New TV series - Hislop - Trains That Changed the World Ch5 13th August 21:00

[wildcard]

New series of 4 programs looking at "iconic British built locomotives" fronted by Ian Hislop

 

[timmydunn]

Blimey, if it's the one I think it is, we filmed for it in June 2019.

It is not linked to "Trains that changed the world" which was screened on the Yesterday channel in 2018 and picked c.30 locos/units/trains from all over the world and how the advanced society, tech, nations etc.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Billed in the 'Radio Times' as a "New Series", so hopefully not one of Channel 5's (notorious) revised repeats, which invariably contain maybe ten minutes of previously unseen material if you are lucky!

First episode on Friday night features (inter alia) the Flying Scotsman's 1934 speed record attempt.

 

[75A]

Billed in the 'Radio Times' as a "New Series", so hopefully not one of Channel 5's (notorious) revised repeats, which invariably contain maybe ten minutes of previously unseen material if you are lucky!

First episode on Friday night features (inter alia) the Flying Scotsman's 1934 speed record attempt.

I've set it to record, thanks for the update.

 

[Ashley Hill]

First episode on Friday night features (inter alia) the Flying Scotsman's 1934 speed record attempt.

FS may be famous but did it change the world? There's been so many programs about this loco over the years there can't be much else to say.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

FS may be famous but did it change the world? There's been so many programs about this loco over the years there can't be much else to say.

Friday's programme is not just all about that particular loco, the first episode's theme seems primarily to be that of the gradual increasing of speed on the railway system dating back to Victorian times.

 

[75A]

Seriously unimpressed, just seemed to be a smugness competition between Ian Hislop & Tim Dunn.

I've deleted the series link.

Having used the Chinese Mag Lev in 2005 I'm surprised that it's 268mph / 430KPH record hasn't been beaten yet.

 

[midland1]

Very dumbed down, did not seemed to know the difference between the Flying Scotsman train and loco, and had to put a USA style whistle and the end of sentence.

 

[32475]

Early on in the programme, a graphic map of the Big Four geographical areas showed for example the SR going no further west than Exeter with north Devon and Cornwall entirely in GWR control. I switched off at this point.

 

[DelW]

It was evidently aimed at a general rather than enthusiast audience. I suspect most followers of these forums would have learned little or nothing new.
Although Mr Hislop invented a new piece of equipment: a dynamamometer car - which he said twice.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

This week's episode (Channel 5, Friday 20th August 2021, 9.00 p.m.) is a look at how the London Underground helped relieve the capital's congested and filthy, traffic-choked streets in Victorian times and how mass transit systems were then implemented in other cities such as Mumbai and Moscow.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Regardless of inevitable corrections (nitpicking ?) , some very fine (unseen) archive footage shown.

Look forward to the London one , and I hope that Charles Pearson gets a good mention.

 

[Busaholic]

Look forward to the London one , and I hope that Charles Pearson gets a good mention.

I'd hope so too, given his role in getting the Metropolitan Railway line constructed from Praed Street, Paddington to Farringdon - what a shame he died a few months before it opened. He seemed a visionary, but, unusually, one who acquired enough power and influence to be able to further his visions. A true shame his name and career are not better known.

 

[timmydunn]

Seriously unimpressed, just seemed to be a smugness competition between Ian Hislop & Tim Dunn.

I can't speak for Mr Hislop - and having just watched it back I don't think I come across as "smug" - BUT I must admit, now I recall the day filming in a basement running off stories and facts about more than 70 locomotives and trains across the globe spanning a period of approximately 200 years without notes; I probably was feeling quite pleased about making an informed contribution.

Whilst I am not getting into debates on specific facts as per above (I am only a contributor; if after any interview I think I have said something incorrect I will always email to note it) what you see are vast edits of days' worth of film; generally speaking on this sort of docu the guests are interviewed on topics they feel confident with. Sometimes a guest might get a fact wrong; that is to be expected under interrogation.

