The phrase: "Flying Doctor to Wollombula Base" (or near phonetic offering) sticks in my mind.
Google cannot find this or anything similar. Despite that I am sure it exists.
So can any other old fart remember back to the original TV series around
1960?Wonkypedia talks about a series in the '80s but this is far too late for the one I'm thinking of.
Cheers
Dave R
Try Wollumboola base, I think you'll have more luck.
I remember that!
Not a lot there, but it's a start. Although I'm not entirely sure that the phrase comes from there...I had a feeling it might be in Tony Hancock's "The Radio Ham" almost as an aside. Of course, they might have cut and pasted.
You could have simply searched for Flying Doctor and TV, to find the top result:
Chris
This old fart remembers it. See
"In the 1950s the RFDS featured in a BBC Radio series The Flying Doctor, which became well known for the catchphrase "Flying Doctor to Wollumboola Base". A television show of the same title based on this radio series and starring Richard Denning ran on the British ITV network for one season (1959?60)"
Did find that (or at least an IMDB page) but couldn't find the phrase.
Yes - checked the page and it doesn't mention the catch phrase (at least according to Chrome search).
Thanks - I was looking at the entries for the TV series and this doesn't contain the catch phrase.
As usual, experience rules :-)
Cheers
Dave R
Your memory is correct -- it features in Tony Hancock's 'The Radio Ham'. TH is tuning around and hears it over the airways, followed by a conversation along the lines of "Just wrap 'im up and don't move 'im". I'd quote in full but my copy is on vinyl in the loft.
Oh, hang on:
Yes I know about it, indeed a Charlie Drake single called my Boomerang wont' come back had the line at the end, Oops I hit the flying doctor.
That must have been 1960s? Of course you are not allowed to play it these days due to political correctness. Brian
Yes, that last one was the one. Did they not use some weird three engined plane in it? Of course this still goes on, they have a fleet of helicopters as well, but some are now separate companies like Care Flight etc. Brian
With over 150 different types, tri-motors are hardly weird. It makes a lot of sense for bush aircraft to carry two spare engines, especially if half the stories I heard from a former flying doctor pilot were true.
Indeed; a cousin of mine, a nurse, was killed when with a similar service in Kenya.
That seems slightly odd. I clearly remember both the TV series and the catch phrase. The years quoted would be about right, too. I'm quite sure I did not listen to the radio show.
It is the sort of catch phrase we, as children, would have quoted in the primary school playground. Perhaps I remember it from there.
Ivanhoe-O, Ivanhoe-O!
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen
To now drag this thread off course, it seems 50s Brits had an obsession with how Oz placenames should sound:
Flying Doctors: Wollumboola base
Journey into Space: Wongawolla launching ground
Bill Kerr's character in Hancock's Half Hour was from Wogga Wogga
:-)
Parody of The Flying Doctor here:
By the audience reaction it must have been a contemporary show.
In message , Graham. writes
Excellent! Yes, I must find half an hour to watch the whole show again.
With youtube videos, it's not you that finds the "half hour", it's the "half hour"[1] that finds you!
[1] or "Full Hour" or even longer. :-(
Yes, I have already watched The Radio Ham, and will doubtless watch more.
The tracing station at Woomera was very important to NASA, including Project Apollo From
Origin of the name[edit] The name Woomera was suggested by Group Captain Alfred George Pither of the RAAF and subsequently chosen by the Board of the Long Range Weapons Establishment in April 1947.[5] The new Village was established on Commonwealth land procured for the purpose, and named after the Aboriginal spear throwing implement the woomera which extends the range a spear can be thrown. During the 1960s, over 7,000 people lived and worked at Woomera and at Koolymilka campsite near RangeHead, approximately 42 kilometres (26 mi) west of Woomera village within the Woomera Prohibited Area.
What's worse, just half a day later, I was sucked into the youtube trap yet again (PIFs re the polystyrene ceiling tile thread). Luckily, the next youtube movie was about the top 50 scariest PIFs-UK which proved so cringeworthy, I was able to close the browser before too many "minutes of my life that I'll never get back" were lost. :-)
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