I read review below and felt I should add one of my own. Disclaimer. I appear briefly a few times in this programme. I would appear more but we on the ground at the UK location where the patients were dropped off were not aware that C4 were making this programme and their presence irked me as I had a job to do and we probably ruined plenty footage by swearing a lot but i was very protective of the patients and their circumstances and a producer staggering around the C-17 in heels was to me a liability and getting in the way. As it turns out the programme was excellent. It centres on two flights returning patients to the UK to the designated hospital where they are well looked after, both in the air and on the ground by an incredible team of medics, nurses, doctors, anaethsetists etc. I co ordinate the stuff on the ground prior to arrival and during the offload as a team with people from the Ambulance Services and the Military. They are some of the most amazing people ever. So dedicated, hard working way beyond the call of duty in some incredible circumstances. The programme no longer seems to be available in any format and that is a shame. We need to be reminded of the futilities and the human side of wars and conflicts but it appears to have disappeared into the ether. I hope Channel 4 will release it or at least let it be shown on You Tube again.
2 Reviews
A letter to a potential viewer
bex_corbett11 May 2015
Dear future viewer of The Air Hospital,
When The Air Hospital was originally aired I was 17 years old, living at home and worrying about what I would get in my upcoming AS Level exams.
When I watched The Air Hospital, I was 22 years old, living in a flat with friends and worrying what I would get in my upcoming degree classification.
While my worries have far from moved on, 'The Air Hospital' addresses a conflict that I, aged 17, was barely aware of - bombs were as distant as those in films and my only understanding of taking shelter was from a WWII day in primary school.
The British involvement with Afghanistan is remembered by me, a naïve and non-politically active 17 year old, as a lot of news broadcasts and people taking to the street in protest. By watching The Air Hospital aged 22, I am aware that it was a lot more significant than that.
While the war was fought seemingly so far away that it has managed to vanish from my short- sighted memory, it remained in cultural memory via charities like Help for Heroes, the Invictus Games and news articles that declared former political landmarks war-criminals.
The conflict in Afghanistan was thus left as a political event solely to be addressed by charities helping injured soldiers and human rights activists who sought action against former political leaders.
By watching The Air Hospital I was able to see the men and women who were the forgotten heroes of the Afghanistan war. They were not left with visible war scars, as their patients whom they safely brought back to their families were, but regardless provided an important and very real insight into the daily life of those involved in the Afghanistan war.
They had chosen for one reason or another to leave the safety of domestic air-travel, their GP surgery or NHS hospital and instead face dangerous landings that were a far cry from the common cold. Instead of flu jabs they were being presented with victims of IUD roadside bombs, shrapnel and arms attack. These doctors and nurses are not those who the public are reminded of, but who likely are those who brought competitors of the Invictus Games home.
For this reason, regardless of the five-year waiting period, I would encourage you, future viewer, to watch The Air Hospital. Yes, you may want more context at the beginning because similarly you were disengaged at the time, or you may want to know what happened next, but that now is history and I am sure you can find a history book, news article or athletic line-up that tells you if you put your mind to it.
Kind Regards,
Rebecca Corbett
When The Air Hospital was originally aired I was 17 years old, living at home and worrying about what I would get in my upcoming AS Level exams.
When I watched The Air Hospital, I was 22 years old, living in a flat with friends and worrying what I would get in my upcoming degree classification.
While my worries have far from moved on, 'The Air Hospital' addresses a conflict that I, aged 17, was barely aware of - bombs were as distant as those in films and my only understanding of taking shelter was from a WWII day in primary school.
The British involvement with Afghanistan is remembered by me, a naïve and non-politically active 17 year old, as a lot of news broadcasts and people taking to the street in protest. By watching The Air Hospital aged 22, I am aware that it was a lot more significant than that.
While the war was fought seemingly so far away that it has managed to vanish from my short- sighted memory, it remained in cultural memory via charities like Help for Heroes, the Invictus Games and news articles that declared former political landmarks war-criminals.
The conflict in Afghanistan was thus left as a political event solely to be addressed by charities helping injured soldiers and human rights activists who sought action against former political leaders.
By watching The Air Hospital I was able to see the men and women who were the forgotten heroes of the Afghanistan war. They were not left with visible war scars, as their patients whom they safely brought back to their families were, but regardless provided an important and very real insight into the daily life of those involved in the Afghanistan war.
They had chosen for one reason or another to leave the safety of domestic air-travel, their GP surgery or NHS hospital and instead face dangerous landings that were a far cry from the common cold. Instead of flu jabs they were being presented with victims of IUD roadside bombs, shrapnel and arms attack. These doctors and nurses are not those who the public are reminded of, but who likely are those who brought competitors of the Invictus Games home.
For this reason, regardless of the five-year waiting period, I would encourage you, future viewer, to watch The Air Hospital. Yes, you may want more context at the beginning because similarly you were disengaged at the time, or you may want to know what happened next, but that now is history and I am sure you can find a history book, news article or athletic line-up that tells you if you put your mind to it.
Kind Regards,
Rebecca Corbett
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