Incidentally, I recall the time when I had complaints about confusing some loco shed code plates as Crewe or Carnforth or Trumpton or something on live TV I can't remember exactly; but there is a lot of info to process, select and communicate as a sensible answer in front of a camera whilst you imagine who your audience might be. I noted a couple of minor mistakes in my own responses re: dates in this new prog, but heck, the fact-checkers are there to catch things like that in documentaries.

Here's a wider point that I have made before, but I think is relevant here.
If you are reading this forum, chances are you could probably be termed a "railway enthusiast"; or "interested in railways", or even "expert in topic X within the railways." Just because there is a TV programme on about railways, it doesn't mean that you, or we, are the audience. Nor should it be assumed that every person interested in railways has the same knowledge.

I think that on mass broadcast channels we should appeal to all-comers, to knock down walls and to present in different ways and to open up topics, rather than to build the walls higher and talk to the same people every time. There are sometimes opportunities for more detailed stuff - (e.g. some other projects I work on) but there will be people in architecture, engineering and so on who won't bother with those because they will see them as "dumbed down". Fine. They have the textbooks and journals already. Just like the railway enthusiasts have the textbooks on TGV001's development.

Ian Hislop's Trains That Changed The World is good train-telly, and will appeal to different people for different reasons. A cursory look on Twitter shows that people seem to like it; many of them are not experts, and they learned something. I am very pleased that I have friends who have contributed to it too.

Railways as a hobby aren't *owned* by any one group or any one outlook. That is one of the reasons that makes it so great and so inclusive, and why we have so many people involved in the hobby, of all backgrounds, back-interests, aims and objectives.

 

[75A]

Thanks Tim, for taking the time to write this, very enlightening.
Perhaps you and Mr Hislop are just naturally happy smiley people, and I mistook it.
Still not my sort of programme though, unlike the London Underground one which I really do enjoy and look forward to the next episode.
I suppose it's a case of 'can't please all of the people all of the time', isn't it?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Last night's episode which focused mainly on the development of freight traffic in the UK, consisted mostly of old stock film footage, although I have to say that I hadn't previously seen a (more recent) video clip of a lengthy train of double-stacked container wagons negotiating somewhere in mid USA (?!)

Final episode of the four part series is next week (Friday 3rd September 2021, Channel 5 at 9 p.m.) and is a look back at the 'Great Western Railway' (the Victorian version) and how the railways changed the way that many British folk went on holiday.

There's also a special look at Queen Victoria's royal train.

 

[Ashley Hill]

As a program aimed at the general public the program works. As for hardened enthusiasts it's a bit like the WHS Big Book of Trains that your auntie buys you at Christmas. My only gripe is that there are too many script reading rent-an-experts on the show.

 

[DelW]

Last night's episode which focused mainly on the development of freight traffic in the UK, consisted mostly of old stock film footage, although I have to say that I hadn't previously seen a (more recent) video clip of a lengthy train of double-stacked container wagons negotiating somewhere in mid USA (?!)

As an admittedly minor quibble, I did note that following a mention of UP's Big Boy 4-8-8-4s, the clip of a loco in action was of UP 3985, a smaller 4-6-6-4 Challenger that has been out of use for several years now. Since UP restored real Big Boy 4014 to steam a couple of years ago (and it's out on tour at present), they might have managed the real thing. If anyone who hasn't seen it is interested, there are some impressive recent clips on YouTube.

As a program aimed at the general public the program works. As for hardened enthusiasts it's a bit like the WHS Big Book of Trains that your auntie buys you at Christmas. My only gripe is that there are too many script reading rent-an-experts on the show.

Tim Dunn may be around to object to that last sentence any time now

 

[Ashley Hill]

Tim Dunn may be around to object to that last sentence any time now

I said too many,not criticising any particularly one of them. Tim has already shown himself as a very credible presenter on his own programs.
By the way is Ian Hislop known to have an interest in railways or is he just a presenter?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

By the way is Ian Hislop known to have an interest in railways or is he just a presenter?

