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The Great Train Robbery BBC1 Series.


Baby Deltic

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The loco they went for a spin on, overdubbed by American engine sounds, was a class 37 complete with 1980's high intensity headlight. In his book 'Autobiography Of A Thief', Bruce Reynolds does mention that he and an accomplice went to a railway yard and started up a diesel loco and got it moving. They couldn't stop it and jumped off leaving it rolling down a siding.

A google search (which took me a while to find and details are almost non existent anyway) reveals this incident is said to have occurred in a siding, at Euston station, around midnight.

In my view it was fortunate a collision didn't occur, could have been nasty !! I expect the subsequent enquiries would have left quite a few folks puzzled - wonder if it went past a red signal before it finally stopped ? 

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Part two just kicked off with two clear sightings of London Buses built well after 2005 (one passing the modern Underground roundelled entrance to Westminster Underground Station and the other visible in rear of a car window moments later plus the status board describes our infamous Class 37 as a Class 40 locomotive, a description not applied for at least another five years.

 

This really is a sloppy mess....

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 I expect the subsequent enquiries would have left quite a few folks puzzled - wonder if it went past a red signal before it finally stopped ? 

Probably not as Class 40s, including D326, were notorious for turning up in different places to that where they were parked. There was even a special instruction to scotch the wheels when they were left unattended. 

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Definitely some Doctor Whoish time travel going on judging by the 2012 First Group new corporate livery double decker bus clearly visible parked outside the Torquay cafe at the end supposedly in 1968...

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I know its nothing to do with the history side of things but for some reason the torquay shots look a lot like filey i may be completely wrong.

They could well have been; there was a 'Screen Yorkshire' logo in the closing credits, and the 'Italianissimo' restaurant illuminated sign (filmed in the dark) in the opening shots of the first episode looked remarkably like the one on the swanky modern restaurant behind / below platform 16 of Leeds station!  A colleague thought some of the pub shots were also in Leeds...

 

If nothing else, I thought the bit where they were having difficulty getting the brake on the detached loco & van had a ring of truth to it.

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I was glad to see that that the injury and trauma to the Driver were highlighted in the second programme.

 

On a less serious note, I was aghast to see Slater and Cassandra in bed together - Wait till Rodney finds out !!

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I was glad to see that that the injury and trauma to the Driver were highlighted in the second programme.

 

On a less serious note, I was aghast to see Slater and Cassandra in bed together - Wait till Rodney finds out !!

I thought that too - poor Rodney.

 

Paddy

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…and 'I'm a Man' from the Spencer Davis Group wasn't released until 1967...

 

..and news cars from 1963 had the suffix letter of 'A'…unless they're all old ones :-)

 

It's my understanding year suffixes didn't become compulsory until 1965 (C  Reg).

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I thought it was great over both nights.  Probably the best drama (not docu/soap or docu/drama) on the Beeb for quite a while which probably says a lot about BBC drama these days I suppose.  No film or drama ever gets railway thing right IMHO so I wasn't expecting too much in that sense.  I think if those of you who haven't watched it yet "park" the railway and road vehicle inaccuracies then it is highly watchable and you will thoroughly enjoy it, I certainly did and so did my Mrs.

One vehicle oddment I observed though was a white Jag police car with a cloth sun roof but, in the main, I thought the vehicles were more or less of the time but granted the railway aspects were a bit ropey in places.

Regards,

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One of the problems sourcing the right cars for things like this is actually persuading the owners to trust a production crew with their pride and joy, being a member of two classic car clubs myself I've heard all kinds of tales of bad feeling when promise of a payment failed to materialise or damage has been done to a much loved old motor. Some TV companies expect you to do it for nothing and treat you as if they're doing you a favour, so it's always possible that in this case the right vehicle's owners were approached but said 'er, no thanks', leaving the producers to find alternatives.

 

Even the BBC aren't above getting it wrong... in the recent Dr.Who drama about William Hartnell, in a 1963 scene outside Television Centre there was a Rover P5B in shot, which didn't roll off the line at Solihull until September '67!

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Part two just kicked off with two clear sightings of London Buses built well after 2005 (one passing the modern Underground roundelled entrance to Westminster Underground Station and the other visible in rear of a car window moments later plus the status board describes our infamous Class 37 as a Class 40 locomotive, a description not applied for at least another five years.

 

This really is a sloppy mess....

I heard they used actors not the real people .

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One of the problems sourcing the right cars for things like this is actually persuading the owners to trust a production crew with their pride and joy, being a member of two classic car clubs myself I've heard all kinds of tales of bad feeling when promise of a payment failed to materialise or damage has been done to a much loved old motor. Some TV companies expect you to do it for nothing and treat you as if they're doing you a favour, so it's always possible that in this case the right vehicle's owners were approached but said 'er, no thanks', leaving the producers to find alternatives.

 

Even the BBC aren't above getting it wrong... in the recent Dr.Who drama about William Hartnell, in a 1963 scene outside Television Centre there was a Rover P5B in shot, which didn't roll off the line at Solihull until September '67!

There are specialist suppliers who have stocks of cars for different periods for film makers to use, however their list isn't endless and private owners also have to be used.

A former workmate of mine has an '67 E-type and that has been used by TV before now, including Top Gear. (And no. Clarkson and co. didn't get to drive/wreck it!)

 

Keith

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:offtopic:

Nobody mentioned that in the Heathrow robbery sequence one of the two "Jags" was actually a Daimler version like this:

 

http://www.daimler.co.uk/html/Cars/daimler/1961-1980.html

 

IIRC police MkIIs were usually top spec mechanically (e.g. 3.8 litre) but with very basic trim, so they looked like a 2.4 to the uninitiated.

Can't have them plods sitting on leather seats, can we?

 

Keith

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