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The Railway: First Great Western on Channel 5

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76020

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The first of twelve installments is on 29/8/13 at 20:00
 
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DavyCrocket

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In terms of original footage it'll probably be the same as The Tube on BBC Two- which was very good at not treating viewers like idiots!
 

Domh245

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Hmm, this is only series 1, we may end up with a series 2, on some other operator, maybe Northern ;) I probably won't being saying that at the end of the series!
 

jon0844

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Then a series following Southern... then the Gatwick Express.

Hang on, that'll just be a repeat of the Southern series.
 

tsr

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Then a series following Southern... then the Gatwick Express.

Hang on, that'll just be a repeat of the Southern series.

"In this episode, Chris Burchell meets his Gatwick Express counterpart, Chris Burchell, on a regional business forum day trip to the local mirror factory."
 
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Will be really looking forward to this and the comments from fans and knockers of whom I suspect there will be many and in the majority!

Was speaking to a commuter on Twitter about this programme and they said " Ive heard about FGW, there worse than Northern "

Sadly I have a feeling this programme will be well edited to suit the TOC :|
 

YorkshireBear

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Hmm, 12 is a lot but it is something I will watch with interest. I hope the TOC shows he good and the bad, otherwise it is unbelievable. A bit like the BBC one where both good and bad sides of railway were shown.

FGW one of the most hated TOCs around, nice to see them try and defend themselves. Although my summation of the problems on the GWML are as follows.

-You moved out into the nice countryside along the nice part of the thames valley and used your new expensive cars to drive along M4 into London. Railways got underused and therefore declined.
-Surprise surprise the M4 got full and you all decided you wanted to use the trains again.
-Surprise surprise they are full and can't take the traffic.
-You moan.
 
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jon0844

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Sadly I have a feeling this programme will be well edited to suit the TOC :|

To be fair, I think that if it actually shows everything that goes on to run a railway service - it will actually make FGW look at lot better without any selective editing.

TOCs get the blame for loads of things outside of their control, from problems on the line and timetabling, to the rolling stock they're stuck with.

Maybe it will actually open the eyes of the average viewer, while also being entertaining. That will of course mean the series following lots of individuals and getting to know their own unique personalities.

I guess this is the only real thing that FGW can influence... not having them follow staff that are rude or not very good at their job!

-You moved out into the nice countryside along the nice part of the thames valley and used your new expensive cars to drive along M4 into London. Railways got underused and therefore declined.
-Surprise surprise the M4 got full and you all decided you wanted to use the trains again.
-Surprise surprise they are full and can't take the traffic.
-You moan.

- You like to stand in the same place every day because it makes for a faster exit at your destination, but then wonder why you can't get a seat.
- You moan even more.
 
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TheEdge

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I'm hoping this one will be fairly good. Channel 5 do seem to have a knack for this sort of thing, it used to be softcore porn was their thing, but now its fly-on-the-wall documentaries.

As for will it open the eyes of the average traveller? Doubt it, we all hoped the same after The Railway, and that didn't do anything.
 

jon0844

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You do of course need to get people watching the programme in the first place. How many just switch off as soon as they see a train and think it will be just about trainspotters, or worse still, will make them seem like a trainspotter should they dare tell anyone they watched it.
 

anthony263

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If this series on FGW proves to be as popular as we think it will be how long before one of the other toc's aka Virgin decide they want to the same?
 

jon0844

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If the ratings are okay and it's cheap to produce, as I expect it will be (you can probably get stacks of footage in a relatively short space of time) then maybe we'll see every TOC featuring in a new regular series.

What industries are left that haven't been covered by some form of documentary I wonder?
 

YorkshireBear

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- You like to stand in the same place every day because it makes for a faster exit at your destination, but then wonder why you can't get a seat.
- You moan even more.

Coach E?? :) (forgotten the closest standard class to London end)

It is my judgemental nature (which is fairly bad at the best of times) to the people I meet when travelling the GWML that makes me like this :)
 

jon0844

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I assume that people like to be in the standard coach nearest first class because they walk through when the train is approaching London?

I certainly saw this on Virgin when I came back from Manchester. I walked through from coach B and stopped outside first. Loads of other people didn't.

Even on Heathrow Express, I saw someone lugging a huge suitcase (and seriously struggling to move his bag past the disabled toilet and then press the button to open the door). He then had to wiggle his bag around and finally got through. All to get forward by one coach!!
 

