Veteran documentary-maker Chris Terrill has a knack for combing through casts of thousands and finding the biggest characters, said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. That talent is on full display in his “tremendously engaging” six-part series, The Warship: Tour of Duty, about Britain’s biggest warship, HMS Elizabeth (aka “Big Lizzie”).
Among the show’s many colourful characters is Ronnie Lambert, who joined the Navy to kick his cocaine habit and is in trouble for going “a bit Awol”. There is also a “delightfully posh” sublieutenant, and an “endearingly naive” 21-year-old, who joined up “for the travel” and for the chance to deliver humanitarian aid, but isn’t keen on combat (“I don’t agree with war”). By focusing on people, not hardware, Terrill creates a film that is imbued with a “real sense of life”.
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Terrill spent months on Big Lizzie during the ship’s first operational deployment, and what he presents is an “odd combination of Top Gun and soap opera”, said Sarah Oliver in the Daily Mail. He said he wanted to capture what life is actually like on the warship. “Mission accomplished.”
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