CWK205 (2009)

A friend of mine phoned me at 8oclock on Wednesday. There's a great programme on BBC4, all about holiday coaches, going back to the charabancs. He phoned yesterday. "It was brilliant". He told me. "Lots of old coaches. You would have loved it." Yeah, but my top box has packed up and I could not watch or record the film.

Did anyone see it. Being a freeview channel is there any information in the TV books to give the title of the programme. If you did see it, tell the members a taster so we know what we have missed.

LATE NEWS. 5pm Friday ....Just read the programme. The Golden Age of Coach Travel will be repeated on 8th January at 20,00 hours on BBC4 (digital) channell and at 0120 hours on 9th Jan.

There's more. A sequel to this programme., The Modern Age of Coach Travel is scheduled to be broadcast on BBC4 at 2100 hours on 12th January.

Or there's Mcsporrans way of reaching the programme in the next reply.

I missed it too but you can get it on iplayer, it was called "The Golden Age of Coach Travel" part of Time Shift series 10.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... ach_Travel

Thanks for the link,i have just watched it,a great programme.
It shows how much we have lost over the years,not only the vehicles but pride in the job,a sense of humour and community spirit,such a pity.

Thanks folks - have just watched the programme on iplayer. Brilliant!

A few years ago I made friends with a couple from Hamilton Scotland. First of all I travelled up from Accrington via Preston to Motherwell by train. But if I missed the connection at Preston there was a choice of a four-hour wait or go into Glasgow and back to Motherwell. Then on one journey they ran it with different carriages and I ended up with my suitcase and camera bag sitting on my knee for the whole journey.

The next trip I took was by National Express from Preston to Hamilton (the coaches usually belong to Parks of Hamilton fleet). What a difference! At Preston the driver takes your suitcase and puts it away. You get out at Hamilton three and a half hours later and your suitcase is given to you. You have a comfortable seat for the journey. But, it is when things go wrong that the big difference shows. The coach I get goes on to Inverness and is sometimes running late by the time it gets to Glasgow. At Hamilton bus station one of the other drivers takes you onboard to save your normal coach from making the Hamilton stop. Most National Express coaches stop at Westmorland Services (Tebay) for the drivers break. You are transferred back to the normal coach here. No you don't have to hump your luggage from one coach to the other, one of the drivers does it for you.

On my first trip by coach on this route, the driver realised he was 6 passengers short. He got on the radio to find out what had happened. A connecting coach had broken down but the passengers were being ferried up to Westmorland Services by taxis.

Now that is what I call service. I've not gone back to making the journey by train.

As always a lot of time and effort went into the programme. I understand they shot over 50 hours of film in 2010 of which just a little was used.
They were going to come to me to film my collection of touring coaches but ran out of time. I did however put them in touch with Cyril Kenzie who featured so much.
Some of the archive footage I had never seen and we can forgive some of the continuity issues on the archive.
By the way had anyone heard Donald Sinclair speak before?
Roger