Continuity and other errors in British films/TV

[district]

Spooks showed a 'Bakerloo' line train which was clearly a 96ts at CHX Jubilee.
They made no effort to mask up the line diagrams :P

 

[Buttsy]

The Bank Job (set in early 70s) has a shot of Baker Street station showing the H&C line & markings.

 

[starrymarkb]

The Micahel Portillo series has a number of continuity errors as the trains change when he's talking about where he's next heading and showing a Airedale unit as he's visiting Batley??????

They've already asked about that. The reason is that the Helicopter to get the shots from the air won't be out on the same days that Michael is. I suspect they'll try and get as many shots of the lines for the series in the same day as they can to avoid paying Castle Air too much... Paying £x00 per hour for a helicopter to wait for the exact unit is a bit beyond the show's budget

 

[Buttsy]

They've already asked about that. The reason is that the Helicopter to get the shots from the air won't be out on the same days that Michael is. I suspect they'll try and get as many shots of the lines for the series in the same day as they can to avoid paying Castle Air too much... Paying £x00 per hour for a helicopter to wait for the exact unit is a bit beyond the show's budget

I concur with that view, but to show an electric train and then Batley station is a tad misleading...

What I meant with my comment was more that it doesn't quite tally when he's on one unit talking to camera and the next shot he's talking to passengers which implies they're on the same train yet the unit's changed!

 

[LE Greys]

Hi all

The BBC Drama series episode on Monday night had a story line based on a man going missing from a London to Dover Train, the episode featured CCTV footage of the man at his seat and the Buffet Car. I am pretty sure that the footage was not taken on any Dover train, looked more like the interior of a Bournmouth set, any locals confirm?

Jim

I saw that. It also must have had opening doors or windows, because they had to get the victim off the train. It looked more like an HST, possibly a Midland set.

Just to ask, is it possible? I once thought of having a character do a disappearing act from an HST under similar circumstances. This was supposed to be a spy novel in the 1980s, with the KGB still active. He offers someone £1,000 to pull the cord, wanders off, changes clothes quickly in the toilet compartment, but leaves his jacket on, cord gets pulled, he hides the money in the toilet bin and bales out through the window. Might need a few tweaks, but is it possible?

 

[talltim]

I have to say the Portillo continuity doesn't bother me. The program is making no pretence that the shots of the train are the train he is on.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Just to ask, is it possible? I once thought of having a character do a disappearing act from an HST under similar circumstances. This was supposed to be a spy novel in the 1980s, with the KGB still active. He offers someone £1,000 to pull the cord, wanders off, changes clothes quickly in the toilet compartment, but leaves his jacket on, cord gets pulled, he hides the money in the toilet bin and bales out through the window. Might need a few tweaks, but is it possible?

Yes, because they still have opening droplights, but you would almost certainly have to set the disappearance at night if he is to avoid being seen as he bails out and moves away from the train. The character would need to be rather fit as well, but also rather slim - it's quite a drop to the trackside from an HST door window and the window itself isn't particularly large for the purpose of egress.

The character will also need to plan his timing well to ensure he doesn't drop into a river or something ( unless you're writing a Clousseau style adventure spoof of course! )

 

[LE Greys]

Yes, because they still have opening droplights, but you would almost certainly have to set the disappearance at night if he is to avoid being seen as he bails out and moves away from the train. The character would need to be rather fit as well, but also rather slim - it's quite a drop to the trackside from an HST door window and the window itself isn't particularly large for the purpose of egress.

The character will also need to plan his timing well to ensure he doesn't drop into a river or something ( unless you're writing a Clousseau style adventure spoof of course! )

On thinking about it (and this is early in development at the moment) I might make the character female. Still assume that she's had full KGB training, though. It's a choice between escape and being picked up by MI5 on arrival at King's Cross, and an excuse to have her in Hitchin for a while.

The show from earlier was New Tricks, by the way.

 

[exile]

Probably already been mentioned but, The Great St Trininans Train Robbery is full of them. Inclueing an 08 traveling at nearly 60 mph

Aren't we confusing continuity errors with things done deliberately for comic effect?
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Also, this film is set in 1963, yet it's a 50 in rail blue with TOPS number at the bufferstops at Paddington (50 007?), the coaches are early mark 2s in blue & grey... I also find the songs annoying as they put on the record players Who tracks that had not been released at that time. Finally most of the cars in riding scenes are 70s models.

