birding-aus

Film "Tawny Pipit"

To: <>, "Paul Taylor" <>
Subject: Film "Tawny Pipit"
From: "Philip A. Veerman" <>
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 12:19:17 +1000
Subject: Re: "Tawny Pipit"

Re Paul's note below:
That film seems to come on TV at least once a year. It really is worth seeing at least once, and not just for the birds. It isn't really a comedy, it is a film of war time light propaganda and a release from the stress of war. However the way it shows small town British life and especially the caricature of the British birdwatcher and egg collectors, the pretty Russian woman sniper who was idolised by British country folk for how many "Hitlerites" she had shot and all sorts of other things. That, and the almost slapstick comedy is amusing in a way, to today's people. Or at least it is to me, (actually more quaint than amusing). As far as the Tawny Pipit featured in the film it concerned, the bird nesting seems to be genuine though the filming of the bird wasn't too crash hot. One is left suspecting that what is shown wouldn't really pass a rarities panel of today. Yet, if taken lightly, it seems a plausible portrayal of a then vagrant European species nesting in Britain. There is nothing about extinction in the film, it is just about one pair of vagrant birds. What is quaint is how the locals interpret the birds' arrival as being a sign of fleeing the war ravages of Europe. For what it is worth, I don't know how accurate it is, I have never been outside Australia, nor (fortunately) in war.
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Taylor <>
To: <>
Date: Monday, 18 September 2000 12:43
Subject: [BIRDING-AUS] "Tawny Pipit"

While thumbing through the TV guide looking for alternatives to
the Olympics, I spotted a Tawny Pipit (ABC, 12:30am - 1:50am
Wednesday 20 September.)  Apparently it's a comedy:  "In wartime
England, dedicated birdwatchers battle to save a rare bird from
becoming extinct."

Sounds like a lark.

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                    I came, I saw, I ticked.

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