Les Chevaliers du ciel
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Les Chevaliers du ciel |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Year (s) | 1967-1969 |
| Production company |
Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française |
| length | 26 minutes |
| Episodes | 39 in 3 seasons |
| genre | Action |
| Theme music | Les Chevaliers du ciel |
| production | Jean-Michel Charlier |
| music |
Bernard Kesslair François de Roubaix |
| First broadcast | September 16, 1967 on ORTF |
| occupation | |
| |
Les Chevaliers du ciel ( French : The Knights of Heaven ) is a French adventure television series based on the comic book Mick Tanguy by Jean-Michel Charlier and Albert Uderzo . It was produced in 39 episodes from 1967 to 1969 and dubbed in English ( The Aeronauts ), Italian ( I cavalieri del cielo ) and Spanish ( Los caballeros del cielo ). The theme song "Les Chevaliers du ciel" was interpreted by Johnny Hallyday . In addition to the two protagonists Tanguy and Lavarde, the star of the series was the Dassault Mirage III fighter plane .
action
The two jet pilots of the French Air Force , the lieutenants Tanguy and Laverdure, are very different in character and are best friends despite their differing service views. They are often used by their superiors for delicate special missions, such as counter-espionage on the air force base in Dijon , testing new aircraft, training pilots in Peru or securing the nuclear weapons test site on the Pacific atoll Mururoa , which is threatened by a terrorist group . The two heroes are occasionally supported by the French Navy on their missions .
Locations
Filming locations were u. a. Tahiti and other islands in French Polynesia , the French West Indies and the aircraft carrier Foch . Filming permission was not granted for an episode set in Florida on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station .
Follow-up productions
From 1988 to 1991 TF1 produced a follow-up series entitled Les Nouveaux Chevaliers du ciel with ten episodes of 52 min. Length apparently inspired by Top Gun . In 2005 the feature film Les Chevaliers du ciel was released , which was shown in Germany under the English dubbing title Sky Fighters .
Production background
Although the production of the series was obviously massively supported by the French Ministry of Defense , there is no reference to this either in the opening or closing credits. France left the NATO structures in 1966 due to the efforts of President General Charles de Gaulle and continued to focus on expanding its own nuclear forces ( force de frappe ). The series was therefore used to advertise its own armed forces, which is demonstrated in particular by the episodes around the Mururoa Atoll. During the shooting, the first French hydrogen bomb was detonated on August 24, 1968 in the atoll Fangataufa (45 km southeast of Mururoa) ; In 1967 de Gaulle was personally present when an atomic bomb was detonated in Mururoa.
Lore
An edition published on DVD in 2004 is currently out of print.