simon hudson Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Just caught A cracking prog on CH4 How Britain worked worth a watch Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mike Bellamy Posted October 21, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 21, 2012 Excellent programme - no idea about the technical accuracy or the historical content but well worth watching. Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon hudson Posted October 21, 2012 Author Share Posted October 21, 2012 I had no idea the prog was on I had just come in and turned the box on.I have to say I was quite impressed and being a North Eastern modeller that prairie did look rather nice!! I could be tempted by the dark side. It did look very nice in HD I would like my bacon a bit crispier than managed and the egg looked a bit over cooked Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted October 21, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 21, 2012 Just caught A cracking prog on CH4 How Britain worked worth a watch How come you posted at 20:31 when the programme didn't finish 'til 21:00?!! Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butler Henderson Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Its repeated on 4seven on Wednesday at 7pm Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted October 21, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 21, 2012 Oh dear - some very nice film (albeit with continuity of the train shots that made some of Michael Portillo's trips look superbly edited) but some of the commentary was awful and very misleading due to sloppy scripting. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul.Uni Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 It's also repeated on 4seven today at 8pm and Sunday at 7pm Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisf Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 I also caught it by accident. Not without interest, I thought, but for the wrong reasons. Sloppy scripting is an understatement! My favourite howler was the suggestion that Prairie tanks have eight wheels. Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold RedgateModels Posted October 22, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 22, 2012 Oh yes, another prog to catch up on my new Youview box Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hughes Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 I also caught it by accident. Not without interest, I thought, but for the wrong reasons. Sloppy scripting is an understatement! My favourite howler was the suggestion that Prairie tanks have eight wheels. Chris Well, they do. Not in total, of course! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastwestdivide Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 The good points: his enthusiasm for getting involved, and taking on unfamiliar jobs and making a half-decent result (like the watch repair and the shovel) and also the demonstration of just what hard graft was involved in a lot of those jobs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Metr0Land Posted October 22, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 22, 2012 Overall I thought it was pretty enjoyable. Ref the script, mostly it didn't grate too much for me. We've all learned about the railways over years and years. The tv makers have to make a prog that imparts information, is enjoyable to your average Joe, and explains things to generations who've grown up not knowing anything about these matters, and who live in an age of sound-bites and instant gratification. The two things that irked me were them seemingly implying the track had to be fixed for 5164 when it was for all traffic of course (surely GWR engines were as robust as any!), and secondly the 'star' talking not once but twice about Swindon in its heyday turning out one train a week. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 ... My favourite howler was the suggestion that Prairie tanks have eight wheels. And how many does it have then? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natalie Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Don't forget the assertion that the manufacture of a new shovel was vital to the overhaul/return to traffic of 5164. Nice to see the p-way get some glory for a change but no mention of the signalmen..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted October 22, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 22, 2012 And how many does it have then? 5 on one side; can't see the other side........OK I've already gone. P Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PaternosterRow Posted October 22, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 22, 2012 Absolutely brilliant. Didn't care about the commentary or the inaccuracies it was just a fascinating insight into how steam locomotives work. I felt as much satisfaction as the presenter when that crank slid on the wheel. The tinning out process for the bearing was fascinating. There is a little known free ebook from Google called Notes of the cause, tried at the Liverpool Summer Assize. These printed notes are of a case tried on 27th August 1845 between W E Newton and the Grand Junction Railway Company over the patent rights to this tinning out process. Before it was used loco bearings only lasted 1000 miles and after it was used this increased to 10000 miles. So it was fascinated to actually see an example of it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted October 22, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 22, 2012 Overall I thought it was pretty enjoyable. Ref the script, mostly it didn't grate too much for me. We've all learned about the railways over years and years. The tv makers have to make a prog that imparts information, is enjoyable to your average Joe, and explains things to generations who've grown up not knowing anything about these matters, and who live in an age of sound-bites and instant gratification. I quite understand that but even if that is the case why not at least make it accurate? 