Author:Chris Terrill
This is the tie-in book to a two part BBC 1 documentary series to be screened at 9.00pm in October and which will end on the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar on 21st October. Chris Terrill is famous for his fly on the wall documentaries which have been watched by millions and received wide critical acclaim. We have had HMS Brilliant and The Cruise (audience reached 11 million). Chris has based himself for the last few months in the very heart of the modern day naval experience. We will see: a Royal Naval Chaplain exorcising a haunted barracks in Portsmouth, a vodka-fuelled Trafalgar Day celebration in the British Embassy in the Moscow in 2004, a Polaris submarine crossing the Atlantic on an exercise in which it will 'pretend' to nuke America, the patrol of the frigate HMS Chatham in the Gulf, suddenly diverted to Sri Lanka after the Tsunami and the Fleet Review, where HMS Chatham in honour of her humanitarian role in Asia, will lead the entire assembly of a hundred warships, British and foreign, down the Solent. Chris is the only film maker to be granted exclusive, behind the scenes access by the Navy this year. During the filming Chris will capture the heart and soul of the sailors aboard, and on shore: there will be plenty of irreverence, practical jokes and laughs, and the human reality of the families left behind for months on end as warships and submarines go on extended tours of duty. This will be the fullest ever account of the Modern Navy in a year when the Trafalgar Day celebrations and the Fleet review will attract an avalanche of publicity.
A fascinating insight into the world of The King, and an absolute essential for any fan.
—— heatGenuinely moving.
—— The TimesThe honest, revealing material brings you closer to the truth about this extraordinary man.
—— SunA revealing reflection of an extraordinary life.
—— Daily ExpressWitty with bursts of Smithy-style sincerity - it is distinctively Corden.
—— IndependentIt'll make you lol but is also full of poignancy in classic Smithy Style
—— Company MagazineStrong accounts of his highs and lows... [the book] lays bare the distorting lens of modern celebrity.
—— London LifeCute on the machinations of the industry and internal band politics
—— The Times, Book of the WeekBrilliant... forensically put together
—— Gordon Smart , XFMThe real pleasure of his beguiling, meandering narrative is not the destination but the rococo scenery en route. ****
—— Francis Wheen , Mail on Sunday