Don't get me started on that! Heartbeat - set in the early 60s - with Mungo Jerry's In the Summertime on the radio!

 

[Schnellzug]

I think that sequence was shot on the North Yorkshire Moors railway. Did the train ram a stolen car stalled on the level crossing, run into a tunnel and then derail. If so, NYMR, who also shot another train crash at the same location for Heartbeat
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Incidently, watching repeats of heartbeat episodes, the train in the opening sequence apears to be headed by an ex SR loco, at least on the closing sequence, the loco appears to be a Stanier

Ah, heartbeat. The show where they go to painstaking lengths to get the exact model of Police Velocette motorcycle, but then have trains proceeding acoss the North Yorkshire moors hauled by an S15 in Southern Railway livery. My favourite episode was one time when there had been a Heavy Fall of Snow, and the porter/signalman at Aidensfield was busy sweeping the platform. Then he hears the train (hauled, of course, by the S15, or perhaps Repton) approaching. He goes into the signalbox. But oh no! The Points are frozen! If he can't stop the train, a Disaster will ensue! Which of course it does.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Regarding Casualty, it may have been the same or it may have been a different storyline, but I seem to recall a level crossing collision/derailment involving a Class 25 on Mk 2 stock in Inter-City livery. I suppose it would have been filmed somewhere fairly near to Bristol.

There was also one time, I vaguely recall, a show featuring, I think it was Lenny Henry, and he finds out that Nuclear shipments are being taken through South London in secret, late at night, by the Sinister Government. So he stakes out his local station on night, and, at dead of night, along comes the Secret Nuclear Train- headed by an 03, with a wagon and brakevan, hanging over the balcony of which are guards armed with geiger counters wearing full anti-radiation suits.

 

[Bittern]

Kinda OT: What railway was the finale of "Life on Mars" filmed at?

Ah, heartbeat. The show where they go to painstaking lengths to get the exact model of Police Velocette motorcycle, but then have trains proceeding acoss the North Yorkshire moors hauled by an S15 in Southern Railway livery.

Think of it as having many railtours.

 

[Bedpan]

Was it the East Lancs at Bury, or am I getting mixed up with something else?

 

[Schnellzug]

Was it the East Lancs at Bury, or am I getting mixed up with something else?

That's appeared in Corrie a couple of times, I believe.

 

[Drsatan]

I've watched clips from 'The Last Train' every now and then which, for those of you who don't remember, was a sci-fi series produced by ITV in 1999 set in a post-apocalyptic Britain after an asteroid strike kills off most of the human race. It's a very good series, but at the start one of the characters is seen getting on a train at St Pancras, then the camera jumps to an overhead shot of a class 90 and a rake of MK3s, then a few minutes later the camera focuses on an 86 and a rake of Mk2s.

In Hostel 1 the camera focuses on a train hauled by an electric locomotive, then a few minutes later the train pulling into a station is hauled by a Czech Railways diesel locomotive. Although the film is supposed to be set in Slovakia all of the trains shown belong to Czech Railways. At the end of the film we see what is supposedly a station in Germany but the train seen leaving is a Czech Railways EMU.

Finally, the train interior in Hostel II is a gross misrepresentation of a train journey: the train compartments look more like hotel rooms and there are too many drunken Americans for an Italian train.

 

[Moog_1984]

in the original "Bedazzled", Pete and Dud' version not with that posh tart:

A hymek rustles out of a mail platform (padd?) to the clear sound track of a D200.

 

[Rugd1022]

in the original "Bedazzled", Pete and Dud' version not with that posh tart:

A hymek rustles out of a mail platform (padd?) to the clear sound track of a D200.

