Adrian Bleese was born and raised in the northwest of England before joining the Royal Air Force to fly on search and rescue and submarine hunting missions. On leaving the RAF, he was stunned to discover that no-one needed any submarines hunted and he was therefore forced to find a real job. Following some time working in advertising, he began working for Suffolk Constabulary and spent twelve years flying on police helicopters, attending almost 3,000 police tasks even though he was neither a policeman nor a pilot. He was one of only a handful of civilian Air Observers working anywhere in the w