What TV are you watching?

[matticus]

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/...yne-who-fought-for-a-free-world/36402927.html

seems that one probably was

Thanks - good find!
(recent articles in that paper commenting on the TV series are a lot more desperate to portray him as some perfect Ulsterman - your one is happy to be more balanced.)

 

[kapelmuur]

Same here. And a rare occasion of the last episode being one of the best!
(there were quite a few "really??" moments in it - like the wind-up gramophone on the plane - that seemed so irrelevant to the story line that I think they MUST be true oddities that the writers were desperate to cram in!)

The scene in episode 5 where they blow up an Italian train which was hauled by a 1950s built British loco complete with British Railways number on the smokebox door had me wondering, not for the first time, why production companies don’t give a toss about accuracy when it comes to railways.

They may as well have the troops driving around in Range Rovers instead of jeeps.

 

[matticus]

The scene in episode 5 where they blow up an Italian train which was hauled by a 1950s built British loco complete with British Railways number on the smokebox door had me wondering, not for the first time, why production companies don’t give a toss about accuracy when it comes to railways.

They may as well have the troops driving around in Range Rovers instead of jeeps.

<i really shouldn't get into YET ANOTHER discussion about this, but anyway ...>
1. The prog is declared in a very plain large font early on as NOT A HISTORY LESSON (they made a 3hour documentary about the SAS recently, so watch that if you prefer facts over drama/fun)
2. I would imagine renting (and/or blowing up) correct rolling stock is an incredibly expensive business. It's not a Netflix film - this stuff is all paid for out of our licence fee. The trains aren't on screen for very long, so I'd rather they focused the spending on jeeps, scripts, uniforms, actors, cameras ...

 

[kapelmuur]

<i really shouldn't get into YET ANOTHER discussion about this, but anyway ...>
1. The prog is declared in a very plain large font early on as NOT A HISTORY LESSON (they made a 3hour documentary about the SAS recently, so watch that if you prefer facts over drama/fun)
2. I would imagine renting (and/or blowing up) correct rolling stock is an incredibly expensive business. It's not a Netflix film - this stuff is all paid for out of our licence fee. The trains aren't on screen for very long, so I'd rather they focused the spending on jeeps, scripts, uniforms, actors, cameras ...

Thanks for the patronising tone.

They don’t blow anything up, they show a train approaching then a staged explosion at the tunnel mouth.

While they were on location in Croatia they could have have nipped into Italy to shoot footage of a vintage Italian train, they chose to film the scene in Hampshire, the set up would not have been any cheaper.

 

[matticus]

Thanks for the patronising tone.

They don’t blow anything up, they show a train approaching then a staged explosion at the tunnel mouth.

While they were on location in Croatia they could have have nipped into Italy to shoot footage of a vintage Italian train, they chose to film the scene in Hampshire, the set up would not have been any cheaper.

I was answering your general complaint:

... not for the first time, why production companies don’t give a toss about accuracy when it comes to railways

...so your response about "nipping into Italy" doesn't really apply. The production company will use the cheapest train available to them, including travel costs etc. Hampshire is within a day's drive from London, so I can well believe it was cheaper to film there - but I don't know the specifics of this production.

 

[Reynard]

While they were on location in Croatia they could have have nipped into Italy to shoot footage of a vintage Italian train, they chose to film the scene in Hampshire, the set up would not have been any cheaper.

The Watercress Line, by any chance?

It gets used a fair old bit in films and TV. The BBC's Wartime Farm, a Mary Berry cookery programme, the film "Children of Men" to name but three...

 

[wiggydiggy]

Thanks for the patronising tone.

They don’t blow anything up, they show a train approaching then a staged explosion at the tunnel mouth.

While they were on location in Croatia they could have have nipped into Italy to shoot footage of a vintage Italian train, they chose to film the scene in Hampshire, the set up would not have been any cheaper.

I'd imagine the Hampshire shoot was a lot cheaper to be fair, given how many heritage lines we have maybe Italy doesn't have the same.

BUT! I do agree with you, this would annoy me as well that they used a train that didn't actually exist in the 1940s. Couldn't have cost that much surely to get the digital pen out and colour out the numbering at least.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Guy Martins Proper Jobs
The Trawler episode

https://www.northone.tv/copy-of-guy-martin-s-great-british-po-1

 

[biggs682]

Another good half of Silent witness tonight

 

[icowden]

I've started watching my way through Nautilus. It's rather good so far. A sort of steampunk inspired re-imagining of 20,000 Leagues under the Seas but giving it a real world setting and some geopolitical back story (essentially the prisoners of the East India Tea company vs the East India Team company.

 

[cougie uk]

For whatever reason we have never watched Silent witness before but started watching current series and really enjoying it.

Blimey you've got about 27 series to catch up on !