Thought it sounded odd the last time I watched it! It wasn't coming out of Padd though, it was passing along the old Down Carriage Line next to the brick wall at Westbourne Park, heading towards Padd. The row of shops and terraces behind Pete and Dud in that scene were later knocked down to make room for the A40(M) flyover

 

[TrainfanBen]

Probably been noted already:

A recent episode of Casualty, with a little bit to obvious "teen on the track" scenario.
I believe there were two different loco's used in the same scene if I recall.
A 66 and then a second later a 47

 

[Oswyntail]

...
A 66 and then a second later a 47

Not a 47, a 31. Must be accurate

 

[Moog_1984]

Thought it sounded odd the last time I watched it! It wasn't coming out of Padd though, it was passing along the old Down Carriage Line next to the brick wall at Westbourne Park, heading towards Padd. The row of shops and terraces behind Pete and Dud in that scene were later knocked down to make room for the A40(M) flyover

I guessed it was the outer reaches of Padd'. Know the A40 fly over quite a bit better than I ever wanted to!

Not a mistake quite, but on supertramp's "Crime of the Century" ( which kind of encapsualtes the 70s for me for some odd reason) There is a goil gurgling out on one of the, ermm no pun, tracks, "rudy" if I remember correctly.

( editing should be for Goyle, but the midlands bashers did like the fact that ped's had a loch named after them )

 

[TrainfanBen]

Not a 47, a 31. Must be accurate

Thanks for clearing that up

 

[AlterEgo]

Don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but the Match.com advert has a Class 455 magically morphing into a 377 as it leaves...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkk7SYkUbLQ

 

[Drsatan]

Don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but the Match.com advert has a Class 455 magically morphing into a 377 as it leaves...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkk7SYkUbLQ

From watching the advert I wasn't aware there was now a direct service to Wigan from Sutton! :P

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Billy Liar (1963) - Tom Courtenay and Julie Christie. Billy finally decides to leave the North (Bradford) with Liz to find his fame and fortune in London leaving on the overnight milk train... but he loses his nerve and watches the Liz and the last train pull out - of Marylebone.

 

[341o2]

laughed today. Watched an episode of the Saint (Simon Templar not the GW class). He's on board a train to Avignon, the shot is of an early BR diesel - possibly a 40 or 46 - under overhead wires, so I guess this was taken somewhere between Euston & Crewe. It's a brief shot in poor light so one only gets a glimpse, but the loco does sound the 2 tone klaxon horn

Never knew the SNCF had brought redundant BR first generation diesels......

 

[Pete2210]

The one that sticks in my mind is from Van Der Valk, Van Der Valk sees his daughter onto a train at Amsterdam Centraal, as the doors close on the EMU, and the train departs the background sound is of a Paxman Valenta powering up.

Pete

 

[Moog_1984]

Think "Minder on the Orient Express" is already mentioned, when him and the venerable George Cole "bail" in the middle of nowhere having pulled the cord. Footage and real soundtrack from a pair of 12LVA locos which were hell fire- strumming, whistling, shreiking duffs!

They worked the Paris-Basel route in pairs and I think the Orient Express did go that route in the 1980s.

 

[eastwestdivide]

Billy Liar (1963) - Tom Courtenay and Julie Christie. Billy finally decides to leave the North (Bradford) with Liz to find his fame and fortune in London leaving on the overnight milk train... but he loses his nerve and watches the Liz and the last train pull out - of Marylebone.

Not that far-fetched: before the closure of the GC route in the late 60s, there were expresses between Marylebone and all kinds of Eastern Region destinations, including Bradford. Whether there was a milk train in 1963 I don't know.
Seem to recall my (non-railway) parents using the term "milk train" for late night/early morning trains even if they didn't carry milk.

Edit in view of reply 150 below: Doh! Going TO London.

 

[Harlesden]

When did milk trains actually cease? I know there was one in the mid-1970's calling at Retford just around 4:10AM for Market Rasen and Grimsby but I never discovered where it came from.

 

[Oswyntail]

In the recent George Gently run, OHLE was just visible on a bridge across the Tyne, and on Durham viaduct. To be fair, it just showed how little impact on teh visual environment such equipment has, as it was barely noticeable.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Not that far-fetched: before the closure of the GC route in the late 60s, there were expresses between Marylebone and all kinds of Eastern Region destinations, including Bradford. Whether there was a milk train in 1963 I don't know.
Seem to recall my (non-railway) parents using the term "milk train" for late night/early morning trains even if they didn't carry milk.

the train was supposedly leaving for London.