Alec Bray

For abysmal, sloppy, thoughtless, frustrating  editing, "The Yorkshire Steam Railway – All Aboard" 

(Channel 5 – first series) must take the current prize.  It purported to show the locomotive "Royal Scot "running on the North Yorkshire Moors railway.  The first sequence was meant to show the locomotive running light, but shots of the loco were mixed in with shots of it pulling a train: and then, when it was supposed to be pulling a train, there were shots of another locomotive entirely pulling a passenger train, at one point running tender first! It was an absolute travesty and an insult to the viewer.

One of the questions that I was asked – at my first interview for the BBC, was "when do you cut from one camera to another when a person walks through a door?"  So they expected some semblance of knowledge even before the technical and artistic training  that we were given. (I answered correctly).  The job was actually for a film cameraman, which turned out to be a NEWS cameraman: but the interviewer and I realised that that was not the job for me, so I was invited to an interview for Technical Operations.

 

John Hays

I couldn’t agree more! The sound effects of the loco climbing were, as usual, completely drowned by an advert, and the added sound. FX were completely out of sync. Even worse was the fiction that a loco can be brought up to pressure in a few hours from cold, a process that would take at the very least six to eight hours.

Railway programs seem to be always made by producers with minimal knowledge of the subject, yet , for example sports programmes use the minutest detail.

Oh! for a rail programme made by an expert.

 

Terry Meadowcroft

For my money this was a startling example of hopelessly prepared, shot and edited ‘documentary’ I have ever seen. Amateurism is now accepted it would seem!

I have emailed NYMR to let them know that in my opinion they have done themselves a grave disservice allowing this ‘production’ to be seen. It looked like one of the old-fashioned examples used educationally by the BEEB at Wood Norton to demonstrate all the mistakes that must be avoided when producing a film. This had howlers in production values, railway knowledge lack, poor camera work, shocking editing, awful lack of sound wildtracks to cover shots, everything. Channel 5 should be ashamed they passed this rubbishy production for transmission!

 

Pat Heigham

The North York Moors Railway is frequently used for film locations. I worked on “Eye of the Needle”, a WW2 spy drama – most of the train sequences were on the NYMR,  which I wasn’t involved with, but with the facility of freeze frame on DVD, it was possible to check the loco numbers – an engine enters a tunnel, and a completely differently numbered one exits!

 

Dick Blencowe

Haven’t watched it yet  but you are so right when it comes to railways  on TV I cringe at the inaccuracies!

My pet hate however is the use of “train station” , it’s a railway station or just station. This particularly grates on period drama as the term, probably from the US, has only been used in recent times.   

Another pet hate is when a Bakelite phone has a modern curly cable rather than the correct cotton covered  plated cable!!    I must be getting old  

 

Peter Neill

It grates with me too — but why? We’re quite happy with bus station and coach station. And it’s the trains that stop not the railway. 

But “The next station stop is . . .”??? I suppose it differentiates between the stations that the train stops at and the ones it passes through. 

 

Roger Bunce

Yeah. but since privatisation, if you go to a Railway Station you’ll be sure to find a railway – but there may not be a train!

When I were a lad, we had a bus stop or a bus terminus, we didn’t have a bus station. The irritation is purely because it’s the creeping invasion of American English, and I don’t see why BBC Journalists, in particular, are in such a hurry to abandon our own native language (the  one the Americans call ‘British’).

Although, in defence of our transatlantic co-linguists, I was annoyed by “Question Time” yesterday (03 March 2018), when Jonathan Dimbleby and the studio audience laughed at Donald Trump because he  pronounces the metal Aluminium as "Aluminum". In fact, "Aluminum" is the correct spelling in American English, and is the original name of the metal. It is we in Britain who later changed the name to "Aluminium". The are plenty of other things to laugh at Donald Trump about.



  Old Joke –

 "A Train Station is a place where a train stops. A Bus Station is a place where a bus stops. On my desk, I have a Work Station . . ."

 

Hugh Sheppard

And who travels on the train?  Passengers or ‘Customers’?

 

Roger Bunce

Standing on London Bridge station, once, waiting for a train that wasn’t coming – then the announcement. "This service has been cancelled due to a passenger under the train.” At least, in death, I thought, that unfortunate soul had had the satisfaction of being called a Passenger – NOT a Customer!

If I die in a road traffic accident, and the local paper says that I was run over by a truck – I see myself rising from the grave, screaming – "It was a LORRY!

 

Dave Plowman

How did a passenger get from inside the train to under it?

Collins GEM English Dictionary

“passenger  n. person travelling in a vehicle driven by someone else; one
of a team who does not pull his or her weight.”

Or perhaps one of the team responsible for all the cancellations?

 

Graham Maunder

We often joked on some of our far flung trips for my UNICEF jobs that if the small aircraft or helicopter crashed in some remote place the news channels would lead with ‘Ewan McGregor was involved in a fatal crash ..etc etc. Somewhere later after a list of all his films would be the additional info of “it’s believed a film crew might also have been on board. In other news….”!!

The other thing I always made sure before any of these ‘riskier’ trips was that I had a good photo available for any publication that might want it if things went tits up. Too many years of seeing some truly awful mugshots on the news.

 

Barry Bonner

Once I heard this  announcement on the Central Line "We apologise for the delay to your service, this is due to late running trains."

On the subject of "train station" versus "railway station" I am reminded of this joke… Who started the pedants’ revolt?…….WHICH TYLER!

P.S. Never seen a Fire Station containing fire!

 

Ian Hillson

North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) were obviously prepared for you lot, because my form email reminder had a health warning tagged on the end:

*Artistic Licence*

*For those who know and love the NYMR, there are a few examples of shots
that may not make sense. Including locomotives facing the wrong way,
leaving the wrong station, signals in the wrong position and jumps between
different parts of the line on the same journey.*

*This is not done through a lack of understanding, but for the simple fact
that there were only two cameramen during the filming of the series. We
hope that you enjoy the chance to see behind the scenes of what it takes to
keep our heritage railway running for all to enjoy.*

*Stations*

Methinks this is an Americanism as Google Maps refers to bus stops as bus stations.

 

Alec Bray

So, on that basis, for a SINGLE camera shoot, we are allowed to see an actor in a bowler hat and mackintosh in one scene, the same actor in a black wig and cape in the next scene, and an entirely different actor playing the same part in the next scene?  (OK something like that has been done in the past for effect, but here I mean as a matter of course.)

CONTINUITY is Paramount, Twentieth Century and Universal – you get the picture!

Irrespective of the disclaimer from NYMR , there is no excuse for such poor (I would say irredeemably hopeless) production values.

[Ed the latest series on the NYMR (2020) does not seem to suffer from the edit problems of the earlier series]

 

Alec Bray

Here’s one to get you all people of vision  going….

Vintens apparently called the Heron Crane  – the Heron Truck….  I thought I was a tracker, not a trucker.

 

Pat Heigham

If we are on a hate of Americanism pronunciations – and I am! (not BBC’s fault) but some commercials have the website address as spoken as @dotCarm, which I find irritating.

Mind you, I used have great fun with American directors (they call them producers) for US Sports Channels, by informing them that ‘fanny’ was not the backside, but the front! (Shock horror, usually!).

If I had a bag of sweets to offer around* I used to say "Have a sweet?" met by "Wassat" I capitulated to their nomenclature (quicker) and said " Have a candy!" Thus the US has won.