Great British Railway Journeys

[seacoaler]

Me and Mrs Seacoaler enjoy these programmes.
Does railway enthusiasm attract the 'tiniest errors' brigade I see it expressed so many times !

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

Sadly it does. However, if I can spot major errors in places I am familiar with then what b######t is being peddled about areas I know nowt of?

[Percy Main]

Does railway enthusiasm attract the 'tiniest errors' brigade I see it expressed so many times !

Of course it does. That's because it is a serious pursuit and not simply a hobby.

[strang steel]

I would hope that it could be both, and not all hobbies are simple.

[bricam5]

I find the errors anoying because, to me, it assumes that the producers have said " Nobody will notice"
I have seen so many films and features on TV where a main line express appears to change engine classes on the run. Starting with an LNER pacific, changing mid stream to a Black Five and finally ending up on single line behind a GWR saddle tank with several changes of headlamp code inbetween.
If Sherlock Holmes was seen in his first class carriage from Paddington, typing away on a laptop, there would be howls of protest.
So I would say to these producers, if you can't get the right footage then scub the obvious fakes.

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

I'm waiting for film of a Spitfire in German markings to "represent" an FW190.

Would these folk have a Mk3 Cortina in a film about the '60s? Or mobile phones? No. Why can't these folk get their facts right. Maybe this is the real reason why the NRM has to employ "Interpreters." Not the feeding of a nation on microwave pizza but the constant feeding of wrong info from the TV.

The BBC is supposed to educate and entertain. OK, it has done the latter extremely well with Sherlock, for example. I'm getting a little worried about Mrs BB and Benedict Cumberbatch but there you go! Can it start educating?

Then it would need intelligent, educated people instead of folk blinded to all else by pure ambition leading it I suppose.

[strang steel]

I think you are right. It seems to be media ignorance that they cant see in themselves. They perceive all transport enthusiasts to be 'anoraks' and nothing more than figures to poke fun at, so why bother with any accuracy?

To them all steam trains are choo-choos and must look alike. I have to admit that although I can cope with the smaller continuity errors, such as a clip of a Schools in Southern livery being shown during the episode in Suffolk, now that Portillo has moved to Ireland I am getting quite annoyed by the constant stream of English b/w video clips used in the current programmes.

Do they not understand that Irish railway locomotives look completely different to the GB versions? Probably not. There must be some video of Irish railways in the 20th century, surely.

[Mickey]

Deleted

[Graham Boak]

[quote="Blink Bonny"]Ay up!
I'm waiting for film of a Spitfire in German markings to "represent" an FW190.
quote]

Next time you see the Battle of Britain film, ask what are the aircraft behind the three Hurricanes in the Polish scenes. The answer is 109s painted in RAF colours. I remember one TV programme, many years ago, which showed the hero boarding an airliner, then two in-flight scenes, then disembarking at his destination. Yes, four different aircraft types. I don't remember anything else about the programme..... anorak all the way through, I guess.

In most cases, it's the case that errors are simply not noticed, either by the programme makers or by the vast majority of the watchers. So we do see them - points for us I suppose but except where it really must have been right, it doesn't matter. Are you following the outcry over the WW1 drama "Birdsong" - wrong kind of songbird used on the soundtrack. Did you notice that?

[bricam5]

I have to confess that Portillo is a better raconteur than a politician ( My views only) but I remember one series when he was in the West Country from Exeter round the coast.
He stepped on board a train which was being hauld by an ex GWR tender engine the next shot was an airial view and Hey Presto! it was being pulled, bunker first by a pannier tank engine.

O.K. forget the class of the loco's involved that's for the enthusiast but surely the general public can tell the difference between a tender loco and a tank engine or is the general attention span getting less?

[strang steel]

Are you following the outcry over the WW1 drama "Birdsong" - wrong kind of songbird used on the soundtrack. Did you notice that?

No, but there are many instances of Collared Doves being heard on TV and movies set before 1950 when they were virtually unknown in the UK. There was also a version of Jane Eyre (I think) where they sat on a small country garden lawn which was complete with mower stripes - unlikely given that the mower invented in 1830 was a vast and cumbersome machine that needed to be pulled by horses.

[Mickey]

Deleted

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!
I'm waiting for film of a Spitfire in German markings to "represent" an FW190.
quote]

Next time you see the Battle of Britain film, ask what are the aircraft behind the three Hurricanes in the Polish scenes. The answer is 109s painted in RAF colours. I remember one TV programme, many years ago, which showed the hero boarding an airliner, then two in-flight scenes, then disembarking at his destination. Yes, four different aircraft types. I don't remember anything else about the programme..... anorak all the way through, I guess.

Actually look more carefully - they have tailplanes set too low to be 109s and the wing dihedral is wrong. There were only 3 109s and 3 Heinkels based in the UK for filming and none of the ex-RAF planes ever went to Spain.

They are Spitfires. Sorry, Anorak I know....

[52D]

Ay up BB those Fockers were Messerschmits comes to mind, but anyway I dont think any genuine Me109s were used in the aerial shots for The Battle of Britain Movie. They used C.A.S.A. built versions of both the Me109 & He111, the 109s close up on the nose reveal a Merlin engine under the Spanish skin.

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

True. The "German" planes were Spanish licence-built versions but I understand that there was a genuine Me109 in there somewhere.

The real interest is the Marks of the Spitties. Keep yer eyes open - there's a couple of bubble-canopy Mk 22/24s in the background!

Do you know that when the film was being made Mirisch Productions were (numerically) the 4th largest air force in the world? And I always wince when the (real) Spitfire is flown into the beach.....