Paved with good intentions

Terrific documentary on BBC4 tonight about the history of the motorway. The British Motorway in particular. A quality piece of television documentary-making. Part 1 of 3 covered the 14 years between the openings of the Preston ByPass in 1958 and Spaghetti Junction in 1972.

It's narrated by Philip Glenister (him off of that Life on Mars) and told from various different viewpoints - the engineers who had to figure out how to make it all work; the Irish navvys who worked tirelessy in, at best, difficult and, at worst, treacherous conditions; the graphic designers who designed the motorway signage that was so effective that it's still used today; the locals who had to get on with their lives while all around them was being torn down and built up and the AA and Emergency Services that had to deal with the inevitable breakdowns and accidents that came with the exciting new development.

Hard to believe that when it was first opened in 1958 there was no speed limits on the motorways. In fairness it wasn't really a problem because most cars weren't built to travel any faster than 45mph. So lots of overheated radiators and tyre blowouts for the AA to deal with. There was a heap of great archival footage of educational films telling people how to drive on these new, straight roads. I'm not going to say that a lot of drivers today could do with watching the same films to learn a few things. Not saying that at all.

The great thing about it is that it was simply informative and entertaining. Unlike BBC2's History of British Cinema documentaries that have been running forthe last few weeks, there was no matey narration, no jokey links and no bloody celebrities telling us that the M62 is probably their all time favourite British motorway. Just the people who were directly involved telling their story. I thought it was fantastic. Parts 2 and 3 are on over the next 2 nights. If you get a chance it's well worth a couple of hours of your time.

You know, there might just be a market for this kind of thing.