The BBC have just started their three-day Trainspotting Live broadcast. This provides for a magazine format programme built around the idea of slow, real time, TV. Like Springwatch, but without the animals.
I thought it was quite engaging…the various hosts, gathered around Peter Snow, were certainly enthusiastic, and there was plenty of expertise from the NRM.
Like all magazine formats, the first film seemed to flit about…its always a bit frustrating when something interesting is given up for the schedule of the programme. The moving swiftly on becomes an end in itself, and like a buffet, they are heavy on the variety.
There were a number of problems with sound, and the whole thing was a bit Blue Peter, if you know what I mean.
No one called themselves a trainspotter. Nowadays, they prefer the term, rail enthusiast. The spotter comes across as a bit obsessed and a bit limited….but the programme didn’t get much beyond the here and now of the engines on camera.
The BBC have an amazing archive of railway films of their iplayer. You can see it, here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/group/p01277qd
Happy viewing.