Bob Baldwin’s Wireless Operator Set for TV-Movie Adaptation

Grand River Productions has joined forces with The Bridge for a television feature adaptation of Bob Baldwin and Max Kinnings’ original stage play Wireless Operator.

A look at the experiences of the WW2 Bomber Command, whose role in attacks on civilians made their service in the war a shameful secret, Wireless Operator is inspired by the wartime experiences and subsequent un-diagnosed PTSD of Baldwin’s own father. The production will be donating a percentage of profits to Combat Stress, a U.K. charity for veterans’ mental health.

The TV movie will closely follow the action of the play, charting one Wireless Operator’s experiences in battle in a claustrophobic Lancaster Bomber. The feature will be produced by Grand River’s Jamie Brown in association with financier Amanda Groom of The Bridge. Rob Cowie (The Blair Witch Project) will offer support and guidance as needed to the project.

Jamie Brown, CEO of Grand River Productions, said: “In developing this project, we have worked closely with Bob Baldwin and Max Kinnings. I have been struck by their immense talent and flexibility in all of their work with us, and the way they work so positively and respectfully. Bob has a very keen sense of design and editing, and I know that he will make this a powerful production.”

Bob Baldwin, co-writer and director, added: “This film is a portrait of an honorable young man, who in good faith participated in acts that history has judged truly appalling. The story was inspired by my own father’s writing, which revealed how psychologically complex this war had been and the extent of the trauma he and his crewmates had endured. They didn’t talk about it; they didn’t get campaign medals, and their contribution to the allied victory became a national embarrassment consigned to the back pages of history by a society unsure of its moral culpability. Wireless Operator is a long-overdue re-examination of their experiences.”