Gavin and Stacey Episode 2

[Scotrail314209]

Well, there's Smithy and Nessa's story to tell, -maybe.

They can't leave us hanging like this. I need to know the answer.

 

[SteveM70]

Doris , the next door - the ultimate Welsh neighbour of a certain age - surprisingly liberal !

She got, in my opinion, the two best lines in the whole series:

- when Stacey started going out with Gavin “don’t go betting the farm on the first date”

- when she was asked to make salad for a buffet *sticks a finger up* “there’s your f****** salad!”

EDIT
Just googled the script for the exact first quote and there’s an ace bit I’d forgotten, especially as Doris is well into her 80s:


Doris: The thing to remember is don't go giving him nothing on the first night.

Stacey: Really?

Doris: Well, no, not nothing. A kiss, a cuddle, a cheeky finger. Just don't go selling him the whole farm.

 

[Ken H]

They can't leave us hanging like this. I need to know the answer.

If its anything like the episode where Gav and Stace meet the first time in london, and the bathroom incident with Smithy and Nessa,, I really dont want to know!!!!!

 

[XAM2175]

Generally with TV productions, they have dedicated location managers who scout for filming locations and alot of what you see on the screen is not exactly accurate with real life.

Production teams have to factor time restraints and of course getting permission from organisations like councils or private companies to film on certain premises.

Illustrated quite neatly by the fact we've just had a bit of central Glasgow dressed up as New York in 1969 for the new Indiana Jones film

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I suppose we ought to mention transport in this enjoyable thread - no mention of "Renatus" 321's on Great Eastern , but then Dave Coaches deals with many longer distance trips from Barry.

Back to Doris - her nice old lady stance is often compromised by her confessions about Scott ("bit of a pothead - we did all that in the 1960's") , not the sort of phrase I would have recognised in my old part of the world , from ladies like that

Epic

 

[stj]

Barry Tourist Railway has a direct service to Paddington in an episode of Casualty

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Not railway connected, but a lot of the 1990s film "Restoration" was filmed in several of the Castles in South Wales.

In particular, there's a scene of our hero (Hugh Grant) rowing over the Thames to escape from the Great Fire of London .... er, no, he was rowing across the Lake / Moat at Caerphilly Castle!

 

[AM9]

Not railway connected, but a lot of the 1990s film "Restoration" was filmed in several of the Castles in South Wales.

In particular, there's a scene of our hero (Hugh Grant) rowing over the Thames to escape from the Great Fire of London .... er, no, he was rowing across the Lake / Moat at Caerphilly Castle!

Seem like he has problems in locating the correct boat as well as parked cars.

 

[ungreat]

I cant be doing with Gavin and Stacey but will have a look at this

 

[DelW]

Going back to the original point about Marylebone standing in for Paddington, the current Railway Magazine has a photo of it standing in for 1970s Kings Cross, for a film about the Sex Pistols.

There are a few oddities including:
- an obviously spurious sign saying "British Rail King's Cross" - since all stations were British Rail operated then, there was no need put it on signs,
- the visible stock is a maroon class 47 (from West Coast) with maroon mk2s - surely KX in the 1970s would have been all blue and grey (and Deltics)?
- anachronisms like dot matrix departure boards.

Still, maybe it'll all be sorted out with some CGI magic!

 

[Journeyman]

There are a few oddities including:
- an obviously spurious sign saying "British Rail King's Cross" - since all stations were British Rail operated then, there was no need put it on signs,

But they did, so it's realistic. Example of a station exterior below:

 

[DelW]

But they did, so it's realistic. Example of a station exterior below:

The sign pictured in the magazine is an internal one, hanging above a platform, which looked wrong to me. But maybe my memory is at fault (which is always possible) and they did have British Rail on inside signs, similar to your external example.

 

[Journeyman]

The sign pictured in the magazine is an internal one, hanging above a platform, which looked wrong to me. But maybe my memory is at fault (which is always possible) and they did have British Rail on inside signs, similar to your external example.

Ah, no, it was never on internal signs. Common at station entrances, though. My local station said "British Rail Kingston" on the outside right up until it got Network SouthEast signage.

 

[XAM2175]

- an obviously spurious sign saying "British Rail King's Cross" - since all stations were British Rail operated then, there was no need put it on signs,

But they did, so it's realistic. Example of a station exterior below:

Indeed, the April 1965 version of the British Rail Corporate Identity Manual holds on Sheet 3/01/1 that:

4. Fascia lettering
All stations will bear the logotype 'British Rail' in upper and lower case in the Rail alphabet. Where there is more than one station in a town or district, the name of the station, also in upper and lower case, will follow, thus: 'British Rail Paddington'. ...

And Sheet 3/01/2 shows examples for 'British Rail Kenton' in four variants, namely 1: white on Rail Blue, 2: white on black, and for exceptional circumstances, 3: white on black with the double arrow in white on BR Flame Red, and 4: black on white with the double arrow in white on BR Flame Red.

