The Tube (2012 TV series)

The Tube
Created by	Rowan Deacon
Narrated by	Julian Barratt
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	6
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Production company(s)	Blast! Films
Release
Original network	BBC Two
Picture format	1080i (HDTV)
Original release	20 February – 26 March 2012

The Tube is a 2012 documentary television series produced by Blast! Films for the BBC. It follows the staff and passengers of the London Underground as it underwent the biggest upgrade in its history.^[1] It premiered on BBC Two on 20 February 2012 for a six-week run. According to Blast! Films' Twitter, there were no plans for a second series;^[2] however, the company produced an identically-themed series (entitled The Tube: Going Underground) for Channel 5 in 2016.^[3]

Episodes

Series 1

Episode 1 (Weekend) highlighted the difficulties of undertaking major renewal of the tracks without disrupting the weekday service, the engineer works at Harrow-on-the-Hill station which results with no Metropolitan Line nor National Rail services at the station until the completion of the engineer works and the handling of an incident at Leicester Square Station where a woman was pushed onto the electrified tracks at Platform 4, resulting with hundred's of crowds, an arrest (although the suspect was later released without charge) and Northern Line services from North and Southbound trains to pass without stopping before closing the station when the Northern Line is suspended at Leicester Square.^[6]

Episode 2 (Revenue) looked at the work of ticket inspectors and others working to track down the estimated 60,000 people who use the system each day without paying for a ticket, which costs the Underground some £20 million in lost revenue each year, the episode also includes two ladies who are the ticket inspectors for the Northern Line, two men keeping the guard and lookouts for any Oyster card system problems on the Hammersmith and City Line at Latimer Road tube station, The Metropolitan Line makes a change as the A Stock train is replaced with a brand new S Stock Train and both lines, as well as the Circle Line, are suspended from Liverpool Street tube station when a track failure is heard at Farringdon tube station.^[7]

Episode 3 (Emergency Response) looked at the trauma caused to drivers when passengers fall or jump in front of a train. It also looked at the work of the emergency response unit at Bank and Euston Station where in both cases, the passengers were fatally injured and the types of incident that they have to deal with, and the stresses put on the system by the Notting Hill Carnival, as well as some busy crowds for the plans at both Notting Hill Gate and Westbourne Park stations were 42 arrests have been made without any serious incidents.^[8]

Episode 4 (Upgrading the Tube) looked at reliability issues following the introduction of new trains on the Victoria line and the knock-on effects caused by the failure of a newly installed signal. It also looked at the work of a station supervisor at Tottenham Court Road as he tried to ensure that customers kept moving during an upgrade to the station which will increase its size by a factor of six, resulting in the Northern Line to pass TCR without stopping for 7 months until the upgrade is complete.^[9]

Episode 5 (Rush Hour) covered Bank station, where five passengers suffered from fainting or injury during a single rush hour shift, and problems on the Jubilee line when a failure of the power supply almost disrupted the evening peak services. It also showed the use of a hawk called Toyah to clear train sheds of pigeons.^[10]

Episode 6 (Overnight), the final episode, aired on 26 March 2012,^[5] featured the work of cleaners, who work during the four-hour period each night when the power is switched of, to clean the stations and remove lint and fibres from the tracks to reduce the risk of fire. Other stories included the work of a pest controller at Hounslow Central, and a visit to the disused Down Street tube station by a member of the emergency response team.^[11]

Reception

Grace Dent of The Guardian called it "fantastic three-part (sic) exploration of London Underground, which offered many remarkable moments". She felt that the way in which the programme was billed made it look less interesting than it turned out to be. She was appalled at the behaviour shown by some of the customers portrayed in the episodes, and impressed by the way that staff were shown dealing with such abuse.^[12] Christopher Hooton came to a similar conclusion, when he wrote in the Metro: "Surprisingly then, The Tube was actually a pretty entertaining and enlightening hour."^[13]

DVD

The series was released as The Underground by Delta Home Entertainment on 24 August 2014.

See also

• The Railway: Keeping Britain On Track
• The Route Masters: Running London's Roads

References

External links

• The Tube at the Internet Movie Database
• The Tube at BBC Programmes