Visit us at: www.antiquaria.co From Archive.Org: Writer Brian Thompson travels by train in India, south from Bombay, passing though four states, crossing the dusty Decca Plain, into the Nilgiri Mountains.
To everyone complaining about "scary music", it is due to deterioration of the VHS records or whatever medium this documentary is retrieved from. This is common in most old videos.
One has to pinch one's self to realise this was made only 37 years after independence. Watching in 2020 over a greater span in years, so much will have changed, indeed was already changing when I visited in 1997, since then. Yet, there will be much that remains the same in the remote and rural areas shown in this film.
Yelahanka is now a suburb of Bangalore. This old charm seen in this incredible video is absent. 43 years back, it was a very picturesque and romantic India.
Jimmy Hetzer scale models same here! I had them all, except for the Europe episode. Wish these were available to buy, as my vhs tapes are slowly fading into oblivion.
Wow! It is hard to believe this programme is forty years old! "Deccan", with Brian Thompson, and "Confessions of a Train Spotter", with Michael Palin, are my favourite episodes. Ootacamund looked like a tranquil hilltop oasis back in 1980. I feel so nostalgic listening to that crackling reception from the BBC World Service on that Philips radio in the cottage. Remember at the top of every hour: "This is London", followed by a famous Morris dance tune, then the five beeps, then the news. Those were the good old days of world band (shortwave) radio? Sadly, the Internet has made world band radio practically extinct.
I cant believe I've found this again. Absolutely magnificent. I watched it countless times before the first of my many trips to the subcontinent in 1983. Stirs my soul. I remember meeting Mr anantramia in victoria Terminus!
I blame this episode, at around 21:00, for my addiction to Indian food (well, the kind of Indian food that is commonly served in Indian restaurants in the USA, that is). Seeing those interesting concoctions served up in the thalis... I just had to try them!
It may be "old fashion" now, but back in its day, it was the BOMB, dude! Always remember, Swagoto, like that pot of coffee sitting on your kitchen counter, someday you too shall be old and weak!
First time I saw this as a kid I was obsessed with the Nilgiri Express. Never saw a compound rack traction loco before, that extra set of connecting rods and cylinders still amazes me today, seeing it in action. I’d give anything to see it run
My most favorite Great Railway Journeys episode. I have this on VHS (wish I had used S-VHS). I have put it on DVD for posterity. Now, it is indestructible. Oh, those gorgeous steam locomotives...!!!!
I saw this at the time, and I've never forgotten the fantastic band at the end. I just suddenly wondered if it would be here, and here it is ... Thanks very much ! ! !
This was one of my favorite shows growing up. I used to watch this series (and Steam Days) every time I got sick, and Deccan was my favorite episode. I have been looking on YT for years for this episode to come out with sound, and here it is! Some of the sound seems distorted quite a bit though. I think I can live with it since this is the only version that has sound! Thanks for posting it!
Nilgiri Express is still hauled by Steam loco from Mettupalayam to Coonoor on a rack & pinion track. From Coonoor to Ooty it is hauled by an Alco built diesel loco.
Yelahanka & Guntakal station in including their surroundings (both railway areas and outside) have changed unrecognisably. The railway offices too are no longer stacks & stacks of files
Especially Yelahanka. Even up until 10-12 years ago it was a remote station with two proper platforms and that was it. Hardly 5-10 trains stopped there. Look at it now. It's very well maintained , has proper parking and given more importance for stoppage of trains, with a few originating/terminating there.
@@musiccollector This population started to increase quite rapidly during the 1920's and after 1950 or so, did so exponentially. The old charm is gone. 1980, we were about 660 million. Now, we're 1.5 billion. Some facts that have contributed greatly to quality of life deterioration: population explosion, forced migration of people from rural areas to cities and towns, several times more big cars on unfit roads with idiotic drivers high on drugs or on their caring two hoots for traffic rules, invasion of the cultures because of Internet on every phone making the generation very dumb, unsocial, depressed, anxious with anger issues in many, way more crime compared to back then, a highly corrupt system that allows for illegal cutting of trees to make way for "hotels" and shops right on major, congested roads. We have had no proper planning in any respect. And as you may have already noticed, very few Indians complain about these things, least of all, the population, traffic and lot of crime. They seem absolutely oblivious to these factors. Nothing can be more foolish than that. Mc Donald's, Burger King, Samsung, big SUV's and malls don't bring any charm, they have torn apart the cultural fabric of the nation. The best they can do is to make every place look the same, in India or outside. It's a dismal picture. I feel very suffocating to live in India while it wasn't so when I was in US 7 years. The main reason for for feeling good was the countryside in US. Their towns and cities have problems too but I could just take a car on rent and drive solo to wherever I wanted. Regards from the Union Territory of Chandigarh, NW India.
