Anne Diamond visits Maidenhead Heritage Centre for new VE Day documentary

Two television companies are visiting Maidenhead Heritage Centre this week to film in the Air Transport Auxiliary gallery, as this year marks 80 years since the end of the Second World War.

Forthcoming Victory in Europe (VE Day) commemorations in May are the spur for American broadcaster CBS and for Anne Diamond OBE, who is making a documentary film for Viking TV.

The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was based at White Waltham and was a civilian organisation which played a key role in the war by ferrying warplanes between factories, maintenance units and front-line squadrons.

ATA historian and trustee of the Heritage Centre, Richard Poad, will feature in both and said, ‘it’s not the first time’ their archives have piqued the interest of filmmakers.

“We’ve been frequently consulted by TV channels, by people making films about ATA, people writing histories about ATA and people writing fictional novels about ATA.

“The place they come to is Maidenhead Heritage Centre because we have one of the best collections of ATA anywhere in the world, and have enormous accumulated knowledge.

“I’m very honoured to have known many ATA veterans, so I can share stories that they shared with me, and it makes it feel really quite personal.”

Presenter Anne Diamond, who makes historical programmes for Viking TV, contacted Richard Poad for an in-depth interview and to look at the ATA material in the collection.

“Her piece on the ATA story, particularly the involvement of women pilots, is a story that is extremely unusual and very attractive as it were to audiences,” said Richard.

During her two-hour visit, Richard showed her uniforms and flying equipment in the display cases, personal photograph albums and black and white snapshots.

He brought out one logbook of a pilot, Philippa Bennett, which was bound after the war in a leather cover with gold twilling that made it ‘very grand’.

Richard also showed Anne original copies of ‘Ferry Pilots Notes’, the famous flipchart known as ‘the Bible of ATA pilots’.

These cards, produced during the Second World War for the British Air Transport Auxiliary, were intended as a memory aid for ferry pilots and summarised the handling of different aircraft.

“It told them on a maximum of two or three pages how to fly any military aircraft in current service,” added Richard.

“So in the event of them being presented with an aeroplane they’d never seen before, let alone flown, they knew how to make it work.”

Anne Diamond’s documentary will air at the beginning of May, around VE Day, on the Viking TV YouTube channel.

CBS visits today (Friday) for a piece on the 27 American women in the ATA workforce.

Next month, Richard intends to run an exhibition ahead of VE Day that delves into life in Maidenhead during the war.

The exhibition about the Home Front will look at evacuees in schools, food and rationing, gas masks and occasional bombing.

The historic anniversary will see nationwide celebrations on the May Day bank holiday (May 5), and the council is supporting residents wanting to hold a street party by cancelling the cost to close a residential road.

The deadline for applications is Thursday, April 10, and residents should ensure they have consulted with neighbours before applying.

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