THE first programme in a television series looking at the life of personnel at RAF Lyneham was broadcast last night on ITV1 in the Central region.

The Airbase programme follows a number of Lyne-ham personnel during the few months leading up to the war in Iraq.

It was filmed over a six-month period from Novem-ber until last month with all the footage being compiled into six, half-hour long programmes.

The first was an introduction explaining how important the base was to Britain's armed forces. Introducing the programmes is base commander, Group Captain, Ray Lock, who described running what is one of the most important bases in the country as "the best job in the world."

Viewers had the chance to see flight crews keeping up their training schedules by performing the unusual task of landing their Hercules aircraft affectionately known as Fat Alberts on a sodden beach in West Wales in an attempt to simulate the desert landing strips the crews would encounter in the Gulf.

A small team of ground crew headed for the beach to prepare the landing ground, setting up lights and checking to see whether the sand would take the weight of the 70-ton aeroplane.

Around 12 crews took it in turns to land on the sand into the night, before returning the aircraft to Lyneham where engineers would have to strip the aircraft clean away saltwater.

In the second half, viewers were treated to parachute drop training by the aircrews. During their training Hercules crews make the short flight to the old RAF base at Keevil near Trow-bridge where Army personnel call in the aircraft to make the airdrops as accurate as possible.

The dropping of supplies accurately means they are delivered to those who need them and not to the enemy.

One of the characters Wing Commander John Reid, of 70 Squadron talked about how he going to announce to his 221 personnel that they should be preparing for war by making their wills and ensuring they are fit to go.

Flight Lieutenant John Makinson-Sander, spokesman for RAF Lyneham, said: "Many on the base will have to wait with bated breath to see the programme as it won't be shown in our TV region until much later in the month.

"It is very exciting though to see our base on the small screen."

"I would hope that people find what we do at Lyneham interesting.

" Many people think the RAF is about fast jets and shooting down aircraft, so it's good that the vital role we play here is highlighted."