Northern Belle: 19/9, 3/10 & 17/10/20 + 16 & 17/12/20

Badly edited, continuity was awful.
One minute 6201 is at Shap Wells then next shot it's near Horton in Ribblesdale.
Also on the shot of 6201 at Shap Wells as the engine goes out of shot we get a high pitched whistle, more Flying Scotsman than Stanier Hooter.

Poor program

 

Also at, not Alison

 

I quite enjoyed the program last night, it's a shame that none of the footage from the 3 cameras strapped to the loco herself was used as that would've been quite a good POV for the public I'd think. Photo shows the gopro attached to the side of the smokebox on the drivers side.

 

The lineside scenes were out of sequence, unless they have dewired part of the WCML since I was last up there. Also a bit odd that while they made a lot of the small town of Kirkby Stephen the former county town of Westmorland didn’t even get a mention.

 

Harnetty had one shot near the end Ralph I believe. Rest were Nigel, Liam and myself.

 

And very nice shots they were

 

Agree with you Idris but we know its out of sync but joe public probably won’t have a clue all the same.

 

Some great footage even if most of it was out of sync. Some gaffs in the narrative as well. 6201 is not a train and was built in 1933 not 1934.
The distance from Euston to Glasgow is 401 miles not 411. Mr Thompson and friend are setting up in the pouring rain at Ribblehead to, presumably, film something northbound and 6201 is seen heading south. It must have taken the pair of you a month to dry out!
Also, check the footage at 36:40. It looks like Lizzie is running wrong line, but I think it's approaching Ais Gill and the film has been flipped.

 

Fair criticism, but I think we should give some credit to Channel 5. They produce a fair number of railway programmes, which may have errors, but I still enjoy watching them.
It’s been said before, they are producing programmes for mainstream viewing rather than for the hypercritical railway fraternity.

 

Yes that's one of my shots from Aisgill which has been flipped.

 

The director told me the footage from the cameras on the loco was unusable due to the stormy weather .

 

I enjoyed your feature @sgthompson. I think you sold our quirky hobby alright What were you filming?... as it clearly wasn't the Lizzie Northern Belle day.

 

We were filming Alberta on the Pendle Dalesman.

 

Out of all these commentators like Portillo, Tarrant, Robinson etc I like Bill Nighy the best. Perhaps it's because he isn't there. OK we could edit the scripts a bit. But I have watched and enjoyed every one of the Channel 5 series. The Grand Canyon of Mexico is the one on my bucket list, don't suppose I will ever do that now.

Julie Walters on the tour of the Scottish Highlands was an absolute pleasure recently.

 

Perfectly acceptable to be out for a green Jubilee in those conditions

 

And I doubt West Coast, Northern Belle, Saphos or any of the loco owners will be complaining about the extra Internet searches and hopefully bookings that may result from this Friday night prime time advertising. Joe Public ultimately pays for mainline steam and by heck we are going to need all the business we can get as we recover from the Covid lockdowns.
I personally have enjoyed all of the railway programmes that have been on lately, we are currently blessed with programmes that normalise and make our hobby look attractive. It wasnt so long ago that railway programmes were few and far between and railway enthusiasts were seen as 'unique' and certainly not mainstream!

 

On reflection I think the edit was clever with the way the film crew made it look as though I was filming 6201 at Ribblehead. Obviously we know better but clever I thought .

 

Whenever I watch these programs, I expect to see bad continuity, wrongly described locos and trains, some flipping or reversing of footage and other "errors" or taking of liberties, but try to let them wash over me in exchange for the pleasure of watching an interesting subject.

And in this case, the added bonus of being able to put faces to names, such as @J Shuttleworth and @sgthompson