 

[DelW]

Indeed, the April 1965 version of the British Rail Corporate Identity Manual holds on Sheet 3/01/1 that:


And Sheet 3/01/2 shows examples for 'British Rail Kenton' in four variants, namely 1: white on Rail Blue, 2: white on black, and for exceptional circumstances, 3: white on black with the double arrow in white on BR Flame Red, and 4: black on white with the double arrow in white on BR Flame Red.

But as mentioned above, this is an internal sign, not a fascia.

I don't want to break copyright, but the sign is hanging over a platform, perpendicular to the track, and has three lines:

->-<- British Rail King's Cross
<-- Toilets
<-- Telephones

(the ->-<- is representing the BR double arrow)

Would such a sign have included the station name including the double arrow and the station name "British Rail"? Maybe it would, but it still looks strange to me

 

[XAM2175]

But as mentioned above, this is an internal sign, not a fascia.
...
Would such a sign have included the station name including the double arrow and the station name? Maybe it would, but it still looks strange to me

Oh, sorry, I'm caught up now! You're correct, the arrangement you describe wouldn't have ever been officially used.

 

[DelW]

Oh, sorry, I'm caught up now! You're correct, the arrangement you describe wouldn't have ever been officially used.

No worries
I've also corrected the near-gibberish in my last sentence above

 

[Taunton]

Marylebone was a longstanding film location as, for a London terminus, it long had the quietest off-peak/weekend service and could live with a good proportion of it being closed off for the filming. Furthermore such contacts were made with the BR PR team, located in 222 Marylebone Road next door.

 

[Gloster]

Marylebone was a longstanding film location as, for a London terminus, it long had the quietest off-peak/weekend service and could live with a good proportion of it being closed off for the filming. Furthermore such contacts were made with the BR PR team, located in 222 Marylebone Road next door.

BR used to have a named manger who was specifically dedicated to dealing with requests for TV and film facilities. I think he may actually have been based at Marylebone, rather than 222.

 

[Calthrop]

• TV/film producers don't really know/care about accuracy. They want a scene shot in a station with a train and that's about it.
• Paddington was possibly too busy to allow filming?

Yes, it's irritating that they don't focus on the details. How long were they using the background sound of a Routemaster in Eastenders, for example - long after they'd been out of general service? The simple answer is that it doesn't bloody matter to most of the population and we have to accept it.

(Bolding mine) -- reverting to more-general themes: TV productions often perpetrate in their railway scenes, what are to railway enthusiasts, "howlers" -- this frequently happens with the written word, as well. I have some regrettably "low" tastes in fiction; which sometimes deliver some splendid rail-related; well, oddities -- I'm inclined by temperament to find these funny rather than irritating.

The (IMO superior, in the context of that intellectually and artistically low-level scene) chick-lit author Catherine Alliott, in one of her novels, set essentially at the present day: has her heroine travelling by rail from Sheffield to Oxford. This journey involves a convenient change of trains at, of all places, Gosport (from the context of the narrative, somewhere between Sheffield and London); whence her train takes her to "Paddington" -- presumably the ex-GWR London terminus, though one begins to think, "who knows?" -- from where she gets another prompt connection to Oxford. While these antics have no bearing on the progress of the story; this bit had me musing, "Catherine, what have you been smoking?"

And in Night Shall Overtake Us by Kate Saunders -- a by turns raunchy / moving and harrowing, novel essentially revolving around World War I (per me, mostly "a cracking read" if this is the kind of rubbish one happens to like): in summer 1914, just before things "go supernova", a couple of the characters make a hasty day's return journey from London to Barnstaple, to confront other characters about a personal crisis then taking place. Amusingly, the author seems to have tried to do her relevant "homework" re things circa 1914, but not done all that well with it -- rail-wise, matters seem to end up as "the worst of both worlds". The bods travel by a GWR express from Paddington to Exeter; where they "change to a lurching little branch-line train, full of farmers' wives, which took them as far as Barnstaple". (Thence perforce by road, to the remote spot where their friends are holing-up -- sadly, no involvement of the Lynton & Barnstaple.) Clearly from context, back the same way: LSWR Barnstaple -- Exeter, GWR express Exeter -- London.

"The likes of us" would think: doing that journey at that date -- one would either use all-GWR: Paddington -- Taunton, then Taunton -- Dulverton -- Barnstaple; or all-LSW: Waterloo -- Exeter, whence at least some kind of semi-fast (maybe through) working to Barnstaple, likely reasonably free of farmers'-wife-infestation -- and the same for the return run. And the novel's characters are intelligent and sophisticated folk, who would be well able to sort out the best way to manage these things; and one would figure that circa 1914, ample advice was easily available on the most expeditious way to get from A to B by train.

Of course, as regards all stuff like this: if the reader is not a railway enthusiast, overwhelming likelihood is that they will be oblivious to the author's rail-related mistakes. Or in the fairly unlikely event of their spotting a perhaps discordant note -- it basically won't matter to them.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Taking this even further off topic (sorry!), I was watching the video for Sheena Easton's record "9 to 5" (or "Morning Train") from 1980.

The song is about a woman who waits at home all day for her man to come home from work. The music video was filmed on the Bluebell Railway, and features the LSWR Adams 4-4-2T No. 488, together with several shots of the singer on an un-named station and in the signal box.