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FIRE SERVICE AND GENERAL FIRE SAFETY TOPICS => General Interest => Topic started by: Guest on September 02, 2004, 11:43:34 AM
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Hi All
Just a light hearted posting really.
Did anyone watch ITV's replacement for Londons Burning entitled "River City Blues" last night?
What did you think of it? Is it better than Londons Burning?
I was extremely dissapointed by it to be honest.
The firecrews were made out to be incompetent loutish yobs who start fires and bunk off shift meetting young ladies for a quickie down at the local oil refinery. The lads all caled their S.O> by his first name, they messed around on jobs and at incidents, they allowed a guy trapped in a car to get his legs burnt after petrol ignited. They drove a fire appliance without a drivers door!!! :!: :!:
The control staff were made out to be girls who sit around all day doing their nails, generally messing around doing their make up whilst taking the mickey out of their Divisonal Officer. :x
Oh and the Divisional Officer? Has anyone in the job met a D.O. like him - they are certainly not that pally or informal and they are definately not that unprofessional!!! :?
Londons Burning got ridiculous at the end of its last series but that was mainly due to the new writing and production team ITV had brought in to spice it up a little, but atleast londons burning was slightly more believable and true to life. :x
It just felt the new programme made out firefighters to be thick idiots who ride round in a fire engine all day. :evil: :evil:
Bring back recall and the crew I say!
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It was rubbish
Like that that old guy who brought in a grenade to the station and was caled a pratt by the LF for bringing it to the station. Firstly we would have had a severe roasting off our Sub if we called a member of the public a pratt, secondly we would have checked that it wasnt a dummy grenade first.
Puts the brigade in a bad light it isnt life like.Ok most of us are working class and we like to have a laugh but the prograame made us out to be uncommitted and blase about the job we do.
Thanks ITV
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What about the subtle references to modernisation issues throughout the programme. All of which were approached from a management point of view. CFS, %age of time appliance committed at incidents, replacing controls with computers, female Ffs etc. Nothing in the prog showed any positive attitudes relating to any of the above, for example females have been fully intetgrated nationwide for 10-15 years but to listen to last nights drivel it was worse than London burning circa 1980. I am only glad our dispute was settled last week as this sh*t! could have done us irreversible damage.
What has gone wrong with society, it seems that nowadays the only entertainment is to have a go at those who often make the greater social contribution than the no-marks who devise, write and produce such crap.
If anyone truly believes this to be an accurate portrayal then i pity them their stupidity and naivety.
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The fallen Maddonna with the big boobies was quite nice though. Preferred the female FF when she was in Where the Heart is too.
Does the forename use come from change in position description?
What was the D word which was wrong with the car?
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Yep absolutely disgraceful, Im not a firefighter but can see why firefighters are cheesed off by the programme, it made them out to be a right old bunch of pilacs.
But yes the lasses in the control room do get my vote.
Perhaps they can be transferred to the London Fire Brigade just in time for the new series of Londons Burning because lets face it River City blues wont be around long.
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Why didn’t the driver stay with the vehicle during the delivery of smoke alarms? Who many crews deliver smoke alarms in full fire kit? They should have gone the whole hog and worn BA; it would have looked good with a Stage 1 entry control officer/board set up at the front door.
Cyclohexane was identified as the hazard at the process plant, yet no briefing given on its danger or how to deal with it. Their LFf what a guy! He knew more about petrochemical fire than anyone. I work in the same environment as these guys, we don’t know as much as the people whom work on these large process plants, especially their own emergency service personnel. Sites such as these have their own fire crews, whom more often than not, extinguish the fire before we arrive.
That childish but amazing LFf, could look at a drum, identify it’s contents as hazardous when in contact with water, just by looking. Who needs hazard data sheets, risk assessment, common sense! What do they do, approved operational procedures out of the window, in dealing with this type of material? What ever happened too; if you can’t use water that usually means there’s a dry agent/powder alternative? Not this crew they go their own way, use a PPV to flame bend. I don’t remember seeing that is home office bulletins or training notes.
Some research done though, the Flixborough explosion June 1st 1974 was a release of Cyclohexane gas? It caused the deaths of twenty-eight workers and a further 36 suffered injuries, the plant was completely destroyed, never to reopen. What went wrong with the rest of their background research, before making this program, total utter dross!
I admit though I will watch the next episode, to see how much more stupid they can get, so I suppose the format has worked. I’ll watch, see the adverts, which is what they want.
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Absolute pants!
Don't know who wrote and produced the programme but they have obviously never seen a real firecrew in action.
I note that some of you say you will be watching the next episode even though you think its poor. I sincerely hope this is nothing to do with one of the control operators going topless is it ?! :twisted:
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Maybe London Fire Brigade had the right idea by stopping ITV from using their name in the making of the programme. hence the shift from London to up North.
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yep good theory I reckopn u r right
either way RSB stinks!
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Absolute pants!
Don't know who wrote and produced the programme but they have obviously never seen a real firecrew in action.
I note that some of you say you will be watching the next episode even though you think its poor. I sincerely hope this is nothing to do with one of the control operators going topless is it ?! :twisted:
I thought it made very :rolleyes: entertaining veiwing, and was more light hearted than Londons burning, it was a drama not a documentrary!!!
