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BBC How They Dug the Victoria Line

Name: BBC How They Dug the Victoria Line
Description: A 39-minute BBC documentary, built from earlier British Transport Films footage, on how the London Underground's Victoria Line was dug in the 1960s.

Graham W

Documentaries

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1 HN user recommended this documentary1 month2017–2024 score 1

Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Mentioned as a fun old documentary and as an example of fast track work and of period BBC presentation.

A 39-minute BBC documentary, built from earlier British Transport Films footage, on how the London Underground's Victoria Line was dug in the 1960s.

“And a fun old documentary about the building of part of the underground” (HN, 2020)

1 recommendations · 2 citations · Documentaries

Civil engineering & construction Transit, cities & urban planning Documentaries & storytelling Documentaries Engineering, Transport & Making

3 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@NegativeLatency Oct 2020 Recommends

on HN thread Deep geothermal energy is poised for a big breakout

Good related wipikedia article: [link] And a fun old documentary about the building of part of the underground: [this video]

Fun old documentary about building part of the underground

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Citations, criticism and jokes

@gsnedders Dec 2017 Cites it

on HN thread The Most Expensive Mile of Subway Track

> Meanwhile in Japan, they convert an above ground line into a subway line in 3.5 hours of coordinated work.[2] It's a startling difference. This is the one time I'd love to be able to bring engineering and crew from overseas and have them do the work for us and dispense with all the local corruption. London did something roughly comparable in fifteen hours during the construction of the Victoria line in the 60s: [this video]

Victoria line work done in fifteen hours in the 60s

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@amiga386 Jul 2024 Cites it

on HN thread how do you 'accurately' speak English in ancient Rome?

Monty Python were mostly making fun of the BBC ; the BBC at the time had very stiff and paternalistic presenters. It's why the BBC had the nickname "Auntie", after your old-fashioned Auntie who know's what's best for you. I think the requirement that they must speak RP had ended by the 1960s, but the BBC still had a lot of programmes and presenters with that schtick. Here's an example from 1968: [this video] They do make fun of the upper class speech in e.g. Woody and Tinny Words [link] In terms of comedy, a lot of what Monty Python did had already been done in the 1950s by The Goon Show - the surreal situations, the funny voices, the silly noises; Python were massive fans of the Goons, and to their credit, the Pythons were able to bring that energy to television in a way that the Goons couldn't.

Example of stiff paternalistic BBC presenters from 1968

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