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Welcome to We Have Ways and talk with me Al Murray and James Holland. Of course, Jim in the Holland bunker in Wiltshire.

Yes. And me here in West London. And Jim, the other day I went to Bovington, right? You feel very happy there, don't you? That's one of your happy place. I do really, really like it. Although I also went to commemoration for the Sappers lost at Cromwell Lock.

And I wore my red beret, my maroon beret for the first time.

How did you feel about that? commemoration for the Sapper's lost at Cromwell Lock and I wore my red beret, my maroon beret for the

first time. How did he feel about that? Did he feel somber or did you feel proud or did you feel

somber and proud? Somba, extremely somber. It's a very moving occasion. So what happened is 50 years

ago, some guys from one three1 parachute squadron, Royal Engineers,

and their commandos now, they were TA, so reservists.

They were on an 80-mile water exercise down the Trent,

80-mile long on a weekend.

And they got to the lock at the Cromwell lock, which is near Newark,

and the lights were out on the lock, and they didn't see the weir, and they went over the weir, and 10 of the guys were lost. Oh, my God. It's just absolutely appalling, right? And the ceremony was very, very moving because, you know, you had one guy in particular who was a, you know, contemporary of my father's of the colonels, who came up and you know, said, ah, colonel, and saluted me, which is the first time anyone's done that, right? Which I found very like... Did you salute back? Of course it did, you know. It wasn't a saluting occasion, sort of occasion. Because there was the brigadier, there was all sorts of people there, right? just a little subtle one, you know, but yes, I did. Yeah. Okay. But did it, was there a moment where

you thought, do I do I do this or not? Yes, there was. Yeah, yeah. There's a moment where I thought, do I wear the beret or not? And actually driving there, it's a two and a half hour drive up from here. All the way up, I'm thinking, do I wear the berry? And I thought, well, no, you're their colonel.

Because 299, who are my squadron, are kind of the equivalent now And I thought, well, no, you're their colonel. Because 299,

who are my squadron, are kind of the equivalent now to 131, because everyone got re-rolled and then they needed some more parachute engineers and all that, or airborne deliverable people. So these are your people now? Yeah. And I was very much reminded of when we were in Arnhem. Do you remember we were in Arnhem and we went out drinking in the square in Arnhem and you said to me, this is your crew, this is your tribe, these airborne people. It was. And I sort of thought, you know what? Yes to an extent, apart for the fact, I've not done Pea Company. You know, I'm not a Walt here. I'm not saying this is, you know, anything I've ever done, but I did feel that kind of resonance. alright, right, but, you know, they asked you to be their honorary colonel.

Well, exactly. So on the drive up and thinking, when I've got, and I've brought the barry with her, I got to wear the beret, right? And then I pull up and I literally arrived one car after my parents. And dad's there in his aviary coat, right, with his beret on and a couple of medals. And I thought, well, I've got to wear, I've got to wear the beret now. If I've arrived with the colonel. And then he did this whole thing

of, after you, you are senior, of course. Was it slightly free gritted teeth or was it with

pride? No, no, he loved it. But it was very, very interesting. It was fascinating because it

was about commemoration, but post-war, not our patch, not how do you think about that? There were grown-ups there who, you know, or lost their fathers in this accident, right? And they were a Scottish shoot. They're out of Glasgow. And so there was also a commemoration in Glasgow as well to these guys. and their officer, the guy who'd been their officer in Glasgow, so it was a troop of Sappers in Glasgow. And dad said their headquarters was in Kingsbury, in North West London, near Wembley, right? And they had a troop in Birmingham and a troop in Hull and a troop in Glasgow, as far as I remember, right? And the Glasgow guys, he said, you know, they were, there were hundreds of miles away from us. They kind of did what they wanted and they were really independent.

You can see how that would play out, wouldn't you? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And, you know, they're all

paratroopers and they're all, you know, young tough lads. And he said that it was very moving what

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