It follows a number of different amateur British engineers in their quest to build a vehicle fast enough to break a world land speed record and take it to the annual Speed Week at Bonneville Flats, near Salt Lake City, Utah.
So what, I hear you cry? Well, I should point out that I have no interest in cars whatsoever. I never watch Top Gear, don’t know the difference between ‘torque’ and ‘talk’ and only own a car as a way to get from A to B (it’s a Ford Focus, for goodness sake).
Passion’s the fashion
And yet, I was transfixed by Speed Dreams. And after I’d spent an hour glued to the screen, I stopped to ask myself how a subject I have no interest in could have grabbed me.
The answer, as you might imagine, was quite simple. It was the brilliance of the content and, specifically, the stories of these passionate, obsessed and, in may cases, hugely eccentric men who have given up months and years in the pursuit of something they believed in.
In the same way, the new BBC4 wildlife documentary, The Lost Land of the Tiger manages to tread a similar path – being compelling viewing even for someone who doesn’t necessarily normally watch ‘that sort of programme’.
The uniting factor in both cases are the people and their ‘magnetism’ to the viewer. Although the shows have a good reason for being filmed – speed and animals – the reason they’re great viewing is that excitement, humanity and ‘realness’ of all involved elevates them above the norm.
Brand challenge
It’s exactly why so many brands are returning to brass tacks and trying to get ‘human interest’ into their everyday marketing.
We’re all overrun with messages and advertising coming at us from every direction and need a reason to be engaged with something. It needs to stir the soul and tug at the emotions.
That’s exactly why so many people mourned the loss of Christopher Martin-Jenkins recently (and continue to adore Test Match Special). His ability to put over his passion for cricket and set the scene for fans made him feel like a friend to the millions who have listened to him over the years.
What’s brown and sounds like a bell?
Returning to the TV, though, it was impossible to not feel the joy of Dr George McGavin in Lost Land of the Tiger, when he reached into a huge pile of elephant poo and pull out ‘the biggest dung beetle I’ve ever seen’.
Today, Playing Out reaches Brighton for the first time.
Playing Out is a small, grassroots community movement started in Bristol, aimed at activating street play in your neighbourhoood.
The theory is that modern-day kids don’t do what a lot of us used to when we were younger – that is play outside after school. The reasons for this are varied and include busier roads, more protective parents, more ‘enticing’ entertainment indoors.
Two mums in Bristol organised the first Playing Out session back in 2009 and it’s slowly branching out across the country.
It’s taken about 2 months from the first ‘street’ meeting to today’s event.
– We’ve collected signatures (at least 2/3 of your chosen road/s has to agree)
– Submitted the road closure request to Brighton & Hove Council (who initially disagreed, but then saw sense)
– Made signs (see above right)
– Put flyers on cars
– Organised a stewarding rota
Now we’re ready to don high-vis jackets and brave the winter weather to supervise and marshal.
Typically, the Great British weather is looking like it will make the first one a little soggy, but we’re confident that this will become a regular event throughout the year.
Image from Flickr: via pibletMonday morning was no different to any other for me and many hundreds of thousands of commuters – a journey punctuated by delays.
As my Southern Rail train arrived at London Victoria more than 30 minutes late, I pleaded (at volume) with the 50-or-so fellow travellers to ensure they claimed back a portion of their train fare, because of the delay.
When I made my plea, there were a few murmurs of agreement, thankfully, but also a whole lot of blank faces. I could see the meaning of my words rattling around: “What do you mean, ‘claim back the train fare’?”
You see, few but the most-hardened of commuters bother to take advantage of any transport company’s poor timekeeping.
Are companies bound to pay us?
The simple answer to this question is YES – providing the delay is severe enough. As Which? explains, all operators have different rules, but the fundamental right to compensation is laid out in the National Rail Conditions of Carriage, namely a minimum 20% of your single ticket, if you are more than 1 hour late.
As Which? says, all companies are different. For example, Southern Railways (with whom I travel) offer a partial refund on delays of 30 minutes or more.
Let’s do the math
As my ticket is an annual season, the complex calculations result in compensation of a mere £3.70 for a 30-minute delay.
However, imagine if every commuter made a claim. A single, 10-car Gatwick Express train has 692 seats. On a crowded journey, add on an extra 100 for those standing and – rounding up – you reach 800.
The chances of every passenger having an annual ticket is non-existent, but for argument’s sake, let’s say they do and they all come from Brighton. That’s a total train compensation of £2960.
Yesterday, pretty much every train for a 2-hour period was delayed (I have Twitter buddies who travel and feed me info). At the very least, that’s another 10 trains.
If we do the same calculations and then multiply by 10, you get a compensation figure from 1 morning and 1 route alone of £29,600.
I don’t keep a definitive log of train delays, but I think it’s fair to say that there’s at least one a month that can be claimed for, so multiplying our one-off figure by 12, you get £355,200.
That figure is based on every passenger claiming for just one 30-minute delay of 10 trains on a single route, once a month for a calendar year: £355k.
That sounds impressive, doesn’t it? Well, not if you read a bit more carefully.
John Nicholson, co-founder of Alliance of Kent Commuters, points out: “Not that many people are actually claiming; the forms are fiddly and the amount you get back isn’t always worth it.”
Even he doesn’t bother to claim every time: “I’ve only claimed once when I could have claimed half a dozen times or more. There are others I know who don’t claim either”.
Why don’t people claim?
The two overriding factors are simple: ignorance and difficulty.
In spite of their protestations (I’m sure), most rail companies clearly don’t make a huge effort to advertise their ‘Delay Repay’ schemes. Sure, there’s a shiny page on the website, but it’s not front and centre when they’re apologising the next day after major delays.
Most people also think it’s difficult to claim, too. Admittedly, the hassle of going to the ticket office and getting a form, filling it out, etc, might be a bit painful, but 5 minutes effort for ‘free’ money?
What’s more, with the proliferation of smartphones it’s easy to do it on the go. You can upload a photo of your ticket direct from your phone and, if you’ve registered with the website, they pre-fill your details.
Also, you can now cash in most vouchers for money now, rather than having to use them against your next ticket purchase. A small mercy 🙂
Prices still keep going up – get your own back
Let’s face it, we know that every January – in spite of howls of protest – all the operators will put prices up by more than inflation…
My journey will cost me 4.1% more next year, than it does this year – an increase of approx £13 a month.
I don’t claim to understand the justification for the increases. Southern, to take my operator as an example, increased passenger journeys in 2011-12 by 7.4%, but – and here’s the kicker for the likes of you and me – overall operating profits dropped by 4.9%.
The important thing to note here is not that there was a loss, just a drop in profits. Go-Ahead Group (Southern’s owners) still made an awful lot of money – just not quite as much as before.
Tube users can do it too
If you’re reading this in London and you think this doesn’t apply to you, then you’re wrong.
By chance, I caught the first in a two-part documentary on BBC2 at the weekend – Speed Dreams: The Fastest Place on Earth and it completely gripped me. 
