David Fletcher: Hanging up the Microphone | Tank Chats | The Tank Museum

[Music] thank you [Music] if you're a regular viewer of tank chats you might have noticed that we've gone back to our old title sequence which is because after more than 100 tank chats and over 23 million views David Fletcher has decided to hang up his microphone and retire from tank chats um so we wanted to take a moment to look back on some of David's best bits and talk to him about what it was like to film all these years I don't remember could you just um push your eyebrows back slightly put that oh he's under there look look he has got eyes under there somewhere yeah I can't look at you now I got a giggle without worrying about anything because they're well behind the lines at least that's the idea attention commanded by a chap called George Patton who probably became more famous during the second world war he actually got shot in the backside during the first world war still um we've all got to suffer some bits and pieces it's got the engine the V12 it's situated at the back in a separate compartment away from the crew so you're not actually gassing everyone while it's going along which is rather nice and generally speaking the tank was very efficient as a machine it would run beautifully and run whenever you wanted it to which is more than you could say for many British tanks which broke down for the fun of it the British answer to the attacking airplanes was to shut the lid keep your head down I hope the plane flew away the Americans would rather try and shoot it down but that's typical you don't have to show me hanging on to this thing to did Grim death for some reason the abhorred wearing socks I suppose someone knows what's going on it's got a door in the side a square door with a plug which was normally fitting with a chain and was pulled out and you could fire a revolver through it if you wanted to if you could find anyone outside you didn't like you could shoot them um we'll Overlook the front machine gun position because some people I can't imagine why think it's rather rude but I I wouldn't know of course but that's it because it's quite an interesting vehicle the same as as they always are when I'm talking about them bound to be interesting it's an interesting tank all the same although the Germans only Built 20 of them it was built as a lesson really in tank Construction following our early attempts to show them a tank in the 15th of September 1916. that we used to be all there should be a door here but it fell off ages ago and nobody knows where it is now so he can't show you the door now this is the Vickers Armstrong's Marquee it was actually first developed in 1928 and it was purely done for commercial reasons the British army took one look at it and decided they didn't like it which is one of the most stupid things the British army ever did but never mind so what they used to do was confined them only to airfields they were for Airfield defense and there's no Hills on airfields if you if we go and have a look at one they're usually flat they've got to be so we've made some Pro yes but very slowly of course being British the rest near the driver who could pass them back if need be if he ain't got anything else to do he was only driving the tank after all this aerial view was taken by a chap in a helicopter he couldn't fly by himself he had to have helicopter they were used by almost everybody even the Americans used them once during the Pacific Campaign didn't like them but they used them they were a marvelous idea everyone said oh for the first time a man can go out in the field just equipped with one of these in a box and he can hunt tanks you can if he wants to but he's about to get killed in the end and he's never going to hit a tank because it just doesn't work but still this turret made things slightly difficult because obviously you don't want Vehicles turning upside down in the middle of a battle that would be rather embarrassing and then I got a letter saying I'd be rewarded and I had to keep quiet about it because I was leaving which is why I think the NBA it was cheaper than buying me a clock so I thought well that's the the reason I don't know firstly you might be wondering who on Earth we are Matt and I are usually the ones behind the camera making sure that all of this comes together and we've been working with David from the very beginning of tank chats it all started because our director Richard Smith wanted to make sure that all of David's knowledge about the collection was recorded somewhere he was theoretically retiring at that point so we decided to record them on video and put them up online and see if people were interested which it turns out they were yes absolutely it's been an interesting few years but before we let you go we wanted to ask you a few questions about what you thought of the whole thing when we asked you to start filming these things did you think they'd be so popular I didn't think they'd be popular at all no I was really amazed which is the sheer number of Interest the sheer amount of Interest I suppose I didn't realize how much interest there was until I'd done a walk around during tank Fest and I was stopped by 10 10 year old boys who'd seen me on the I don't know on the computer and they all wanted my orchestograph and they wanted photos of me I couldn't understand why I've never understood that I do think people people do love your fletcherisms they love your sort of little aside comments because it could be a very dry lecture and actually you make it quite funny oh good did you think you'd end up spending seven years coming into the museum retired no I didn't I didn't see the sense in that but there we are I just assumed they couldn't find anybody else um you make it seem so effortless um what's the hardest thing about doing them is there anything hard about doing them not really I've been doing it the thing is that I've always done them as an extension of my guided tours of the museum and I've been doing them for years so all I was doing really was talking in the same fashion as I would in front of a vehicle to a live audience and it was it's never been difficult and doing it to a little red light on a camera that didn't phase you at all never has done no I can behave quite naturally in front of the camera and they're thinking about it did you want to talk anymore about the preparation or the lack of preparation for doing them I never needed to do any preparation the worst of the worst times