Doesn't the BBC have ANY firearm experts?

[walesdave]

If you fancy a laugh, have a watch of 'Shetland' on the Beeb at the moment: Episode 1.

I quite enjoyed the rest of the programme but my wife had to stop me laughing (and trying to explain why) at the 100% complete garbage the 'coroner' came out with during an autopsy.

Based on a single deformed copper jacketed bullet (that had no rifling as far as I could tell) she declared within seconds:
- It came from a WW2 era Walther P38
- It uses rare 9mm ammunition that is hard to find
- 9mm ammunition could be made 'under ground' with the bullets being made by a skilled machinist (turning 9mm bullets on a lathe maybe?

And then they went on about a few things as if the handgun ban had never happened; 'Lets check the 'local gun register for any P38's'

[gashtyke]

Yes, of course. But you are supposed to suspend belief. Just like 'Midsomer Murders'.

[Pete]

It happens all the time, and this lack of attention to detail does often spoil an otherwise good TV yarn for me.
Cinema is often better in this respect......bigger budgets?

Pete

[Mauserbill]

Hello
Watched a program the other day shown a Sten Mk2 with a Nato 7.62x51 ball ammo box ?

[channel12]

Probably yes but the expert's advice will be ignored by a director if it doesn't fit his creative vision or the plot.
Any criticism of the production will be answered by saying they consulted with an expert.

[Sim G]

Fact is, to the completely uninitiated reading the above in a script probably sounds very authoritative so why would you then question it? A little bit of research, fit the plot, job’s a good ‘un.
In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king…

Just look at some of the s*** that’s peddled around the forums by people who actually own and shoot real guns!!!

[walesdave]

Just look at some of the s*** that’s peddled around the forums by people who actually own and shoot real guns!!!

I guess you've read some of my previous posts

One that popped into my head was an old episode of CSI (the original one) where one of the CSIs 'examined' a .22rf bullet and proclaimed it had been fired from a rifle with a sawn-off barrel - all this from a deformed bit of lead that had just been dug out of a corpse!

...and let's not start on full-bore rifles and pistols that sound like they are being fired in the vacuum of space purely by screwing a 3inch bit of tubing onto the barrel and calling it a 'silencer'.

[bradaz11]

Same as pulling out a recovered bullet and declaring it 9mm, not 38/³⁵⁷ etc.

[channel12]

They also probably have historical advisors.




There was a recent film which I didn't watch where the basis of the story was the main character used his bus pass to travel from the North of Scotland to Cornwall. We bus pass holders recognise that's total rubbish, trust me I've tried my English bus pass in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and it doesn't work !

[Graham M]

Watched an episode of Inspector George Gently, and one of the scenes was set in a church where the baddy took a shot with a "Silenced" centrefire rifle. Looked like a sporterized .303 or similar.
The bad guy was up high in the church and fired the rifle which was silenced to a point where it was quieter than an air rifle and the choir a few yards away were totally unaware of the shot.
Even the bullet travelling at supersonic speed and hitting one of the pillars wasn't heard, even though a centrefire bullet hitting a stone wall inside a church would have sounded like a bomb going off.