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The Motorway - Life in the Fast Lane BBC2

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    Prince MonaluluPrince Monalulu Posts: 35,900
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    You really aren't going to be convinced are you? What do you think the likelihood of someone just happening to get a flat while having a camera in their car is? And where do you think the cameraman came from?

    Chances, pretty slim, but what are the chances of a blow out, happened in one of the Police camera programs (Pc Scothern IIRC) while a copper was on a motorway pursuit at ton up speeds, car spun multiple times in the rain.

    Cameraman, probably from a camera/crew car car or possibly sat with the recovery drivers, waiting for call outs worth filming.

    Remember Driving School, BBC was accused of faking Maureen's 'infamous' lane change, (Youtube linky) but they didn't, lots of 'lipstick' cameras in the cars, they gathered something like 400 hours of footage to make the 6 programs.
    Radio 4's Britain on the Box, Making of Driving School.

    On the recovery drivers thing, I saw and amusing/shocking incident on the M25 while working on there.
    A truck had broken down on the slip road off the motorway.
    The Recovery guys had taken their Tow truck up the slip road to pull it away, so they had their cushion wagon at the bottom of the slip road to stop traffic while they worked.
    Some woman in a Rangie was blowing her horn trying to drive round the cushion truck, then drove right under the cushion so the guy couldn't put it down, so he had to pull forward to get it down.
    Then she tried driving left and right to get round him and he was inching forward going left and right trying to block her, eventually the bloke got out of the truck to remonstrate with her, she went up half on the grass to get round him.
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    Prince MonaluluPrince Monalulu Posts: 35,900
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    Suicidal Horses, you heard it here first folks :)

    Edit: Just realised I don't even know the name of the Black geezer who reads the news and he's been around for years.
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    CentaurionCentaurion Posts: 2,060
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    God Almighty this is dull TV.

    Note to broadcasters, the lives of ordinary Joes doing ordinary jobs don't make riveting TV
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
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    Seeing them doing the jobs is ok for me,,,its the inane chatter from them that is doing my head in, i keep shouting shut up at the screen :D:blush:
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    Old EndeavourOld Endeavour Posts: 9,852
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    Centaurion wrote: »
    God Almighty this is dull TV.

    Note to broadcasters, the lives of ordinary Joes doing ordinary jobs don't make riveting TV

    Next they will have just ordinary people watching TV and make a show out of it!

    ...oh wait!

    :D
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    spookyLXspookyLX Posts: 11,730
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    I'm quite enjoying this program:blush:
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    Prince MonaluluPrince Monalulu Posts: 35,900
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    Centaurion wrote: »
    God Almighty this is dull TV.

    Note to broadcasters, the lives of ordinary Joes doing ordinary jobs don't make riveting TV

    Well, you go off and watch something else, the rest of us who do find this sort of thing interesting/entertaining, can carry on watching.

    The Supervisor/Foreman's remarks about people being jealous of them/recovery drivers going down the hard shoulder, does have an element of truth to it.
    Having seen some of the posts on here about people going down Bus lanes and seeing the struggle some of the recovery guys have getting to incidents on the M25 before.
    I'd have thought, if you're sitting in a tailback and you see a recovery wagon or other vehicle with lights coming you'd move over, if only for your own benefit.
    Sooner they get to the incident, sooner you're liable to get moving again surely.
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    LostFoolLostFool Posts: 90,662
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    I'd hate to be in a car with that woman who has the young girl in the passenger seat. She seems to panic at every little thing.
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    LostFoolLostFool Posts: 90,662
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    Centaurion wrote: »
    God Almighty this is dull TV.

    Note to broadcasters, the lives of ordinary Joes doing ordinary jobs don't make riveting TV

    More interesting than watching "ordinary" people try to sing on TV or minor-celebs trying to dance.
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    Prince MonaluluPrince Monalulu Posts: 35,900
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    LostFool wrote: »
    I'd hate to be in a car with that woman who has the young girl in the passenger seat. She seems to panic at every little thing.

    There seem to be a few of her type about, probably one of the people, I drive around when I see them dithering about around town.

    I bet she's featured again, you can see why they 'cast' her in this and stuck a few cameras in her car and let her drive about.
    At least the Daughter wasn't tearing up this week.

    Right I'm off to do some research into high pressure concrete cutting and how passing a low voltage through rebar prevents it corroding, wasn't really explained.
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    Doghouse RileyDoghouse Riley Posts: 32,491
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    The practice of passing a low voltage through metal to prevent corrosion is a common practice. It has been explained before in other documentaries.

    Here's "the science bit."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathodic_protection

    There seems to be no end to this sort of "people doin' a job" documentary, which must be relatively cheap to produce, there's so many of them.
    I recorded it but fast forward through a lot of the bits which were boring.

    The most significant point I noticed, was it seems that it may be helpful if you're, "clinically obese" if you want to get a job in Highways Agency.
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    Andy23Andy23 Posts: 15,926
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    I am surprised with so much H&S around these days, that workmen actually are allowed to run across 3 live lanes putting signs out. Can't believe that task got past the risk asessment
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    Evo102Evo102 Posts: 13,630
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    LostFool wrote: »
    More interesting than watching "ordinary" people try to sing on TV or minor-celebs trying to dance.