Hislop is the son of a civil engineer and has previously done a number of programmes of a social/historical nature including one in 2008 on the Beeching Axe entitled 'Ian Hislop goes Off the Rails' and a 1999 episode of 'Great Railway Journeys' set in India.

So presenting "Have I Got News for You" and editing "Private Eye" isn't all he does.

 

[yorksrob]

Ian Hislop's programme on the Beeching cuts was very interesting and informative.

 

[snowball]

I'd say the current series is not as good as previous ones he's presented. The latest episode did a lot of unexplained jumping backward and forwards in time, and seemed to suggest that before the Liverpool and Manchester Railway there was something called the "Liverpool and Manchester Ship Canal"!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I'd say the current series is not as good as previous ones he's presented. The latest episode did a lot of unexplained jumping backward and forwards in time, and seemed to suggest that before the Liverpool and Manchester Railway there was something called the "Liverpool and Manchester Ship Canal"!

Thanks for clarifying! Thought I'd misheard that when watching the programme!

 

[timmydunn]

Tim Dunn may be around to object to that last sentence any time now

Only because I'm amazed anyone would think I can remember a script

 

[IanD]

I can't speak for Mr Hislop - and having just watched it back I don't think I come across as "smug" - BUT I must admit, now I recall the day filming in a basement running off stories and facts about more than 70 locomotives and trains across the globe spanning a period of approximately 200 years without notes; I probably was feeling quite pleased about making an informed contribution.

Whilst I am not getting into debates on specific facts as per above (I am only a contributor; if after any interview I think I have said something incorrect I will always email to note it) what you see are vast edits of days' worth of film; generally speaking on this sort of docu the guests are interviewed on topics they feel confident with. Sometimes a guest might get a fact wrong; that is to be expected under interrogation.

Incidentally, I recall the time when I had complaints about confusing some loco shed code plates as Crewe or Carnforth or Trumpton or something on live TV I can't remember exactly; but there is a lot of info to process, select and communicate as a sensible answer in front of a camera whilst you imagine who your audience might be. I noted a couple of minor mistakes in my own responses re: dates in this new prog, but heck, the fact-checkers are there to catch things like that in documentaries.

Here's a wider point that I have made before, but I think is relevant here.
If you are reading this forum, chances are you could probably be termed a "railway enthusiast"; or "interested in railways", or even "expert in topic X within the railways." Just because there is a TV programme on about railways, it doesn't mean that you, or we, are the audience. Nor should it be assumed that every person interested in railways has the same knowledge.

I think that on mass broadcast channels we should appeal to all-comers, to knock down walls and to present in different ways and to open up topics, rather than to build the walls higher and talk to the same people every time. There are sometimes opportunities for more detailed stuff - (e.g. some other projects I work on) but there will be people in architecture, engineering and so on who won't bother with those because they will see them as "dumbed down". Fine. They have the textbooks and journals already. Just like the railway enthusiasts have the textbooks on TGV001's development.

Ian Hislop's Trains That Changed The World is good train-telly, and will appeal to different people for different reasons. A cursory look on Twitter shows that people seem to like it; many of them are not experts, and they learned something. I am very pleased that I have friends who have contributed to it too.

Railways as a hobby aren't *owned* by any one group or any one outlook. That is one of the reasons that makes it so great and so inclusive, and why we have so many people involved in the hobby, of all backgrounds, back-interests, aims and objectives.

My mother aged 83 is by no means a railway enthusiast - I doubt she'd even notice the difference between a steam and a diesel loco - but she does enjoy documentaries about railways and transport, particularly those involving Tim Dunn as he is always so enthusiastic about the subject. If the series had got bogged down in technical details of things like wheel configuration, signalling, shed codes etc... she would have switched off immediately.