All aboard for another TV slice of Yorkshire life

First it was vets, then shop­keepers and even bus drivers. Now it is the turn of steam train crews to entertain the nation as TV leaves no stone unturned in its search for idiosyncratic slices of Yorkshire life.
Travelling ticket inspector Bert Blower on the North Yorkshire Moors railway. Picture: Keith Simpson.Travelling ticket inspector Bert Blower on the North Yorkshire Moors railway. Picture: Keith Simpson.
Travelling ticket inspector Bert Blower on the North Yorkshire Moors railway. Picture: Keith Simpson.

Channel 5 has commissioned three programmes about the “Yorkshire Express” – the North Yorkshire Moors Railway – as it celebrates its 50th anniversary as a heritage line, later this year.

Each hour-long episode will follow the crews and other volunteers on the 18-mile route between Whitby and Pickering, which takes in some of Britain’s most spectacular scenery.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Channel 5, which also screens the popular Yorkshire Vet series, shot in James Herriot’s former practice in Thirsk, described the line through the North York Moors as “the world’s most popular steam railway”.

It said the programmes would be “a real celebration of the extraordinary heritage and traditions of the railways”.

Last month, the channel completed a series on the wildlife of North Yorkshire and screened a documentary about Harrogate’s annual Christmas shop windows competition. In 2014, it ran On The Yorkshire Buses, a docu-soap about busmen in Hull and Scarborough.