Does anyone else remember the original 1980s series of Great Railway Journeys of the World ? This included Ludovic Kennedy crossing the States and Michael Frayn in Australia.
I guess that the original series featured the programmes also presented in the book of the same name, published by the BBC in 1981.
In the book there are seven essays by the authors/presenters of the programmes, as well as an introduction by the series exec. producer Brian Thompson:
- India: Deccan (Brian Thompson)
- South Africa: Zambesi Express (Michael Wood)
- Australia: The Long Straight (Michael Frayn and Dennis Marks)
- America: Coast To Coast (Ludovic Kennedy)
- South America: Three Miles High (Miles Kingston)
- Britain: Confessions of a Train-spotter (Michael Palin)
- Europe: Changing Trains (Eric Robson)
I have to confess that I've only read the Palin segment
, but if at least the programmes that I've got recorded are anything to go by, I should really take the time. The Australia segment, for example, offers an interesting look not only into the idiosyncrasies of the Oz railways and their, literally, separate histories but also to the "feel" of the outback and the personnel involved.
Of the progs I've seen, only the Robson one doesn't feature the presenter at all making the trip, merely as a prosaic voice-over, which makes it perhaps a bit distanced from the actual chores of train-travelling. But at least it concentrates on trains (all the way across the iron curtain) as opposed to the one of the mid-1990s(?) series I've got, "From Tokyo to Kagoshima". It is less about the train travel rather than the Japanese culture and quirks - there also pervades a sense of doom as the ongoing economic recession and its perceived effect on the tradition is mentioned rather frequently. Sign of times.
Personal favourites must be the Britain and Oz ones, with the Palin thing also being his first post-Python TV production, in fact his first-ever tele-travelogue.
I wonder if he still has that Lochalsh station sign?
The whole first series has that slightly unreal feel of the life 30 yrs. ago, which is also compounded by the opening titles (the book has jacket artwork by the same artist) and the overall synth music AD 1980. But that's just part of the charm. Low-key instead of flashy modern cr*p.