'After you'd been on the railway for 20 years you got to be a Driver' (or words very similar to that, and certainly with that meaning) was just one thing I heard and it's a load of codswallop because you only ever got to be a Driver if you were in the Footplate Line of Promotion, not just in any railway job for 20 years which was what it implied. Sorry but this sort of misleading nonsense was typical of some of the script - as I said above, some very nice film but the script was sloppy (and yes, I fully accept Chris F's view that use of that word is an understatement). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Awright Chief! I think it's just a way of getting Guy Martin back on the box again. He's more a motor bike racer/truck mechanic than railway enthusiast. Nice chap though, my youngest daughter idolises him for some reason! Jon F. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debs. Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 For all that these types of Tv. programme are shallow and more oft` lacking 'substance'.....at least they are showing people actually "doing and making"......Dibnah has gone, but we now (more than ever) need to show enthusiasm for skilled manual-work as an exemplar for our young future engineers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
10800 Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 I enjoyed it, and look forward to the remainder in the series. I didn't know of Guy Martin beforehand (a bit of Googling sorted that out) but potentially he could be a new Dibnah in the making. Whilst ideally it would be nice if it was fully accurate, this is mainstream TV we're talking about and I'll forgive the commentary in exchange for someone showing enthusiasm and skill in a range of engineering tasks. Apparently he's also done programmes on the Industrial Revolution that are shown in schools - as well as doing lap records at the IoM TT on a self-tuned bike. I bet there are programmes in other disciplines that seem perfectly OK to us but have their aficionados jumping up and down tearing their hair out (it was never that colour, it couldn't have happened then, why can't they get proper researchers etc etc). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastwestdivide Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 ... Apparently he's also done programmes on the Industrial Revolution that are shown in schools ... Don't know if they're the same ones in schools, but he had a series on the BBC I think, repeated on Dave or Yesterday, where he and a mate did up a canal boat, including a lot of getting stuck in and making stuff ranging from beds to china mugs. Similar sort of programme I thought - getting into the engineering and manufacturing processes behind everyday objects. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
clecklewyke Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 I found him a most irritating presenter - too enthusiastic, rather like an untrained puppy, and my teeth grated every time he used the word "graft". As a Festiniog Deviationist, who really was a navvy, digging the route out of solid rock, I thought his implication that maintaining the permanent way was done by navvies to be amusing. What was the relevance of repairing a slight bump in the P.W. to repairing a loco? Next week he "makes a bicycle" and "mends a water turbine" at Gayle Mill, near Hawes in Wensleydale. As a worker there I know that both were done by our volunteers and his input was minimal. But you might find the mill interesting as it is a rare example of a water powered woodworking mill where all the machinery installed in 1879 still works and is powered by what is believed to be the oldest water turbine still working in situ. Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold colin penfold Posted October 22, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 22, 2012 both were done by our volunteers and his input was minimal. That's TV for you and will come as no suprise to most. Same as how Julia Bradbury can be up the top of a mountain in the Lake District at dusk and you might think "it will be pitch black before she gets down from there" except you haven't accounted for the helecopter .......... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
micklner Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Very enjoyable , why do some have to pick holes in everything? It was aimed at the general public and a bit of fun at the same time!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted October 22, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 22, 2012 Very enjoyable , why do some have to pick holes in everything? It was aimed at the general public and a bit of fun at the same time!! The reason I pick holes in it is very simple - people who don't know the difference (i.e, in many cases, 'the general public') will believe every word of it because they saw the chap doing it and because 'it was on tv'. I don't argue at all with what was shown - a good range of some basic railwaywork of the old kind and generally it was shown quite well but it was not properly explained nor were some of the tasks put in their proper context. Boilersmiths did boiler work, they didn't get to drive locos or do PWay work, and they didn't get the 'reward' of going out on a loco which they had just worked on except in very special or particular circumstances. It would be just as easy to have scripted it historically accurately showing the same range of jobs as they are done today - I don't think there was much mention of boilersmiths having to go into a red hot firebox for instance even tho' it was almost an everyday part of their job (I realise it could hardly be shown on tv of course). I agree absolutely with Debs' point about showing these tasks and the skilled, and often tough, manual work involved but please let us have them properly explained - would it have cost the programme makers any more to do so? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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