This population started to increase quite rapidly during the 1920's and after 1950 or so, did so exponentially. The old charm is gone. 1980, we were about 660 million. Now, we're 1.5 billion. Some facts that have contributed greatly to quality of life deterioration: population explosion, forced migration of people from rural areas to cities and towns, several times more big cars on unfit roads with idiotic drivers high on drugs or on their caring two hoots for traffic rules, invasion of the cultures because of Internet on every phone making the generation very dumb, unsocial, depressed, anxious with anger issues in many, way more crime compared to back then, a highly corrupt system that allows for illegal cutting of trees to make way for "hotels" and shops right on major, congested roads. We have had no proper planning in any respect. And as you may have already noticed, very few Indians complain about these things, least of all, the population, traffic and lot of crime. They seem absolutely oblivious to these factors. Nothing can be more foolish than that. Mc Donald's, Burger King, Samsung, big SUV's and malls don't bring any charm, they have torn apart the cultural fabric of the nation. The best they can do is to make every place look the same, in India or outside. It's a dismal picture. Regards from the Union Territory of Chandigarh, NW India.
Great to see this again. One of the best documentaries the BBC ever did and Brian Thompson was a wonderful Englishman in India. Whatever happened to him ? Shame about the picture and sound quality, particularly for the final scene with the musicians on the beach. Thanks for posting this great memory.
More things change, more they remain the same.. A lot of things in this documentary will seem outdated to a whole generation of India, yet a lot of it still remains same.
Doc is giving the vibes of "look at me" over reality happening there. The scary music with man smoking. 😅 Don't people in other countries smoke ...the title should have been MY FIRST TIME ON EARTH WITH HUMANS
I think by 1980 Good quality cameras came in the market.. But still this video is very poor quality… But any how I enjoyed the video,regardless of quality.. Thank you for uploading this video
The sound is off on this no question. The copy I have on video tape is much better quality than this. This copy is ruined. The real copy is magnificent!
@@Geeves8612 I'd so appreciate it. Along with T. Oldfield, I wrote and recorded the original soundtrack but have never heard it since the night it was aired on TV in the 80s. This version is unlistenable, excruciating in fact.... Thanks, if you're able xx
Great documentary....had a bit of British pompousness but can be forgiven as said by the narrator himself...."the only country that should be judged by its people"
Here is another, more recent one of higher video quality, dedicated to the greatest railway system on earth: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pd0MBteU3NM.html
It's a shame that Sir McCarthy is such an ass to put the cabash on the music rights to this marvelous video about rail travel. If he were a gentleman, he would allow the original cut of this video as produced in 1980 and stop quibbling about "copyrights" long after the fact. Just proves that some people are pure bovine backsides when it comes to these matters.
You are much too diplomatic. I have some choice words for idiots like that. Either he can loosen his death-grip on copyright or else this fabulous show will disappear off the face of the earth! Common sense is in short supply. Look at it this way. Keeping it hidden away in some vault, unexposed to future generations is not going to put more money into his pocket. It will disappear into oblivion with him, forever, to be a distant memory. SAD.
@@musiccollector Harry in one scene Lucy in the sky with diamonds is played virtually in it's entirety. That meant the entire video was muted. I guess things might be different now with the computers a bit smarter
Very third rate haunting music , like some cheap horror movie music, it spoils the whole experience. There should have been more of the chugging sound of the steam engine.
Yeah, and they gave India railways, roads, and many other infrastructure. I see buildings and roads locally built cracking up after just 5 years while the same structures built by British during the turn of the century remain robust, without flaws. We are quick to overlook the good they did though, naturally, there will be some bad.
@@musiccollector Colonialism can have no excuses. The good, if at all any was done, was out of self interest. Let there be no justification for colonising or condescension. India was the the richest, most advanced and erudite nation till about 1700 when the Mughals first and British / European later descended to make it among the poorest. India would have been much better off if it was left as is without the British colonising and other European powers - Portugal for one. Atleast, destiny would have been ours. We shall rise again, the tide is already turning but we will not colonise even at our next zenith. That is India.
Terrible documentary. He makes the whole of the subcontinent look like dystopia personified. 1980s India was never a paradise. But even visuals like those of the hills (the countryside at large) were made to appear deliberately cut off from what he considers 'natural' - as if even nature was at its most vengeful in this part of the world. Oh and the background music. Thoroughly unsettling - something which only aggravated what appeared to be his belief that the Indian subcontinent was a menacing devilish pre-civilizational blackhole where survival and existence were an exception.
