London's Burning Tv Series

hehadlotsofguts

Who remembers watching this? Used to love watching this as a child. It had that perfect balance of humour and drama. The drama came from the fires or other accidents that Blackwall were sent to, the humour came from the banter that the firefighters would have and the pranks the would play on each other.

The series went from 1988 and ended in 2002. It was such a shame it was cancelled.

minigeff

Think I'd be sicknote...

Thunderbird 2

I loved this series as a kid. London's Burning was a high point of Sunday evenings for several years. You are right Stag, originally it was a one off tv movie about a new female fire officer called Kate I think? Showing how she finds her feet. LWT noted the ratings and praise, so commisioned it as a proper series about Blue Watch and the Blackwall Firestation.
Many of the cast ended up seen in other good drama series, and I believe for a while viewers campaigned for a Casualty / The Bill / Blue Watch crossover film. Needless to say never happened. The balance between the "shouts" and characters private lives was well written and well structured. Every time a character was lost it was a shick to viewers as well as the other characters.
I never forgot an ep where a fire breaks out in a gas bottling plant. A behind the scenes documentary showing how they created the effects, including one bottle that smashes into a fire engine using air cannon projection props. Very Bondian in FX tech.

A few years after the series ended, Central tried to do a similar series called Blue Watch set in a Manchester based Fire Station. Not nearly as good and it sank without a trace.

hehadlotsofguts

There was also a series created to replace London's Burning called Steel River Blues that was set in the North East. It only lasted one series before the plug was pulled.

Thunderpussy

I'd forgotten about it, but always watched London's Burning. {[]

hehadlotsofguts

John Hallam's death storyline was brilliant. A great send off for a great character.

hehadlotsofguts

He was the Sub officer. He was killed in series 9 when he fell 60 ft through glass in a warehouse shout. He died in hospital. Vaseline was the one with the three wives, all called Marion. He was sexist and racist in the film. They changed his character to a rougue during the series.

Nick Georgiadis was known as "Zorba" because he was of Greek descent. He arrived in 1991 and he was the station officer at Blackwall. He replaced Sidney Tate, who retired after failing his medical.

Recall is another one. Watched his first episode where Colin Parrish has a bet on him to memorise a passage from an erotic book. )

Geoff "poison" Pearce, so called because he was a gossip. There was an Australian character in series 9. Blue Watch held a raffle to decide his nickname and he became Skippy. He was injured in an appliance crash and he had to leave.