Mark Williams On The Rails (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Educational Value	Excellent
How good are the presenters?	Outstanding
How good is the content?	Excellent
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	informative and fun
Disadvantages:	none

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Living as I do in Swindon, I am surrounded by railway references. Names such as Gooch, Churchward, Stanier and the biggest of the lot, Brunel are immortalised in street names and buildings throughout the town. Old railway buildings from the once vibrant works, that established the town's longevity, stand alongside newer developments, either converted into modern businesses or slowly decaying into dust. That aside I knew almost nothing about the history of the British railway and really had very little interest in it. That was until I came across a fantastic show, "Mark Williams On the Rails" showing on Sky. After watching only a small part of one of the half hour episodes, I knew that I wanted to watch the whole series and Sky being what it is, it was only a couple of weeks later than I got the chance to tape the whole series shown back to back in one day.

In the same way that a good teacher can make a subject interesting and spark an interest in a pupils mind, Mark Williams has the ability to make his subject matter fascinating. He is a very funny man even when not trying to be. Best known as a member of the Fast Show, Williams takes his natural humour and applies it to the subject of Railway History and converts a somewhat dry subject and brings it to life. What also helps is that his natural love of the subject matter is also obvious. He is not just a presenter of a show learning lines and delivering the facts, he comes across as a small child revelling in his dream job of playing with trains. The joy he experiences as he explores 200 years of the development of British and ultimately global railways comes through to the watcher and makes a light and easy show aimed at novice and knowledgable alike.

From the humblest beginnings of Stevenson's initial breakthroughs, through the great days of Brunel and the GWR, the halcyon days of rail travel of the thirties and the rivalries of the "big four" companies, to the nationalisation of the modern age; the show covers the lot. But its not just the British history that is covered here, the spread of influence and ideas throughout the rest of the world is also traced. How the Denver railway network grew out of the successes of slate mines of North Wales is just one fascinating saga. The technologies developed to get Victorian travellers safely up Swiss Alps and the opulence and innovation of the Pullman Company are similarly interesting off shoots.

Each show is half and hour long and tends to follow just one aspect of the history as a whole and as such can be watched in its own right, but the whole series together makes for fascinating viewing and that's coming from someone who until recently had no interest in the subject. Its more of an entry-level approach, but contains enough facts to whet the appetite of ardent steam enthusiasts.

Like his previous outing "Industrial Revelations" it is Williams that makes this show work. Years ago I watched the series "Connections" with James Burke and found the basic premise to be fine, but that his style of presentation was annoying and tiresome as he tried to inject false enthusiasm into his scripts, and failed. Mark Williams doesn't appear to be trying to be enthusiastic... he IS enthusiastic about his subject matter. And, unlike Burke he actually ties back in all of the little info excursions he takes. This is Edutainment at its best. Education and Entertainment meeting head on, learning just shouldn't be this much fun. Not only do you get one of the most amusing presenters working in this filed you will come away from this 10 episode series knowing more about the history of railways that you ever would have learnt in school.

As I said before, this is shown regularly on Sky's Discovery channel, but if you cant wait for it, don't have Sky or just want it in your collection, the DVD of the series can be had for about £14.00, just do a search on the net and a whole host of retailers will be offering it. And to quote Mark Williams in one of his less lucid moments "toot toot".