The day britain stopped

Post by **martinhodgson** » Tue May 13, 2003 8:11 pm

Is anyone watching this? It involves a made up, futuristic story involving train and plane crashes, so far its good, with a train crash in Edinburgh and subsequent strikes

ForburyLion · Post by **ForburyLion** » Tue May 13, 2003 8:26 pm

Just tuned in.... was planning to watch it but lost track of time

tinsley · Post by **tinsley** » Tue May 13, 2003 8:36 pm

Could be very good..recording it to watch later.

Post by **martinhodgson** » Tue May 13, 2003 10:10 pm

I thought it was excellent, but the rail strike was only featured at the beginning, as it caused the traffic jams.

mikey2001 · Post by **mikey2001** » Tue May 13, 2003 10:13 pm

Yeah, I though it made very good TV. I also though it looked incredibly realistic and gave a good insight into what might happen one day. If you have got RealPlayer and broadband you can stream the whole program of the BBC website (well, I missed the first 45 minutes

)

Post by **martinhodgson** » Tue May 13, 2003 10:16 pm

I'm amazed at the realism - either they have some amazing footage which was edited together, or the computer graphics were spectacular!

and the news desks were good - even match of the day got in on the act!

Horgy · Post by **Horgy** » Tue May 13, 2003 10:36 pm

If you missed it, its availible on the BBC website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/britainstopped

Certainly made me . a brick

Horgy

jaffamafia · Post by **jaffamafia** » Wed May 14, 2003 12:20 am

Horgy wrote:Certainly made me . a brick

Horgy

A brick!!!!

I've just finished building a house!!!!!!!

I'm flying (for only the second time ever) to Canada in six weeks time!!!

slipdigby · Post by **slipdigby** » Wed May 14, 2003 1:24 am

Interesting and quite plausible. Well done BBC. I'm all for a bit of scaremongering every now and again

doownyl · Post by **doownyl** » Wed May 14, 2003 6:32 am

The whole premise for the programme's subsequent events - an ASLEF strike following a crash at Edinburgh Waverley - was flawed. Can anybody think of any cause of a crash that might induce strikes from ASLEF? I certainly can't.

Obviously, neither could the programme-makers, as we are never told
a) What the cause of the crash was, or
b) Why ASLEF were on strike

Comments?

Regards
Joe

Horgy · Post by **Horgy** » Wed May 14, 2003 8:17 am

doownyl wrote:The whole premise for the programme's subsequent events - an ASLEF strike following a crash at Edinburgh Waverley - was flawed. Can anybody think of any cause of a crash that might induce strikes from ASLEF? I certainly can't.

Obviously, neither could the programme-makers, as we are never told
a) What the cause of the crash was, or
b) Why ASLEF were on strike

Comments?

Regards
Joe

It was stated ASLEF went on strike because of safety flaws in the network. After repeated warnings, accidents continued to happen and they had had enough. As for a cause, I don't think it was intergral to the story, but I should think it was network related.

Horgy

duncharris · Post by **duncharris** » Wed May 14, 2003 11:26 am

Horgy wrote:
doownyl wrote:The whole premise for the programme's subsequent events - an ASLEF strike following a crash at Edinburgh Waverley - was flawed. Can anybody think of any cause of a crash that might induce strikes from ASLEF? I certainly can't.

Obviously, neither could the programme-makers, as we are never told
a) What the cause of the crash was, or
b) Why ASLEF were on strike

Comments?

Regards
Joe
It was stated ASLEF went on strike because of safety flaws in the network. After repeated warnings, accidents continued to happen and they had had enough. As for a cause, I don't think it was intergral to the story, but I should think it was network related.

Horgy

Yeah, and the bloody pizza delivery boys are going to go on strike 'cos of the chances of road accidents, causing mayhem! Typical rail-safety bashing by people not knowing what they're talking about - the Milan derby was much better!

markw · Post by **markw** » Wed May 14, 2003 12:28 pm

You'll probably find that ASLEF were involved because the real Mick Rix was willing to take a part in the programme....simple as that.

Horgy · Post by **Horgy** » Wed May 14, 2003 3:04 pm

duncharris wrote:
Horgy wrote:
doownyl wrote:The whole premise for the programme's subsequent events - an ASLEF strike following a crash at Edinburgh Waverley - was flawed. Can anybody think of any cause of a crash that might induce strikes from ASLEF? I certainly can't.

Obviously, neither could the programme-makers, as we are never told
a) What the cause of the crash was, or
b) Why ASLEF were on strike

Comments?

Regards
Joe
It was stated ASLEF went on strike because of safety flaws in the network. After repeated warnings, accidents continued to happen and they had had enough. As for a cause, I don't think it was intergral to the story, but I should think it was network related.

Horgy
Yeah, and the bloody pizza delivery boys are going to go on strike 'cos of the chances of road accidents, causing mayhem! Typical rail-safety bashing by people not knowing what they're talking about - the Milan derby was much better!

Actually, it was an attack on the flimsiness of the transport network in general. Only 5% more traffic was added to the roads, but because the way its operated is so poor, everything came crashing down around everyone.

Horgy

Fodda · Post by **Fodda** » Wed May 14, 2003 3:46 pm

I thought the rail network came out of the whole programme fairly lightly. OK so there was a train crash 2 weeks before the events shown, but the major stories were the roads and the air traffic.

As for the crash, there was a line in the programme later on I think that said that an IC 125 had collided with a derailed freight train 50 yards short of Waverley. Apart from that, there wasn't much other mention apart from the strike.

The only unbelievable part of the programme was when the BBC news and the Police spokesman on the scene gave out the flight number of the crashed BA plane well before any bereaved relatives had been notified (especially Mrs Pilot and Mr Spanish-Wife)... I doubt that would ever happen in real life and unfortunately brought me back to earth and exploded my suspension of disbelief for a while.

Other than that, a fantastic programme that I'm sure will be repeated.

Who held on and watched the wierd interview on Newsnight afterwards? The integrated transport geezer panned the film, whilst the ex CAA boss said it was very plausible! I'd have thought their views would have been reversed.