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The Boat That Guy Built


Tim Lewis

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How do you get younger people into canals without programs like this? Today,at work,we will talk about canals because of this program,this at a time when canals need all the help and support they can get. As for Fred,yes he was great but he's dead,and I know of people in there teens that have never heard of him.

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Very enjoyable, I reckon he must have been speeding between the pottery and the foundry tho, the one in stoke, the other in the black country (missed exactly where) - or is it a bit like Britain by Bike with Clare Balding - how much is done in a van and with judicious editing.....

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Well I didn't watch it. I was too busy finishing off varnishing some cabinets I have built for our boat, in preparation for the "first fitting" at the weekend.

 

Jan watched it and has recorded it for me, her assesment of the progrramme included "different" and "interesting!" I will make my judgement in due course.

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We watched and because we are in the 'know' we could see the 'mistakes'.

 

It may well be mis-named program but as light entertainment/travel/education program it works.

 

Those who were expecting the filming of a boat actually being built will be disappointed.

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You are a miserable lot.

 

I watched it for what it was, prime time light entertainment and quite enjoyed it. But then I enjoyed Neil Oliver talking about our ancient history later, and demonstrating making a bronze sword. I'm sure historians and archiologists in the know would take just as much delight in telling you what's wrong with that too.

 

As for programs showing steam engines, almost with out fail Richard will be telling me that that engine would never have been on that line, or where they said it was. To most people it's a steam engine, to enthusiasts it's a steam engine but not quite right.

 

I'm going to watch next week and see where it goes next, and I intend to enjoy it. :lol:

 

Sue

 

Entirely agree. It's a prime time BBC1 show to capture an audience who've just watched The One Show and intended to entertain them and tell them a bit of interesting stuff too.

I can't believe he amount of nit-picking. The sneering comments because a bloke who clearly knows his engines (he's a mechanic and a bike racer) makes a slip of the tongue about 'overhead cam'. And all the grumbling about continuity. Do you think the team that did 'Coast' walked every mile with the film crew in tow? This is t.v. - shots are set-up, edited, mixed etc to create a visual impression.

I thought he was a cheerful, telegenic presenter who enjoyed the subject, I thought there was some good canal filming and the attempt to smelt(?) iron was genuinely interesting. I'll be watching next week too and having an extra chuckle about all the CWF grumps chuntering in their beards.

  • Greenie 2
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Very enjoyable, I reckon he must have been speeding between the pottery and the foundry tho, the one in stoke, the other in the black country (missed exactly where) - or is it a bit like Britain by Bike with Clare Balding - how much is done in a van and with judicious editing.....

 

I know the guy who really steered the boat ;)

 

I think they probably got off on the wrong foot with knowledgeable waterway people with the geographic impossibilities, but I suppose we aren't the real target audience.

My regular complaint about serious documentary programmes is that they seem to be made for the mentally impaired and drag out what could have been an interesting half-hour into a tedious hour, with repetition and syrupy voices. This was completely the opposite, buzzing from one theme to another at a crazy pace with too much glossed over.

On reflection some of it was OK, the Wedgwood bit for instance, but the blast furnace bit was a mess IMO with not enough explanation and up to now the boat seems irrelevant.

 

Tim

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I can't believe he amount of nit-picking. The sneering comments because a bloke who clearly knows his engines (he's a mechanic and a bike racer) makes a slip of the tongue about 'overhead cam'. And all the grumbling about continuity.

 

I actually thought the "overhead cam" was a bit of a joke that got lost in the editing as he was looking at the (what I presume is a) hand starting shaft when he said it. I thought the editing had simply messed up the joke.

 

I totally agree about the nit picking comment.

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I watched two thirds of it on i-player. I agree that it utterly failed to do what it said on the tin, and that what it did cover was very poorly explained. But he was an engaging presenter, and at least the production was relatively free of the manic choppy editing and repetition which bedevils similar programmes.

