Full Steam Ahead

I was looking forward to this - steam trains and history - what's not to like? This should have been a winner, but I feel that they missed the opportunity.

Lots of emotive shots of super clean mainly passenger trains on what are clearly present day preserved railways on pleasant sunny days. These offer no context.

The narrators may be historians, but they appear to know little about railways.

The narration is thin - no historical facts/analysis, maps etc. A present-day TV disease is talking on location, in this case the footplate, rather than a voice over. Not only can you not hear due to the noise, you have a cameraperson in an already crowded confined space, along with the driver and fireman.

I watched three episodes and ran out of steam.

Full Steam Ahead maintains the high quality this group of historians have shown in their other series. I'm not a big train fan, but showing, demonstrating, and explaining the huge changes the rails brought to UK (and all modern) society is fascinating.

Each episode packs in a lot of detailed information while moving along quickly and showing living-history details not seen elsewhere.

The hosts are as engaging as they always are and while I expected this series to be less interesting than their other historical series, it was amongst the best.

A good story (history) well told makes any subject interesting. I defy anyone not to be enthralled by the puffing metal monsters after watching this series. Watch this, it's very good.