'forgotten army'…..

Great ad. If its not the desert or NW Europe its seems to be forgotten.

Not Burma but a very good film of another forgotten theatre is "39th Battalion" about Aussies defending the Kokoda Trail in New Guinea.

Personally, I won't game Japs after meeting an ex POW.

"why have we never seen a decent British WW2 drama covering Burma"

You are forgetting 'Tenko'!

Perhaps it was a bit forgettable….

Tenko was good and there have been quite a few other PoW dramas fromm the Far East (there was a superb one made about ten years ago, starring Robert Carlyle), but I was thinking more along the lines of the story of fighting men, fighting. The nearest we've ever got was 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum'!

A magnificent documentary!

I'm sure I remember one episode with BSM Williams stalking the Japanese with a Sten, but no, there wasn't much fighting in IABSM apart from what colour dress to wear or who got the last chapati.

I think that sadly that British involvement in the Far East is defined in popular culture by the fate of Allied prisoners, rather than the military campaigns. Just like WW1 is all Tommies going over the top watched by braying staff officers.

There is always 'Too Late the Hero' I suppose.

That is an extraordinarily moving ad. As BrianW remarks, it's too bad it's in support of what is essentially an innumeracy tax.

I disagree. I think the Lottery is a brilliant thing – I've never contributed a penny to it, but my cadets have benefitted enormously from other people's cash! :o)

I too love the lottery – I picked a set of numbers* when it started. I used to win a pound, every single week – and now they have a mid-week lottery draw I win two!

(1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7)

Pat

Ive just watched it, had a shiver down my spine and a lump in my throat while watching-that's an effective ad

A very impressive ad in deed. Quite unlike many that have gone before it. The producer obviously put some thought into it.

I wish Richard Branson had won the lottery contract, then all the money would have gone to good causes, except that needed to run the machines etc. Camelot I believe only give about 10-15% of their takings each week to charity. The rest goes into their pockets (after paying to run the machines etc).

after paying to run the machines etc

and talented agencies like the one that did this ad.

Personally, I won't game Japs after meeting an ex POW.

I know a gentleman that refers to MacArthur as 'that sumbitch that left us to die' and he doesn't hold any hate for the Japanese. If he doesn't, how can I?

Besides, *someone* needs to play the bad guys…

I'll agree with you LITS, and I almost got snuffed, second hand by a kamikaze. They missed getting my father, thank the Almighty. MacArthur was the biggest egomaniac in the war after Hitler. Patton and Monty do not hold a candle to him.

As for the Ad, impressive and I too am in agreement as to its production quality. Pity we haven't seen something like that on Burma.

Most of the Italians I knew in Australia were the kids or grand kids of an Italian POW, as soon as the war was over they were queueing outside the Aussie embassy for an immigration form.

<<….why have we never seen a decent British WW2 drama covering Burma, such as 'Quartered Safe Out Here'?>>

Because everyone knows that Errol Flynn really won the war in Burma.