when I sat at home and opened a book just to check on a few facts other than that I did it maybe it's a memory it wasn't it wasn't that difficult really and my memories got worse so you had to put up with what you got in the early days when we did the first few we tried to keep the whole episodes down the the episodes themselves down to less than five minutes or five minutes or thereabouts yeah um it's now developed and David Willie's doing 30 40 minute episodes have you watched any of them and what do you think I've watched a couple but I think that things have changed now people want more detail and want more um history so they they like David's Style and we're all different anyway so his tank chats has really increased people's understanding of tank history they must they must they're learning things from you they might never have learned otherwise they've brought people to the subject and that was the idea I mean most of the people I'm doing guided to us for having a clue they come in they see a strange fluke and a load of Tanks but all look the same my job is to make sure clear that they're not the same that there are reasons for beings and doing that is perfectly normal to me if someone else is in front of the camera maybe no one would have ever watched them well I don't know 23 million people can't be wrong no in addition to the tank charts um of course some half were not halfway but we we invented the concept of top five and bottom fives and did a couple of those yes um how did you feel about having to put those together of the worst British was a Doddle to do there were so many of them I couldn't I couldn't read into something except for the worst one I mean the foreign ones it had to be in the museum and therefore you were limited in what you could say and what you could show whereas in the British stuff all the horrid stuff was there in front of you and you just had to say how horrid it was and then that may it was all the easier doing the pity stuff for that reason you could always make a tank sound awful or good I think that is one of the appeals of your tank shuts is the sort of Frank admission that basically it wasn't really any good or um it had massive failings and we should admit to that mix to those things well I don't see how you can get around it that they are bad and you might as well stay there bad and I can't see the point in saying it's British it must be good that's a little nonsense I think it's fair to say that your interest really lies with the British tanks would that be the case it's a very fair thing to say yes it's easier to work in British tanks because you can read what's written down does your interest I also get the impression that you're interested sort of drifts off sort of by about 1950 1960 to some extent it's the oh yes there's a limit added to which it's what I've been brought up with when I first worked at bovington there were still centurions about and there was the chieftain and now The Chieftains disappeared and we've got these um Challenger ones and twos which I'm not so familiar with so I've gone with what I'm I know a bit about I always thought you liked him to war best I think I do I think the interwar stuff always fascinates me because it's so bloody useless most of it is done so they make one or two and they give up and say it's too expensive can't make any more of those so terribly British yeah yeah yeah and I I like that the eccentricities yes I always have done so what's next are you going to carry on writing and I'll keep writing but I'm only writing magazine articles I'm not really up to writing a book now no you're allowed to get old again I did always threaten to wheel you in immediately now I I really think from the giving up the tank checks it's my voice is what was anything else so it's broken down you can hear it and I can't do it I can't talk to camera obviously I think it's fair to say that you do a pretty wide range of vehicles across the collection of the museum I don't think certainly haven't missed anything as far as I can tell um I think I I mean I could go on and on but I think I've done the main ones what matters I think I think the tanks that deserve David Fletcher have been covered did you enjoy filming it did you enjoy coming in and filming oh yes I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't enjoyed it do you think you're missing us oh yes I'm so kind that's the most important thing yeah we'll miss seeing you exactly David Fletcher might be calling it a day on tank charts but fear not from now on you can look forward to David Willy's very lengthy tank chats and also our new series tank chats reloaded which is going to take a look back at some of the popular tank chats and look at a new angle on those but for now a final thank you to David from everyone at the tank Museum all of our subscribers and our supporters and from the two of us so thank you thank you all good all good yeah you've got a tank in the background thank you David yes and actually thank you yeah and thank you very much it's been uh yeah it's been on seven years seven years yeah I know I do find it it is amazing look back on that and think we had a bit of Matt's time when he was a photographer and a bit of my time when I was just a little marketing executive and this morning there are three lots of filming going on at the time Museum really yes so it's all grown it's all grown and awful lot yes it's come a long way [Music] it's actually known as the 40 tons Centurion which is like saying it's a bit lighter it actually weighs 41 tons but no one seems to bother about that it was just a question of having a catchy title but it was a quite a good tank although a very small one as you can see it's in fact it's hardly any taller than I am well I'm short enough which if it hit was more destructive if it didn't well I'd luck it went with sling off into the outer space

Channel: The Tank Museum

Views: 170,747

Keywords: Bovington, Dorset, Tanks, Tankfest, tanks, tiger, chieftain, tank museum, second world war, world war two, top five tanks, tank chats, david fletcher, british army, tiger 131, royal armoured corps, tank regiment, RAC, tank museum bovington, tanklife, bovingtontank museum, military history, ww2, ww1, armoured car, tankchats, army, veteran, wwii history, world war 1, world war ii, war history, royal navy, ww2 history, royal air force, wwii museum, wwi, ww2 tanks, ww2 weapons

Id: S5QMywuJdIE

Length: 14min 46sec (886 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 23 2022