Arena: Underground On The Box

Now I know how film makers and actors must feel when they look at the TV review pages. The final part of a trilogy of London Transport films (although it was actually filmed second) was shown on BBC4 on Saturday night and also repeated last night. Zimena Percival's documentary Arena - Underground featured me (mostly looking like a damn fool) in a history of the London Underground from 1863 to the present day.


As it was a repeat or an "another chance to see" showing from 2007, that meant it probably received fewer reviews this time around, than when it was first aired. So I was pleased to stumble upon the following review from "On the Box" of last night's airing.

"The final part of Arena's London Transport Trilogy doesn't seem like an ordinary documentary. It occupies an interesting niche somewhere between historical re-enactment, fly-on-the-wall docu-drama and talking head show. Which is good, as a simple history of the London Underground could get slightly tedious.

Tedious is something that this one certainly isn't. The program opens with a jerky modern view of a mother and her young son navigating the Tube system. A slightly menacing Cockney voice-over promises to tell the tale of the Underground from its origins back in the 1800s to the present day. The modern mother and son suddenly fly back in time, and we see them on board an early Tube train on their way to a public hanging in 1863.....

In order to keep things spicy, the documentary makers have cleverly spliced historic detail with frequent shots of modern life – Tube drivers giving their accounts of what life is like in dingy subterranea, a psychologist analysing Tube conduct and herd mentality, and a Tube enthusiast advising the viewer on the finer points of Tube etiquette (most important, unsurprisingly, is 'Do NOT look at anyone')."


It was also, "TV Pick of the Day" in the, err, Daily Star. Nice! It's probably the only time that something I'm in will be snuggled between Hollyoaks, EastEnders and Big Brother 9.

London Connections is no more

On Friday evening I made a brief Tweet on Twitter about the demise of London Connections and would like to expand on this now.


For those who didn't know (shame on you for not looking at the Favourite links in my right hand side bar), London Connections, has been a fantastic source of London Transport development projects - including London Underground, DLR, ELL and Tube stuff for almost two years.

Graham Thant, who tirelessly ran the blog, has decided to spend more time working on other projects. He said:

"You know when you're happily watching a TV show, and the credits roll, and out of nowhere the announcer says "That was the last in the present series..."? Well that's this post.

I'd love to continue working on this blog as I have done, but I'd also like to move on to other projects, and I've decided it's best to have a clean break rather than try to keep fingers in every pie.

Thanks to everyone who's read, contributed, linked, corrected, shared, prodded, praised, learnt from, ranted against, puzzled at and pored over the posts here. The archive will stay online, the email address is still working, but for time-being at least my work here is done.".

Graham was a quiet but very helpful supporter of this blog. I met him a number of times at the London Blogger's Meet Ups. We didn't see eye to eye on a number of things. I thought he was a bit of a trainspotter. He probably thought I was a loud mouthed argumentative publicity seeker. But at the end of the day he was one of the few hardcore bloggers, who with little thanks & no payment, did what he did purely out of dedication & a love for the subject matter.

There are over a 100 comments on his final post announcing sadness, thanks and shock at him hanging up his hat. I just want to add to that by saying, I'm sorry to see it go. However, I fully understand the pressure of keeping a blog like that up to date and he's made the right decision in stopping rather than keeping it going in a half hearted fashion.

Yesterday, possibly as a result of GoingUnderground.net and myself being repeated on BBC4's Tube Night on Saturday evening (Arena's - Underground is repeated tonight if you missed it), I was approached by a guy wanting to buy goingunderground.net. I spent ooh, a second thinking about it, and the answer was "Sorry no - not for all the tea in China".

Although I don't really update Goingunderground.net much anymore, I still think nostalgically of it as my main site. It began in 1999 and led to the blog in 2003 and I can't really see myself ever selling it. Perhaps the potential buyer might like to join forces with a number of commenters on London Connections who are offering to contribute to keep it going. Someone's even offering server space and design skills.

We'll see.