    Nothing wrong with showing the mundane, most peoples jobs are like that most of the time, so it what you would expect. Anyway if they showed lots of 'exciting' or 'interesting' things it seems many poster would think they were staged.

    One thing that did surprise me is that the producers of the programme aren't making more use of archive traffic camera footage to spice things up a bit, the Highways Agency must have quite a collection by now.
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 16
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    Andy23 wrote: »
    I am surprised with so much H&S around these days, that workmen actually are allowed to run across 3 live lanes putting signs out. Can't believe that task got past the risk asessment

    This is slowly being phased out, especially with the use of smart signs and IPV's (impact protection vehicles) for planned works. However, for reactive maintenance it is still necessary to cross the carriageway.
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    radcliffe95radcliffe95 Posts: 4,086
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    The woman and the daughter who are shown are a frightening indictment of how many people just shouldn't have a licence. She's a disgrace as a parent.
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    Evo102Evo102 Posts: 13,630
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    The woman and the daughter who are shown are a frightening indictment of how many people just shouldn't have a licence. She's a disgrace as a parent.

    Woman and daughter? Are you talking about tonight's programme?
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    radcliffe95radcliffe95 Posts: 4,086
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    Evo102 wrote: »
    Woman and daughter? Are you talking about tonight's programme?

    Yes. For some reason the producers of the show feel the need to intersperse small clips of actual real people driving on the motorway, even though they play no other part in the show.
    The nervous woman, who clearly shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a moving vehicle, then passes on her nervous angst quite proudly to her daughter.

    It sickens me>:(
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    Evo102Evo102 Posts: 13,630
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    Yes. For some reason the producers of the show feel the need to intersperse small clips of actual real people driving on the motorway, even though they play no other part in the show.
    The nervous woman, who , then passes on her nervous angst quite proudly to her daughter.

    It sickens me>:(

    So you are talking about the woman who had a blow-out on one of the country's busiest stretches of motorway, where there was no hard shoulder? If so, "It sickens me" and "clearly shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a moving vehicle" seems a tad harsh.
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    radcliffe95radcliffe95 Posts: 4,086
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    Evo102 wrote: »
    So you are talking about the woman who had a blow-out on one of the country's busiest stretches of motorway, where there was no hard shoulder? If so, "It sickens me" and "clearly shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a moving vehicle" seems a tad harsh.

    No, not her who hit the central reservation. It's the woman they show each week with her daughter in the passenger seat. She's a disaster waiting to happen.
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    walterwhitewalterwhite Posts: 56,966
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    Evo102 wrote: »
    So you are talking about the woman who had a blow-out on one of the country's busiest stretches of motorway, where there was no hard shoulder? If so, "It sickens me" and "clearly shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a moving vehicle" seems a tad harsh.

    The completely set up blow-out you mean? It didn't really happen you know.
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    radcliffe95radcliffe95 Posts: 4,086
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    The completely set up blow-out you mean? It didn't really happen you know.

    Yes, because they really staged this and caused countless hours of misery for motorists just to capture some exciting footage for a documentary:o:confused:

    Some people...
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    walterwhitewalterwhite Posts: 56,966
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    Yes, because they really staged this and caused countless hours of misery for motorists just to capture some exciting footage for a documentary:o:confused:

    Some people...

    What 'countless hours'? She was recovered from the side of the motorway, no delay was shown. Good luck for them to happen to film a blow out wasn't it? And even better luck they just happened to have a cameraman at the side of the road to film it.
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    Evo102Evo102 Posts: 13,630
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    The completely set up blow-out you mean? It didn't really happen you know.

    Obviously still not convinced.

    Do you think they also staged the cross-over accident that happened just in front of the Highways Agency patrol? What are the chances of that happening in front of them?
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    spkxspkx Posts: 14,870
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    What 'countless hours'? She was recovered from the side of the motorway, no delay was shown. Good luck for them to happen to film a blow out wasn't it? And even better luck they just happened to have a cameraman at the side of the road to film it.

    Good luck for them to find a dead body

    Good luck for them to find someone attempting suicide

    Good luck for them to film a car crash happen in front of them

    etc. etc

    Or were they all set up too? I'd say that finding a dead body in the middle of the road happens far, far less than a blow out, same with a cross over happening right in front of you.

    These shows work by filming constantly for weeks if not months and then editing it down to just 60 minutes.

    Also, the camera guy wasn't just stood at the side of the road, he was with the recovery truck (see next week's ep) and they were there quickly due it being road works/free instant recovery.
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    spkxspkx Posts: 14,870
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    Found this week's episode interesting, especially how even the Highways Agency despair at how long cleans up seem to take after accidents.

    Obviously police investigations need to be done methodically and to certain standards, but why on earth does it take an HOUR to clean up after?
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