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Silent Witness, Falling Angels, Part Two

Continuing with Part Two of January’s two part “Silent Witness” story “Falling Angels”…

Warning this article contains SPOILERS.

Part Two starts with a police press conference outside Archway with the station entrance…

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…and a telling off over the road with The Lion pub visible.

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More in-service action on the Central line at St Paul’s and then the train is very quickly outside.

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Male character again in the open at what we think might be Harrow & Wealdstone station.  The direction of the train (towards the camera) and the platform suggests it’s one that’s terminated and reversed there (though the film could be run in reverse, but we’ve not seen any evidence of that so far in this production).  The stock suggests Bakerloo or Piccadilly line, but as we’ve also seen scenes of Harrow & Wealdstone before we know they have been filming on the Bakerloo line.

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He gets on a Bakerloo line 1973 Stock train, which…

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…travels northbound on the Bakerloo line between South Kenton and Kenton – there is a green footbridge over the railway.

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You can see it from satellite imagery – it’s next to Northwick Park.  So I think we can safely say Bakerloo line!

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Over to Kentish Town with East Midlands Trains  “I’m heading to Mornington Crescent, I’ll meet you there…”

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Exterior of Mornington Crescent…

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…and interior of Mornington Crescent as she takes the stairs not the lifts and onto…

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…the Southbound Northern line platform, followed by the Northbound with her colleague.

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They travel on the Northern line on unrefurbished 1995 stock going Northbound from Mornington Crescent following the previous route from Highgate to Archway so this makes sense.

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The characters meet up at Willesden Junction on the high level platforms for the Overground. (He’d obviously come back down the Bakerloo to meet her!)

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The police are closing in! Leaping the barriers at the real Kentish Town station!

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Two escalators at Kentish Town mutate into…

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Three working escalators at Charing Cross disused.

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And they are back on to Charing Cross Jubilee platforms for the climax of the story.  This time it’s masquerading as “Kentish Town” (With another quick flashback to Finsbury Park.)

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And with an approaching 1996 stock, we reach the…

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…shocking conclusion!

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We’ll have the full video of all the Tube scenes in this Silent Witness in the next post…

04 Mar 15

Silent Witness, Falling Angels, Part One

Last year’s Tube based “Sherlock” story which, although it made extensive use of location filming on the Tube, for the major Tube location spotters had inaccuracies galore (see “The Case of the Bad Continuity”) that detracted from the fact that those locations were in use in the first place!  Sub-surface stock innards in 1972 Tube stock, Sub-surface stock in Tube tunnels etc etc.

So when we settled down to watch January’s two part “Silent Witness” story “Falling Angels”, it was with more than a little trepidation as we’d heard it was extensively Tube based and that some scenes had been “guerrilla” filmed in live stations with normal traffic.  How would it fare…

We’re going to show you in this three part post and we’ll have the full 19 minutes of Tube-based scenes for you in the final one!  You’ll want to watch this as there is even more detail and scenery than conveyed by the screenshots here!

Warning this article contains SPOILERS.

…let’s just say we were pleasantly surprised and with around 19 minutes of Tube-based scenes in the 2 hours there is quite a bit for the location aficionados amongst you.

The story opens on what are clearly the disused Jubilee line platforms at Charing Cross station, however, there is a black and white frieze and roundels with “Archway” on them on the platform.

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Archway, Northern line, got it!  There’s moving 1996 stock and action at track level too.

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Our first character now leaves “Archway” station along a corridor that has a Piccadilly line map on the wall (you can see the Hounslows and loop for Heathrow 4 quite clearly)

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and exits out of Finsbury Park station!

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This is somewhat odd, considering what happens later on…  I think I can state here that this is the only real continuity “crime” in the whole programme!

A woman on an unrefurbished Northern line train.  She clearly gets off at the unmistakable East Finchley Station.

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Next, scenes on a Central line train in service and what appears the first of the “in-service” filming.

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The character involved departs the train and exits West Acton station into the alleyway next door to meet his unfortunate fate…

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A character walks over a passenger footbridge over Tube tracks – it’s not completely clear where…

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…but our money is on Harrow & Wealdstone if that’s a sunset in the West (and there are too many tracks for it to be Rayners Lane, which would have been our first guess.)

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He arrives on the platform of the in-service Northern line with refurbished 1995 Stock at what can only be Highgate station because of the length of the platform.

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More in-service filming on a refurbished Northern line train, complete with a Tissue Beggar…

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…which suddenly mutates into 1996 Stock back at Charing Cross masquerading as Archway.

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Now we get to see the tiles of the real Archway exit/entrance…

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…gate line

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and control room as the police run down onto Charing Cross again masquerading as Archway.

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Our suspect escapes via the driver’s cab into the tunnels and ventilation tunnels at Charing Cross at the climax of Part One.

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More action from Part Two in the next post…

03 Mar 15

Mind The Gap Documentary

It was this time last year that the story came out how the widow of Oswald Laurence (the voice of the “Mind the Gap” announcements) used to visit the tube just to hear his voice … well, someone’s gone and made a beautiful short film about  it.

Oswald Laurence’s voice was used on the northbound Northern Line but was phased out until only Embankment used it. Dr Margaret McCollum said she often uses the station and was devastated when “he wasn’t there” in November.

She was given a copy of the recording after TfL heard she went to Embankment after his death to hear his voice. After the request Transport for London bosses decided to restore the voiceover warning to Embankment station.

The film features Babrican, not Embankment – and if you’re being really picked you’ll notice a few continuity errors.

Mind The Gap from Luke Flanagan on Vimeo.

01 Mar 15