Helen Goldwyn

ATA Girl is a four-episode audio drama produced by the fine folks at Big Finish, who are best known for their Doctor Who stories. Louise Jameson directs this original production, which tells the stories of the women and men of the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War. While the RAF were brave, the ATA Girls (and boys) were even braver—they were ferrying the aircraft from factories or repair facilities in the UK to the theatres of war in mainland Europe. They had to learn many, many different kinds of aircraft, sometimes with just a few hours’ training, or maybe just a few sentences from the last girl to fly the plane (“Watch out for this one, it swings to the right when you’re trying to line it up on final”).

This production is set up as a series of reminiscences from Amelia Curtis, who is now 98 years old and living in a care home. Her daughter, Rose, and her granddaughter, Tilly, take her out for visits and try to get her to talk about the war years. Although Amelia may not talk much about them to Rose and Tilly, we as the listener get the full benefit of Amelia’s trips down memory lane. The stories bring to life all aspects of the war: the challenges of flying, the continual battle for the women of the ATA to be considered the equal of men (both as pilots and as people), the horrors of war, and the desire to seize every moment of life in case there aren’t any more moments. It deals with quite serious themes, especially “Flying Blind”.

I liked this box set very much and would happily listen to more. If there was one thing to pick on, sometimes I felt there weren’t quite enough background noises. For example, in one story, the characters are in a bar and there’s loud jazz music playing…but the only way we know this is the characters saying “Ugh, let’s go somewhere else to talk, I can’t hear over these saxophones”. And I’m like “What saxophones?” They were either mixed very quietly or non-existent. But the characters themselves were all mixed very well and made for an utterly absorbing four hours of wartime drama.… (meer)