The Secret Life Of The Motorway coming soon to BBC4

mike65

Early warning signage for new BBC series about Britains motorway system

This series pays homage to Britain's motorways – the people who built them, the people who use them and the people who risked their lives to stop them. Along the way, everything from early driving experiences and the joys of motorway services to the rise of the protest movement are re-lived.

At just six miles long, the first stretch of motorway, the M6 Preston Bypass, was opened in 1958. For the first time, people could travel further, more easily and quicker than ever before, thanks to this groundbreaking "road revolution".

This programme charts the beginning of Britain's love affair with motorways, meeting the engineers and builders who designed and built this first motorway, through to those who toiled to complete the most complex road intersection in the country – Birmingham's Spaghetti Junction.

The bizarre and often thrilling experience of driving on these new, fast roads is described by the people who were among the first to drive and work on them.

But with no speed limit, no crash barriers between the carriageways and cars that weren't built for high speeds, the risk of accidents was high. To combat the dangers, the Motorway Code was introduced – along with some rather amusing public information films to explain the "dos and don'ts" of motorway driving.

The Secret Life Of The Motorway celebrates the birth of motorways and hails the achievements of those behind the "road revolution".

It starts Tuesday 21 August at 9.00-10.00pm BBC FOUR the following two progs are on Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd. Better clear a video tape!

Mike.

murphaph

I would watch it, if I had BBC4. I'm still in the dark ages-NTL basic analogue pack!

1huge1

Does anyone have BBC4 in Ireland? its not on sky is it because I can't find it

A Dub in Glasgo

From another site

Press the "Services" button
Select number 4 (System Setup),
and then 4 again ("Add Channels").
In the Frequency field enter: 10.773
Toggle Polarisation to : H
Toggle Symbol Rate to: 22000
Toggle FEC to : 5/6
Select the last button - Find Channels.
Use the Yellow button to place a tick beside BBC 4 and press "Select". BBC 4 will now be stored. You can view them by pressing the "Services" button, then 6 ("Other Channels")

Alun

1huge1 wrote:

Does anyone have BBC4 in Ireland? its not on sky is it because I can't find it

It's also on ntl: digital.

icdg

And Chorus too. And I believe some of the IPTV operators.

There was a long time when the BBC's attitude to its stations being carried in Ireland was "BBC1 and BBC2, because you already have these, but none of the rest". Thankfully that has thawed and we can now recieve the same range on BBC digital services as the UK (in fact those of us with NTL Digital have more, because we also have BBC World!).

mike65

Bump!

If you can't get BBC4 you can be pretty sure BBC2 will pick it up later in the year.

Mike.

mike65

The 55 mile M1 section was completed in 19 months for 16 million pounds. They built a mile every 8 days and finished a bridge evey 3 days. As was remarked only the Chinese are working a that rate now!

I enjoyed that, some good stuff about the need to design a new unified standard for signage. Yet they forgot to build any seperation barriers.

Mike.

Terrontress

mike65 wrote:

The 55 mile M1 section was completed in 19 months for 16 million pounds. They built a mile every 8 days and finished a bridge evey 3 days. As was remarked only the Chinese are working a that rate now!

I enjoyed that, some good stuff about the need to design a new unified standard for signage. Yet they forgot to build any seperation barriers.

Mike.

Yeah! Alot of the talk from that lady, whose name I think is Margaret Calvert, seems very relevant to alot of the discussions on here.

It was funny to note though that although she was invited, she did not make the opening ceremony because she missed the turn!

JupiterKid

I saw the programme last night. It was very well put together and fascinating. It was interesting to see drivers giving out about the introduction of the 70mph speed limit in 1966 - some were openly proud to declare that they drove at 100 mph+!!

The section on the building of the M62 over the Pennines was also very good. And there was also a bit about the Irish navvies who helped build the UK motorway system in the 1960s and 70s.

Hotblack Desiato

JupiterKid wrote:

It was interesting to see drivers giving out about the introduction of the 70mph speed limit in 1966 - some were openly proud to declare that they drove at 100 mph+!!

Why not? Remember motorways were very lightly trafficked in those days and under good conditions 100+mph would be perfectly safe.

The UK 70mph limit is ridiculous, our 120km/h is little better. Germany has the right idea - driver training first and foremost and using speed limits only as appropriate.

mike65

Part three tonight features crusties and villagers getting all uppity.

Mike.

Alun

mike65 wrote:

Part three tonight features crusties and villagers getting all uppity.

Mike.

Part 3?? Bugger! I missed last nights one as I thought it was just a repeat of Tuesday's. Anyway, I've just discovered that Part 2 is repeated on BBC Four at 23.40 on Friday .. thank god for my brand spanking new ntl: digital DVR

spacetweek

mike65 wrote:

The 55 mile M1 section was completed in 19 months for 16 million pounds. They built a mile every 8 days and finished a bridge evey 3 days. As was remarked only the Chinese are working a that rate now!

It's interesting to wonder how they did this, and how the Chinese are doing it. Is it because of lax health and safety regs?

Wikipedia reckons that over the last few years, about 4800 km of motorways were completed in China each year. That's more motorways than exist in the entire UK.

> Yet they forgot to build any seperation barriers.
Yes it's weird, but all the early Autobahns in Germany apparently were like that too. In fact, they didn't even have medians!

spacetweek

spacetweek wrote:

> Yet they forgot to build any seperation barriers.
Yes it's weird, but all the early Autobahns in Germany apparently were like that too. In fact, they didn't even have medians!

I suppose it's a natural evolution.

single lane, double lane, duel carriageway, motorway, motorway with barriers etc

What next, barriers between lanes! & enforced spacing between vehicles you never know.

Stark

Deleted User wrote:

What next, barriers between lanes!

Already implemented on stretches of the M50

Dar

Stark wrote:

Already implemented on stretches of the M50

Indeed, although why they need barriers on a carpark is beyond me.

Hotblack Desiato

Alun wrote:

Anyway, I've just discovered that Part 2 is repeated on BBC Four at 23.40 on Friday .. thank god for my brand spanking new ntl: digital DVR

All three will be repeated on Friday 22:40 - 01:40. Kinda odd having it on at prime pub time, or maybe BBC FOUR know their audience better than we think!

murphaph

A kind soul from sabre has uploaded it:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3