Edited by Chertsey
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On reflection some of it was OK, the Wedgwood bit for instance, but the blast furnace bit was a mess IMO with not enough explanation and up to now the boat seems irrelevant.

I only watched it the once, but it seemed pretty obvious to me that.....

 

1) Despite high tech aids like a powerful electric blower, they probably completely failed to make iron that was usable in any way.

2) Although they pretended to enhance it with some material produced in modern equipment, the liklihood is that virtually all they cast with came from that route.

3) Even so, it was fairly obvious the pot wasn't up to much - we would have been shown it properly if it was.

4) Thereafter it was a different pot!

 

The difference, I feel, between this and "Fred", is that had it been "Fred", the failures would not have been glossed over, and more emphasis would have been given as to how difficult it actually was, (and hence how skilled those who could do it reliably were).

 

It may be light entertainment to some, but I didn't feel it was at all educational.

 

Perhaps I expect too much ?

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He should stick to Motor Biking !!!!

 

Too right!

 

I was not so concerned that the chap obviously knew nothing about canals or boats. That might make an interesting theme as he gradually becomes more familiar with his new environment.

 

The problem is that the director had clearly thought he was getting an interesting character – someone like Fred Dibnah or Maureen (remember Driving School?) What he got was someone who thought he was an interesting character. The excruciating banality, the narcissism and the weak attempts at witty remarks were embarrassing.

 

I shall probably watch the rest of the series with the sound turned down because I like looking at canal and boating scenes.

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I guess you are from upt norf then ?

 

'appen

 

For what it's worth, I find the accent of people who say things like "Hospitew" and "Metew" and "Phiw Mitchew" quite offensive.

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Entirely agree. It's a prime time BBC1 show to capture an audience who've just watched The One Show and intended to entertain them and tell them a bit of interesting stuff too.

I can't believe he amount of nit-picking. The sneering comments because a bloke who clearly knows his engines (he's a mechanic and a bike racer) makes a slip of the tongue about 'overhead cam'. And all the grumbling about continuity. Do you think the team that did 'Coast' walked every mile with the film crew in tow? This is t.v. - shots are set-up, edited, mixed etc to create a visual impression.

I thought he was a cheerful, telegenic presenter who enjoyed the subject, I thought there was some good canal filming and the attempt to smelt(?) iron was genuinely interesting. I'll be watching next week too and having an extra chuckle about all the CWF grumps chuntering in their beards.

 

I'm afraid that those two comments are entirely contradictory. He may know his bike engines (which will be overhead cam) but didn't show much general knowledge about engines in general in his comment. It is difficult to concede that anyone with a true general knowledge about engines could have made such a 'slip of the tongue'. It's a bit like saying that electrical current is measured in volts while claiming to have a knowledge of electrics. It is, I'm afraid, almost as basic as that.

Having said that, I didn't mind the blokesy presentation. It was down to earth and different from the normal run of the mill presenter style. The technique is to interest those that have no knowledge of the technologies involved. The rapid changes in location while pretending to do it by boat are not unusual in this type of program so you do have to gloss over those as they are trying to link the topics within the time constraints of a single episode.

Roger

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Too right!

 

I was not so concerned that the chap obviously knew nothing about canals or boats. That might make an interesting theme as he gradually becomes more familiar with his new environment.

 

The problem is that the director had clearly thought he was getting an interesting character – someone like Fred Dibnah or Maureen (remember Driving School?) What he got was someone who thought he was an interesting character. The excruciating banality, the narcissism and the weak attempts at witty remarks were embarrassing.

I shall probably watch the rest of the series with the sound turned down because I like looking at canal and boating scenes.

 

 

keep on topic , whats the unstable bar got to do with guy,s boat. :unsure:

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Very enjoyable, I reckon he must have been speeding between the pottery and the foundry tho, the one in stoke, the other in the black country (missed exactly where) - or is it a bit like Britain by Bike with Clare Balding - how much is done in a van and with judicious editing.....