Cletus

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On a railways on TV note, Sky Arts 2 is showing Night Mail tonight at 0030am and 530pm tomorrow.
 

chuckles1066

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Was speaking to a commuter on Twitter about this programme and they said " Ive heard about FGW, there worse than Northern "

Sadly I have a feeling this programme will be well edited to suit the TOC :|

As an impartial observer (I only used the railways for eight weeks or so and everything I say here can be verified by trawling through my datestamped previous posts).

FGW are basically crap. Hopwood gave the middle finger to the local MP with regards to increased services.

I observed previously that the 7.36a.m (as it was) Patchway to Bristol service was a grown up train (cross country something or other?).

And on one trip from Bath in the afternoon I was treated to a (South West?) train in shiny red livery.

Look at my previous posts for clarification if you're interested.

I ended up driving from Bristol - Bath (anyone in this area will know what a nightmare that is) simply because it was more reliable than the rail network....it was also more expensive but go figure why I chose that option.
 

bnm

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If this is typical of commercial television documentaries, each 'hour' long episode will run to about 43 minutes when you exclude commercial breaks.

Then you can take out another 8-10 minutes for all the flashback and flashforward clips repeating what has just been shown in that portion of the show, or will be coming up in the next portion.
 

Aictos

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I'm looking forward to seeing it especially as I was on the train when they were filming :)
 

jimm

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Hmm, 12 is a lot but it is something I will watch with interest. I hope the TOC shows he good and the bad, otherwise it is unbelievable. A bit like the BBC one where both good and bad sides of railway were shown.

FGW one of the most hated TOCs around, nice to see them try and defend themselves. Although my summation of the problems on the GWML are as follows.

-You moved out into the nice countryside along the nice part of the thames valley and used your new expensive cars to drive along M4 into London. Railways got underused and therefore declined.
-Surprise surprise the M4 got full and you all decided you wanted to use the trains again.
-Surprise surprise they are full and can't take the traffic.
-You moan.


People moved out into the countryside along the GWML (and many of them far beyond the Thames Valley) because of the High Speed Train, which made long-haul commuting feasible - before 1976 only the hardened few were doing it. The HST also put Reading within 20 minutes of Paddington, which you weren't going to manage on the M4 even then. And then more and more people cottoned on to the idea of whizzing up and down on a 125 and then more and more houses got built in places like Reading, Didcot and Swindon (or places like Abingdon, Witney, Wantage/Grove within striking distance of stations) and more and more people wanted to use the trains, a process which continues to this day.

FGW just happen to be the ones trying to deal with the results of that process - same would apply whoever's name was on the trains and they would get the same stick, not that I necessarily think the charming types who post abuse on FGW's facebook and twitter pages are exactly a representative sample of passengers anyway - and FGW kindly provide a forum for them to do it. Does DafT offer somewhere for people to abuse it about the state of traffic on the M4, M25, etc?

I expect that they will be at it again as soon as this series starts, burbling about it all being one-sided propaganda for FGW, failing to portray the true horror of their daily commute, etc, etc
 
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Temple Meads

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Hopefully this will be a balanced portrayal - most railway documentaries tend to be either overly positive or negative.

If it follows the usual C5 fly-on-the-wall style, it should be good, if a little heavy on the exaggerated drama ;)
 

jon0844

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Those property programmes in the 90s, and the Evening Standard also used to tell everyone how great it is to move out into the suburbs - with easy rail access for commuting to work (in London).

They must have also played a big part in the last 10-15 years, especially as London became more and more unaffordable.
 

Searle

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If this is typical of commercial television documentaries, each 'hour' long episode will run to about 43 minutes when you exclude commercial breaks.

Then you can take out another 8-10 minutes for all the flashback and flashforward clips repeating what has just been shown in that portion of the show, or will be coming up in the next portion.

Well for starters if you're watching it online then get an adblocker, that'll do away with the huge amount of adverts :D
 

bnm

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Well for starters if you're watching it online then get an adblocker, that'll do away with the huge amount of adverts :D

I only watch online. With adblockers, precisely because of the amount of advertising. No TV and no live broadcasts. That saves me £145.50 a year.
 

jon0844

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I've recorded on my sky+

Scheduled I hope, or your Sky+ is more advanced than mine!!

I do wish Sky and the industry as a whole could get schedules further than a week ahead. I had to wait until yesterday before I was actually able to set up a recording/series link at all.

Very few channels are unable to commit to a schedule more than seven days in the future. Sky One could probably print a schedule until 2030!
 
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