Welsh film lecturer focuses on RAF fighter pilots

Chris Morris, a lecturer at the International Film School Wales (IFSW), has completed filming a television series about novice fighter pilots in training as the Iraq war unfolded.
Morris, Programme Leader for a new documentary filmmaking course at IFSW, directed and produced the new six-part documentary series, ‘Combat Pilot’, currently being screened on BBC Two Wales.
“We spent over a year following six raw RAF recruits as they were trained to be fighter pilots,” explained Morris. “It was the first time in 25 years that television cameras have been allowed into the ‘pilot factory’ at RAF Valley, the training base in Anglesey.
“The trainees had earned their wings on propeller planes, and were now hoping to fly faster than the speed of sound in Hawk-T training jets. It was very dramatic filming these people being trained to kill at the same time as people were being killed in Iraq.
“It brought home that the RAF are now our frontline troops, with fighter pilots our main weapon.”
(GB)