That Was The Week That Was – 28 Feb-04 March 2022
Big Jet TV to the Rescue!
The UK prime minister Harold McMillan was once asked what the greatest challenge for a Statesman was. ‘Events, dear boy, events’ he replied. We seem to have had more than the occasional event recently. All of them challenging. Fate, or the script writers for 2022 – The Live Show, to the extent they are different, has really gone overboard. From fast moving Covid variants to fast moving winds to fast moving wars, we seem to have had them all.
The war in Ukraine seems to be slowing down, indeed, bogging down, but not in a good way. If we can believe the footage of Ukrainian farmers towing Russian trucks and tanks out of the mud can be believed, the Ukrainian Farmers Federation will soon be the seventh largest army in the world.
The bogging down of the fighting in Ukraine, both literally and figuratively, is not good news for an aviation industry that would quite like a bit of good news. Flights have again been rerouted; the oil price is reaching historic highs: uncertainty rules. The only part of the industry that is showing signs of growth is the aircraft reclamation area, as Russian oligarchs’ aircraft are being seized.
This is a chance to bring a bit of life, fun, adventure and excitement back to aviation. Here is my pitch to any TV station executive reading along… A Big Jet TV show, covering the identifying, locating, seizing and returning oligarchs’ jets. Live TV, showing just how much fun that arm of the industry can be. We would need to make sure we recruit Jerry, to give us his running commentary as the assets are whisked away but I do not think that will be too hard to arrange. Part spy show, part police procedural, part court room drama, with a real dash of cops and robbers. And, it is all about aviation.
Sure, season two, or perhaps a parallel show, could Big Jet TV-ify the same thing for luxury yachts. A third could focus on UK football clubs and political parties.
For a second consecutive week that was, a week that was extremely hard to find good news, I invite you to join me in thinking of how we can make something entertaining from the events of last week. Let’s make a folk hero of Big Jet TV.