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Walking Britain's Lost Railways - TV series - Nov/Dec 2020

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DelW

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Channel 5 is scheduling a new series, starting at 8pm this Friday (27th Nov) with an episode about north Devon. The synopsis mentions Barnstaple to Ilfracombe and the Lynton and Barnstaple.

The presenter is Rob Bell again. Allegedly it's number one of four, but knowing C5's attitude to scheduling, I'll wait and see <D

(Edit 30/11) North Devon was an interesting episode, covering the Lynton cliff railway as well as Ilfracombe and the L&B.

Oddly, while the Devon episode was "... Britain's Lost Railways", this coming Friday's episode on the Callander and Oban is "... Scotland's Lost Railways". Is someone senior in C5 or the production company a proponent of Scottish independence?
 
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Edgeley

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A railway double-header scheduled for this Friday (11th Dec): Rob Bell's third episode traversing the Cotswolds, following the Banbury & Cheltenham Direct Rly, followed by a separate one-off programme featuring Devon and Cornwall.

The last in Bell's series, scheduled for Fri 18th Dec, is in the East Midlands, featuring the Great Central I surmise ('an abandoned high-speed railway').

As an aside, for anyone interested in canals, Robbie Cumming's second series, filmed this year, cruising from Ellesmere Port to the Midlands, is now available on BBC i-Player in four episodes.
 

Ashley Hill

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This is quite a dismal show. It follows the Portillo style of using the railway as a theme to explore the actual towns and industries served by the line rather than the line itself. I don't think for a minute that Bell walks the whole of the line,a few shots of him walking a 100yds now and again does not constitute a line walk. I recall that the first series featured more railway related items.
 

edwin_m

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This is quite a dismal show. It follows the Portillo style of using the railway as a theme to explore the actual towns and industries served by the line rather than the line itself. I don't think for a minute that Bell walks the whole of the line,a few shots of him walking a 100yds now and again does not constitute a line walk. I recall that the first series featured more railway related items.
I don't think it's too bad. There was a fair bit of information on the building of the respective railways in all three episodes, and most of the non-railway topics had some link such as that the railway made them happen by providing new transport links. A full hour solely on a fairly obscure rail link like Cheltenham to Banbury isn't going to make it onto broadcast TV.
 

bramling

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This is quite a dismal show. It follows the Portillo style of using the railway as a theme to explore the actual towns and industries served by the line rather than the line itself. I don't think for a minute that Bell walks the whole of the line,a few shots of him walking a 100yds now and again does not constitute a line walk. I recall that the first series featured more railway related items.

I can see both sides of this one. I’d like to have see a bit more of the railway, but for lines which haven’t been made into a formal path it’s never going to be possible to do much with it. Bell at least chooses more relevant local features than Portillo.

One way or other I do find Bell a pretty good presenter. He has a good manner, and is clearly enthusiastic about what he is doing.
 

Ashley Hill

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One way or other I do find Bell a pretty good presenter. He has a good manner, and is clearly enthusiastic about what he is doing.
I doubt Bell is any more of a railway enthusiast than Julia Bradbury was on her "walks". He is no doubt a competent presenter but on his appearances on Abandoned Engineering etc as a "rent an expert" I find him annoying.
I agree that these Walks are made for a general audience and I have said on similar threads that I'd love to see more specialist railway programs on TV,after all there is Monster Carp etc so why not a show for enthusiasts?
 
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