The Underground on British Television

There are several good television programmes in circulation on the various television channels available in the UK that readers of these pages may find interesting. Some of these are one-off showings, others repeat regularly on channels such as Discovery and History Channel.

It is my aim on this page to highlight any programmes that are up and coming, and also to indicate how relevant they may be to the subject matter covered here. The fact that I have a TiVo makes life easier as I am able to set up wish lists for various key words, so a quick scan of the keywords every weekend will inform me what's coming up in the next few weeks.

This isn't an exhaustive list of all programmes on TV about the Tube - just the ones that I spot and think readers would find interesting.

The rating scale is from 0-5 and indicates how interesting from the point of view of informing about history, engineering or general interest about the Tube and Relevance (again a 0-5 scale) indicates the programme's likely content on Disused Stations.

Oh, and to all who've conacted me in the last couple of days, yes, the Kellogs advert was filmed in Charing Cross Jubilee platforms. Sad to hear so many companies trying (badly) to impersonate Patrick Allen though...

Programme Name	Channel	When	Description	Rating	Relevance
Most Haunted		None Currently	Episode: Aldwych Station. A series, where each week, Yvette Fielding and her crew spend 24 hours in the most haunted locations in Britain. In this newly extended 1 hour episode, we see the crew actually spending 24 hours locked in Aldwych station. Although I don't personally agree with all their spiritual findings, this programme is an absolute must as it really catches the atmosphere of this place. There's one moment where all the crew stop in their tracks, hearing a ghostly murmuring coming down the tunnel ahead of them. I've had exactly the same experience in the same spot - and I came to the same conclusion they did! The series has been shown both in a half hour format and also an extended hour long format showing more behind the scenes activities. The hour version had the disadvantage of multiple intrusive onscreen graphics to emphasize that this was a different version.	5	5
The Tube		Currently several times a week	Originally commissioned by Carlton and shown in the London ITV1 region only, this programme has now been sold to Reality TV and subsequently to Sky Travel channel. Not really about abandoned underground stations or indeed about the Underground's history, this four part programme is still worth watching as it shows every day life on the tube mainly from the Underground's staff point of view. One episode involves a visit to Aldwych station.	4	1
What the Victorians Did For Us		None currently	Episode: Making it Big. In this episode of the series, one of the Victorian inventions that Adam Hart-Davis investigates in the London Underground. Although not mentioned directly, Aldwych is visited and some of the Underground's engineering features are described in the station's 1917 abandoned tunnels. A very good series in itself, about the history of technology and I'd heartily (no pun intended) recommend Hart-Davis' other shows: Local Heroes, What The Romans Did For Us and What the Tudors and Stuarts Did For Us, all produced by the BBC and frequently shown on BBC and on the BBC/Flextech UK branded channels.	5	4
Super Structures		None Currently Likely to be repeated soon	Episode: The London Underground. An excellent programme about the history of the Underground. This episode tracks the history of the railways right from its early days all the way to present day. This programme was made around 2000, and as such is heavily influenced by the completion of the Jubilee Line Extension. This programme is repeated every month or so on either Discovery, or Discovery Sci-Tech.	4	2
Bill Bryson's Notes From a Small Island		Non in current schedule, but this programme regularly repeats	Episode: (no name) - the one that starts with a sand castle! This episode includes a brief visit to Down Street as part of a discourse about Harry Beck's Tube Map. There are other programmes that show more - but this programme is significant as it's the one that sparked my interest in the subject! Here you can find my original enquiry on the newsgroup uk.tv.media.misc - it was another 2 years before the birth of Underground History. It's also a very interesting series in and of itself.	4	3
Modern Marvels		None Currently Likely to be repeated soon	Episode: The History of the London Underground. This is definitely one of the best History of the Underground programmes I've seen. It's a well presented fact filled programme that visits both Aldwych and Down Street. In fact, this programme shows more of Down Street than any of the others and we're given a short tour of parts of the station, by the same guide that took me on a public tour of the station in 1999, outlining some of the World War 2 historical points of interest. Top stuff.	5+	5
The London Underground		None Currently Likely to be repeated soon	This programme is a re-brand of the Modern Marvels programme above. It shows up as one or the other every month or so!	5	5

Key to Channel type codes:

	This is a subscription only channel (cable/satellite).
	Free to air on a mainstream UK channel (BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 or Channel 5 only).
	Free to air but only on digital platforms such as Freeview, or using Sky Digital with the free-to-view SOLUS card (now discontinued, but still supported for 2 years for people who bought one before January 31st 2004) .

Where a channel logo is shown, but no current date is available, the logo represents the last channel the programme was on. UK subscription viewers know that programmes tend to float around different channels (e.g. the Discovery family or the Flextech/BBC channels).

More will be added as and when I come across them. The programmes that repeat often on satellite channels may well persist with no broadcast date so that you can be aware of their existence.

Last scan of schedules: 7th September 2005
(Note: Updates to this page won't be reflected in the Changes page as this page will be checked and updated every few days)

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