I work as a paramedic and see numerous inconsistancies on casualty and simular programmes, but people need to keep this all in perspective. :rolleyes:
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Fair comment para1 just worried people may think that all firecrews are that thick in real life!!!
Oh well!! :rolleyes:
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Yeah good point para.
RSB was croc of s**t :x but we have to keep a sense of perspective here.
My wife's a nurse and she reckons Holby, casualty etc are pants and I expect if you spoke to the boys in blue they would be less than impressed with the Bill - what with blokes shagging their female sarge and then pretending to be their long-lost son etc. How messed up is that?
However, I will be watching again and hoping for some further control-room action! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
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City River Blues or whatever its called was absolutely terrible.
Dumbing down Television again!
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Who advises the producers of River City Blues. There scenario of a burning tanker that would immediately ignite into a fireball if it stopped.
For a “B” class running fire, foam is out of the question, so there is nothing as quick a dry powder for immediate knockdown, while always remembering no cooling effect so beware re-ignition. Where did they get the idea of round about and water sprays?
Saying that it is “almost” compulsive viewing because it’s so daft!
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look ok its growing on me a little
I do like the cast
But the following things get on my nerves:-
1) Proffesionalism portrayed by the crew . Come on, who'd actually tell a fat council worker he had man breasts? - we certainly wouldn't, especially not with our SO around he'd have our you know whats for dinner!
We also wouldnt take the hump with a member of the public (or in this case a social club landlord) for having a jibe about us striking - we'd wait till we got back to station and then talk about him lmao!
2) That Divisional Officer is just a totally unrealistic charater. He is portrayed as a bumbling fool who calls people Bonnylad and swears like a trooper.
3) Tha firefighter who keeps appearing like a ghost only to show up for shouts and the opening of the biscuit tin
4) A tanker on fire going round an island? oh please that was worse than some ofthe plots in the very last series of Londons Burning. Totally farfetched!!
I just wish they'd calm it down a bit and they'd have a worthy Londons Burning replacement on their hands!
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Instead of going for the soap/comedy approach i am surprised that a producer doesn't get some quality writers to go for more of a docu-drama type programme. Sort of ER meets Londons Burning, where characters develop with the storyline and don't just become victims to it. The private lives portrayed in these Fire Service soaps are as pathetically devoid of any substance as the incidents themselves.
For a better alternative i suggest '3rd watch' which appears to be a fairly realistic portrayal of life as a member of the NY emergency services. At least the story lines are believable and you can empathise with the characters.
SRB doesn't just reflect badly on the Fire Service, its a sad reflection of tv standards in general. Bring back quality like The Sweeney, at least it was cutting edge in its day.
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We love anderson
dont think ive ever agreed with you on stuff before but i do now!
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If you like the Sweeney try The Shield, Channel 5 Sat night late.
Now that's what I call a gritty cop show!
My ideal storyline for SRB:
Blue :rolleyes: Watch go to LA and try to muscle in on the local drug scene at farmington (think it's called that) to supplement their poor pay...
But then Vic Mackie and his 'Strike Team' (Flying Squad) arrest them and take them to a warehouse for some "interrogation"...
To get an idea of what happens to Blue Watch next you'll have to watch The Shield to see what I mean.. :twisted: :twisted:
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Erm ok Colt or should I call you Mr Ceavers?
I'd prefer to see the cast of the bill versus Merseybeat in a bizzare "it's a knockout " style competition.
Steel City Blues cast against londons burning cast in a pump drill, and then Inspector Frost against DI Barnaby in a wrestling match.
Barnaby would of course win because as we all know John Nettles is the "Stinging Detective" and DI Frost wouldn't be able to grab him.
Oh hum I think I'm having amad moment.... :oops:
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ok folks, dwell on this. firefighters threaten strike. big brother uses the spin machine recently vacated by a nasty vindictive b**** (not my words - they come from an eminent but out of work beeb man)
not beyond the grounds of probability is it. now watch it again. anything positive to say. bet you wont see a proggy on the politicians like this!!
no more comments on this from me - ive got better things to do (apparently)
dave bev
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3rd Watch is brilliant :o
Steel River Blues.....hope it sinks :(
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3rd watch fan are you a serving member in any of the 3 services. Just interested.
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After tonight's episode of Steel River Blues am slightly more impressed than past weeks as the Control Operators were actually shown taking fire calls, not doing their nails and wearing daft hats. Do any controls have time for socialising on duty like these girls do, and doing hair and make-up etc, mine certainly doesn't and I've had a hard time persuading friends who have seen the programme that Control Operators do actually take calls and do work on duty. Can't get used to the LFF being bolshy as I'm used to seeing him as the very smartly dressed and polite Sgt Troy in Midsomer Murders!
Glad there are some 3rd Watch fans out there, think it's ace but where is it this week.
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What time, day of the week and channel is third watch on?
Been trying to look through all 600 odd sky channels trying to find it, still no joy. :rolleyes:
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For anyone who is interested, Third Watch is making a school holiday appearance, and has been on all this week at 1100 on Channel 4, last day of half term tomorrow, so it may be the last one for a while. Clue - it usually follows ER on weekday mornings.
Happy viewing.