Warship is a British television drama series produced by the BBC and broadcast from 1973 to 1977. The series was set contemporaneously and depicted life on board the fictitious Royal Navy frigate HMS Hero. Four series were produced with 45 episodes made in total. It was also subtitled into Dutch and broadcast in the Netherlands as Alle hens aan dek (All hands on deck) and besides Britain enjoyed popularity in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

Plot

The episodes were written and filmed to reflect the reality of life in the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines in the 1970s. The primary focus for most stories was on the Captain and his fellow officers, but the series also featured life on the lower decks to portray episodes heavily featuring ratings. Episodes featured a variety of events at sea (the Cold War, smuggling, the evacuation of civilians from crisis-hit places, etc.), as well as the personal lives of officers and ratings and the impact their personal lives had on their professional lives and duties.

Cast

Over the course of the series HMS Hero 's crew changes periodically. Only two officers, Kiley and Wakelin, remain with the ship for the whole series. The main characters in most episodes were the captain and his first lieutenant, plus the Master-at-Arms and/or his Leading Regulator ("Sheriff") who led the ship's combat force.

Hero 's crew

Captains

First Lieutenants

Other officers

Ratings

Recurring characters

Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy co-operation

The series enjoyed close collaboration between the Royal Navy and the BBC, and—unusually for a TV drama of the 1970s—looked like a documentary. Seven Leander-class frigates played the role of HMS Hero and for continuity, all were repainted with the pennant number F42 of HMS Phoebe (F42), the main warship used for filming. The others were HMS Danae (F47), HMS Dido (F104), HMS Diomede (F16), HMS Hermione (F58), HMS Juno (F52) and HMS Jupiter (F60). The name HMS Hero was chosen as Hero was the lover of Leander in classical mythology and no real Leander-class frigate used the name (though the name had been used previously by six Royal Navy warships). HMAS Derwent (DE 49), a River-class destroyer escort of the Royal Australian Navy, was also used as Hero for some scenes filmed in 1976 in Hong Kong and Singapore. This Australian link and Australian broadcasts of Warship influenced the production of the later and similar Australian Broadcasting Corporation series Patrol Boat. The crews of these frigates - and Derwent - were given Hero cap tallies for filming purposes, and their ships were given HMS Hero ships' badges, name plates and lifebuoys. Similarly, their Westland Wasp helicopters from the Fleet Air Arm's 829 Naval Air Squadron were all repainted with the identification HMS Hero, the code 471, and the nickname "The Fighting Forty-Two". Among the Wasps used for the fictional Hero Flight were serial numbers XT419 from HMS Phoebe's Flight, XV625, and XV626. (One of these Wasps, XV625 still painted with the 471 code, is preserved at HMS Sultan (shore establishment) in the Royal Naval Air Engineering and Survival School.) These measures, along with the use by all the frigates of the pennant number F42, had the unintended side effect of confusing Soviet spy ships. Other Royal Navy warships used for the series included the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal (R09), the helicopter cruiser HMS Blake (C99), the commando carrier HMS Bulwark (R08) and the submarine HMS Andrew (P423). The Royal Marine Commandos took part in the series, as also did the Fleet Air Arm, the Royal Naval Reserve in the shape of the Ton-class minesweeper HMS Fittleton (M1136), the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in the shape of RFAUX Reliant (A84), RFA Grey Rover and other ships, and the Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service. Fleet Air Arm squadrons embarked on HMS Ark Royal used for filming included the Buccaneer S 2s of 809 Naval Air Squadron and the Phantom FG 1s of 892 Naval Air Squadron. The Westland Wessex HU 5s of 845 Naval Air Squadron embarked on HMS Bulwark also featured in some episodes. The series was also filmed ashore in, among other places, Gibraltar, Malta, Hong Kong, Singapore, north-east of Isfjellet in Loppa and Larvik in Norway, the Admiralty Experiment Works in Haslar, RNAS Predannack, Portland Harbour, Plymouth Dockyard, Portsmouth Dockyard and South Uist.

Theme music

The opening and closing music of the series were taken from a march called Warship, composed for the series by Anthony Isaac. The theme was played by the Band of the Royal Marines, Deal, conducted by Lieutenant Colonel Paul Neville, MVO, FRAM, RM. (See links to files of opening and closing music below.) The march is still played by Royal Marine bands and the Royal Australian Navy Band. The theme influenced the opening bars of a 2010 march, Scrap Iron Flotilla, composed by Leading Seaman Martyn Hancock of the Royal Australian Navy Band. Warship was chosen as one of the pieces performed to mark the 75th and 100th anniversaries of the founding of the Royal Australian Navy Band. Writing in the Centenary Concert Music Program in 2013, the Royal Australian Navy's then-Director of Music, Lieutenant Commander Paul Cottier, said that:

Series creators

The originator of the idea for the series and main script editor was a serving Royal Navy officer, Ian Mackintosh, who worked with BBC producer Anthony Coburn after Mackintosh originally approached the BBC in May 1971. Coburn had for some years wanted to produce a series "that would do for the Navy what Z-Cars had done for the Police". Apart from Mackintosh, other scriptwriters included Michael J. Bird, and the series was directed by Michael E. Briant among others. Mackintosh was seconded to the BBC for the series, and was awarded the MBE for his work on Warship in 1976.

Warship and Blue Peter

In 1975 the BBC's children's television programme Blue Peter included a feature about the filming of Warship at Plymouth Dockyard aboard HMS Danae; the item was presented by Lesley Judd. The next year, future Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan played a major role in the episode "All of One Company". Six episodes of Warship were filmed aboard HMS Danae around that time.

Warship assessed in retrospect

Writing in 2006, historian Professor S.P. MacKenzie judged that: Making Waves was a 2004 series made by ITV, and intended to be in the same vein as Warship. It proved less successful, and only three episodes were shown out of the six that were made. In 2022 the British Forces Broadcasting Service noted that Warship was "extremely popular ... and it is still fondly remembered to this day".

Products based on Warship

Books

Ian Mackintosh wrote three books based on the series, which were simultaneously published in hardback and paperback. The books were:

Board game

Series creator Ian Mackintosh also devised a version of the board game Battleships, based on his experience of modern naval tactics and called Warship after the series. It was produced by Merit Toys in 1976, in association with the BBC.

Scale model kit

Airfix sold its plastic 1/600 scale model kit of HMS Leander (F109) with the slogan "Featured as HMS Hero in the BBC TV series Warship".

Theme music single

Columbia Records released a 7-inch single (catalogue reference DB 8998) of the theme music (see above) in 1973. As in the TV series the theme was played by the Band of the Royal Marines, Deal, conducted by Lieutenant Colonel Paul Neville, MVO, FRAM, RM.

Availability on DVD

Series 1 of Warship was released on DVD by Simply Media on 15 September 2014, with Series 2 released on 9 November 2015. Series 3 and 4 had been due for release in different months during 2016, but these releases were cancelled due to "unforseen clearance issues". Series 3 and 4 remain unreleased on DVD.

Episode list

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

Series 4