 

I don't think the programme claimed that they were only travelling by boat.

 

Tone

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I enjoyed watching the barbecue on the roof of the boat at the end. Didnt know that was allowed :)

 

As the boat was originally the nice boat from Hassell Green that got set on fire and burned out a barby on the roof is the least of it's problems.

 

Anyone figure where the oft shown bit of film of it cruising on a narrowish canal by some ponds was. I wondered it it was near Leigh on the Bridgewater/L&L - which is maybe where he learned to steer before someone else moved the boat to Anderton (and hence no film of the Swing Aqueduct, going through tunnels etc.

 

Talking to a chap who (some years back) lent his boat for less than it cost to fix afterwards to the Beeb for 'Travelling Man' He said they would film the want it miles away at the next film site by next day and didn't understand that boats took days to travel the distance cars go in a hour. In the end the Beeb moved the boat and on one occassion the movers got beaten up going through Manchester through the night. Moving boats to where they are wanted by any means seems to be the way of TV. In True Tilda the boats used were moved by road from one end of England to the other to get the 'right background for the story.

 

Going back to Wreckless (seen entering Anderton lift then exiting at the top then at the bottom) one assumes the makers cut the film for pretty rather than being accurate. It's all in the long tradition of filming like some of the black and white classics (like the Painted boats) where boats are carrying coal towards the coal fields rather than away. Still I wonder who moved Wreckless around or if the bloke is actually visiting a lot of the places without his boat but by car.

 

Fine, but calling it "The boat that Guy built" is completely misleading. Who built the shell? What is that "1931" engine? Will the general public be drawn to the canals by some himbo making his own mugs and sticking a few bricks together to emulate the process of producing cast iron a la Abraham Darby?

 

Utter rubbish television, that could have been so good. We might as well have, "The Cornish Crabber that Guy built," on which we have brief glimpses of a fine wooden yawl, no information about it, but footage of the owner mining his own tin and making pasties.

 

I don't know if the word bollocks is allowed on this forum , but the programme was exactly that.

 

I guess 'The boat that Guy fitted out after someone else had put an old engine in replacing the original (fire written off) modern engine and made the boat livable (though maybe they really stayed in Hotels).' is not the most catchy title.

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Easy to critisise for all budding TV program makers. Yes imo there are editorial and production errors, but we don't know the schedule and budget they were working on.

 

Lets not dwell on the negative. Found it an interesting and enjoyable program. The most important thing is that the canals, boats, landscape and heritage was on primetime TV. You can't get much better than that.

 

Agreed!

 

Although it may appear tedious to the veteran boaters amongst the forum members, but to those still exited by any programme related to the waterways, it's worth watching.

 

I also watched Timothy Spall's short series illustrating him and his wife venturing around the coast of Britain. Daft as he is, he's still worth tuning in to!

 

Mike

 

P.S. I'll bet the OP's sorry he highlighted the programme now :o

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I don't know if the word bollocks is allowed on this forum , but the programme was exactly that.

 

It would appear from the negative feedback on the forum, that bollocks are what's holding the programme maker's ears apart! :rolleyes:

 

Mike

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Anyone figure where the oft shown bit of film of it cruising on a narrowish canal by some ponds was. I wondered it it was near Leigh on the Bridgewater/L&L - which is maybe where he learned to steer before someone else moved the boat to Anderton (and hence no film of the Swing Aqueduct, going through tunnels etc.

 

 

Yes it could be the bit just before Poolstock between Scotsman's and Pearson's Flashes.

 

Irritating presenters, 'primary school' extra irritating voiceover. Pretty scenery and canals from the air. NOT on next week's 'to watch' list!!

 

It was Lisa Tarbuck who I don't think can talk any other way.

 

I agree the programme was disappointing and I thought it looked as though they were hoping for a Mk 2 Dibnah, but I will probably watch it for the boaty bits.

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