Air Vice-Marshal Johnnie JOHNSON CB, CBE, DSO, DFC (1915-2001)

Johnnie Johnson This Is Your Life
  • A specially extended edition as part of a day of programmes broadcast to celebrate the 40th anniversary of VE Day.

programme details...

  • Edition No: 678
  • Subject No: 672
  • Broadcast date: Wed 8 May 1985
  • Broadcast time: 8.00-9.00pm
  • Recorded: Fri 3 May 1985
  • Venue: Royalty Theatre
  • Series: 25
  • Edition: 27
  • Code name: unknown

on the guest list...

  • Janet Partridge - partner
  • Sqn Ldr Danny Browne
  • Chris - son
  • Pamela - daughter-in-law
  • Michael - son
  • Kay - daughter-in-law
  • Fiona Partridge
  • Emma Partridge
  • Ross - brother
  • Betty - sister-in-law
  • Teresa - niece
  • Duncan - nephew
  • Dick Black
  • Gp Capt Hugh Dundas
  • Sqn Ldr 'Nip' Heppell
  • Sir Denis Crowley-Milling
  • Flt Lt Larry Robillard
  • Wg Cdr Hugh Godefroy
  • Gp Capt 'Hawkeye' Wells
  • Sqn Ldr Jeff West
  • Air Cdre Pat 'Jamie' Jameson
  • Arthur Ratcliffe
  • Fred Burton
  • Peter Brough and Archie Andrews
  • Bill Fraser
  • Doris Hare
  • Evelyn Laye
  • Hugh Lloyd
  • Richard Murdoch
  • Cardew Robinson
  • Elisabeth Welch
  • Harry Worth
  • Russ Conway
  • Flt Lt Johnny Irwin
  • Sqn Ldr Terry Spencer
  • Col Bud Mahurin
  • Sir Kenneth Cross
  • Maj Walter Matoni
  • Nick - grandson
  • Tim - grandson
  • Julia - granddaughter
  • Nicola - granddaughter
  • Herb Miller Orchestra
  • Anne Shelton
  • Filmed tributes:
  • Col Charles Rossell - uncle
  • Wyn Lane
  • residents of St Croix-sur-Mer
  • Prince George Of Denmark
  • Jim Lunney
  • residents of Kenley Lodge

production team...

  • Researchers: Caroline Blackadder, Claire Jenkinson
  • Writers: Tom Brennand, Roy Bottomley
  • Directors: Terry Yarwood, Michael D Kent
  • Associate Producer: Brian Klein
  • Producer: Malcolm Morris
  • names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life
related pages...

Military Life

saluting the armed forces


Extended Life

the special editions


The Night of 1000 Lives

a celebration of a thousand editions


Timeline

the show's fifty year history


Russ Conway


Bill Fraser


Doris Hare


Evelyn Laye


Elisabeth Welch


Harry Worth

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Screenshots of Johnnie Johnson This Is Your Life

Johnnie Johnson's biography

Dilip Sarkar recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, Spitfire Ace of Aces...


On 8 May 1985, the 40th anniversary of VE Day, Johnnie walked through Trafalgar Square in London, unaware that his progress was being filmed and that he had himself become a target. The hunter in this case was Eamonn Andrews, presenter of the long-running and popular Thames Television series This Is Your Life.


Achieving the perfect bounce, Andrews then escorted the surprised Air Vice-Marshal to the studio. There Johnnie's family filed in, including his partner, Jan Partridge, sons Mike and Chris with their wives, and his brother Ross. Even Uncle Charlie Rossell – aged over 100 – contributed to the programme from his Australian home.


Dick Black was there, with whom Johnnie had joined the Leicestershire Yeomanry all of those years ago, and – typically – his ground crew from 616 Squadron: rigger Arthur Ratcliffe and fitter Fred Burton. French civilians from St-Croix, where Johnnie's Spitfires had been the first to land in France after D-Day, paid tribute to him on screen (the French actually awarded him the Legion d'Honneur in 1988).


Fighter pilots gathered on stage thick and fast: Air Marshal Sir Denis Crowley-Milling, Group Captain Sir Hugh Dundas (who was, coincidentally, and as Johnnie pointed out to Eamonn Andrews, the Chairman of Thames Television!), Group Captains Pat Jameson and 'Hawkeye' Wells, Wing Commander Hugh Godefroy, Squadron Leaders Danny Browne, Jeff West, Terry Spencer and 'Nip' Heppell, and, indeed, the German ace Walter Matoni.


It was a never-to-be-repeated galaxy of Second World War fighter pilots – who afterwards drank the bar dry! Today, the programme provides a unique snapshot of Johnnie's life, and in particular the love and friendship that surrounded him.

Roy Bottomley This Is Your Life book

Scriptwriter Roy Bottomley recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is Your Life: The Story of Television's Famous Big Red Book...


Few have lived more dangerously than the RAF's most outstanding fighter pilot of the war – Air-Vice-Marshal J E 'Johnnie' Johnson CB, CBE, DSO and Two Bars, DFC and Bar, whom we surprised with a special VE Day tribute on 3 May 1985.


Those decorations for gallantry were won by risking his life when 'the Few' flew into battle with the Luftwaffe's Messerchmitts. Johnnie Johnson beat the Battle of Britain record of thirty-two enemy aircraft shot down, held by fighter ace 'Sailor' Malan. He got his thirty-third on the last day of June 1944, when he led the first Spitfire wing into Normandy.


The author of The Story of Air Fighting had flown into battle with Douglas Bader and other Battle of Britain heroes, such as Air Chief Marshal Sir Denis Crowley-Milling and Group Captain Hugh Dundas. All had flown in what Johnnie Johnson called 'that hot, sweaty, tiny greenhouse of a cockpit'.


What he wanted most was 'a joust' with a particular German air ace, built up by the press into a personal challenge. Alas, the German pilot had been shot down and wounded. After the war he wrote to Johnnie regretting he had been unable to accept the challenge.


Forty years on we flew in that German fighter ace, Major Walter Matoni, for a more peaceful meeting with Air-Vice-Marshal Johnson.

Series 25 subjects

Michael and Kevin Doheny | Patrick Macnee | Vivian Richards | Ruth Madoc | Tessie O'Shea | Fitzroy MacLean | Alice Faye
Millicent Martin | Bernard Miles | Keith Barron | Bob Geldof | Bryan Robson | Jean Anderson | Frank Carson | Russell Grant
Zandra Rhodes | Lord Harewood | Harry Andrews | Alvin Stardust | Henry John Sweeney | Paul Henry | Peter Alliss
Jim Bowen | Jack Douglas | Dan Maskell | Donald Sinden | Johnnie Johnson