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The End of the Line

Episode 18 of 20

Archive footage telling the history of modern Britain. Melvyn Bragg looks at the 1960s, when the Beeching Axe led to the closure of over 2,000 railway stations.

Melvyn Bragg, accompanied by a vintage mobile cinema, travels across the country to show incredible footage preserved by the British Film Institute and other national and regional film archives, to tell the history of modern Britain.

Melvyn visits Sheringham in Norfolk, home of the North Norfolk Heritage Railway, to look back to the 1960s when the Beeching Axe led to the closure of 4,000 miles of track, over 2,000 stations and the loss of 67,000 railway jobs.

Susan Hawkes sees her beloved uncle on film for the first time in twenty years, tending his station garden at Aldeburgh. Lifelong signalman Michael Gatenby comes face to face with his younger self on screen. And there is a trip down memory lane with pop mogul and lifelong train enthusiast Pete Waterman.

29 minutes

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Melvyn Bragg
Series Producer Dympna Jackson
Executive Producer Ruth Pitt

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