Bovington Tank Museum - 5th October 2009.
Museum weather and what can I hear? The sound of tanks? Warfare? Guns? No, lots of English spoken with a strong accent. There are French and Flemish speaking Belgian veterans here enjoying tanks and nostalgia. Hmm, a signature building and a terracotta-coloured access ramp that dominates the view. Strange low level concertina style display panels at the entrance that are already showing signs of wear and are frustrating to read. The building dominates the display. I had hoped to see an exhibition hall akin to the fantastic National War Memorial Museum in Australia. But it appears that the bulk of the HLF money has been spent on the building and not the exhibition which is traditional with very little technology. There are highlights, the fabulous photos, the well written, edited and narrated AV, the uniform cases which are really well designed containing a capsule collection with just the right amount of interpretation. I liked the engine sound track in the tank. There are some oddities though. Why display both a picture of the Cambrai flag (labelled) and the flag itself (un-labelled) as a back drop to a show case? Why not borrow the real painting 'My Son John' ? The colour copy is simply not good enough.There is no atmosphere or excitement here. A lighting designer could have made a huge difference, adding some much needed drama to the fascinating story of the tank. The 'Little Willie' turntable is great but why not mechanise the model of the Da Vinci tank which is seen right at the beginning? Seems an obvious idea to me.The interpretation is not good enough to compliment the magical intensity of the objects, potent symbols of war and peace and it's the small well lit cases that stand out.