Channel 5 TV - The Motorway Map of Britain

[multiraider2]

Just caught up this evening. If there are any future TV requirements for Motorway Historian you should be first on everyone's list, Steven. Good show and to echo, very assured presenting.

[Big L]

But yes, well done Steven. Did you know you were going to be badged as a "Motorway historian" and is that a well-paid vocation?

They did ask me what I wanted to be credited as, and I think I gave them two or three options, none of which was that! I'm quite happy with it, especially given some of the alternatives they might have made up.

Might be time to change your forum signature. Something snappy, maybe two words, but I can’t think what to suggest

[Vierwielen]

Has the sign designer been made a Dame?

She has an OBE. I'm not too knowledgeable about the honours system but I don't think an OBE allows you to use the title Dame.

It doesn't. In the Order of the British Empire (and other orders where a title is given as well as the letters) the top two ranks give them KBE/DBE (knight commander or dame commander) and GBE (knight commander grand cross or dame commander grand cross)

Apparently the medals given to MBEs and OBEs are identical. The former secretary of our local history group was awarded an MBE for years of work in the civil service. Somewhere along the line, the group was given the OBE medal that had been awarded to somebody who had subsequently died withoutr issue. Our secretary compared her own medal with the new one that was given to the group and could not see any differences between them. Moreover, it appears that they are not engraved.

[trickstat]

I watched this on catch-up last night. I think the programme did a good job of having enough interesting clips and comments for the enthusiast whilst still being entertaining and informative for the more casual viewer.

Great job Steven are you sure you haven't been doing this for years?

I have seen Jonathan Glancey pop up on a few documentaries and I agree that he is best in print but I think he is OK in small doses on screen.

[B1040]

It was an agreeable programme , with a nice mix of archive footage and comments.
I didn't really see anything I didn't already know. Good to see Steve and Margaret Calvert.

[Owain]

They did ask me what I wanted to be credited as, and I think I gave them two or three options, none of which was that! I'm quite happy with it, especially given some of the alternatives they might have made up.

You should be very happy with it - I'm not sure there will be anybody else in the whole country who'll be credited with that title!

I've finally managed to watch the programme, and I think you did a cracking job. It's a lot harder than it looks, but it was pitched perfectly and you nailed it like a pro.

[freebrickproductions]

Now I have to wonder if it's available online here in the US, it certainly sounds like it'd be fun to watch. Seems it may (currently?) be region-locked to the UK though.

[owen b]

A very good programme, a lot packed into less than an hour, as others have said coming at things from various angles with enough to interest the more casual and the more informed audiences. It was particularly good to get the interview with Margaret Calvert and while I've never been particularly interested in signage I thought the various discussions and illustrations about signage were excellent. I also liked the motorway map and the time series map of completed sections and of Roads for Prosperity and other schemes which didn't happen, which seemed to owe quite a bit to the Chronology Maps on roads.org.uk and probably Pathetic Motorways too, although they whizzed through very quickly and I had to freeze frame quite a lot to look at the various map sequences properly. Unsurprisingly there were quite a lot of sequences of motorway film, mostly sympathetically shot making the motorways look reasonably attractive. There were one or two things which grated, for example the roadworks sequence on the A1 by the Angel of the North which isn't a motorway now and won't be when the improvements are completed, but I guess I'm being picky . I will add to the compliments paid to Steven, good stuff.

[c2R]

Now I have to wonder if it's available online here in the US, it certainly sounds like it'd be fun to watch. Seems it may (currently?) be region-locked to the UK though.

Yeah, channel five is region locked and DRM encoded, although is free to stream if your IP fits....

[Steven]

One thing I did notice but forgot to mention is that the "1980s plans" map with the additional items shown in red is clearly taken from PM's Might Have Been Map - the real giveaway being the area around Bristol with the South Bristol and Weston-super-Mare spurs, plus the Chippenham Spur which we now know to be a relic of an earlier M4 routing.

None of which are relevant to that time frame.

[owen b]

One thing I did notice but forgot to mention is that the "1980s plans" map with the additional items shown in red is clearly taken from PM's Might Have Been Map - the real giveaway being the area around Bristol with the South Bristol and Weston-super-Mare spurs, plus the Chippenham Spur which we now know to be a relic of an earlier M4 routing.

None of which are relevant to that time frame.

Yes, it was the inclusion of the Chippenham Spur which prompted me to mention the likely inspiration from PM.

[Owain]

Another slight inaccuracy was the implication that the concept of the motorway originated with the Mussolini dictatorship in Italy.

The autostrada was conceived more by the engineer and industrialist Piero Puricelli than anybody else. He established the Società Anonima Autostrade* in 1921, the year before Mussolini became prime minister. Puricelli was also involved in the construction of the Autodromo di Monza (home of the Italian Grand Prix) which opened in 1922, a few months before Mussolini came to power.

So, while the dictator championed the autostrade (and motorsport too), they weren't his idea. Puricelli went on to work for the regime, but if he'd wanted to continue his career in that climate, he wouldn't have had much alternative.

*The company designed and built the Autostrada dei Laghi (today's A8 and A9), the first motorway in Europe.

[varga]

On this they claimed that at Gateshead the A1M was getting a 4 mile extension ... the works there on the A1 are to add merely an extra lane, are they not?