At the end of his journey across the USA, Donny MacLeod visits San Francisco, billed in the travelogues as ' America's favourite city ' -and it doesn't take him long to discover why. Wandering its streets is like strolling through a non-stop open-air performance. Every day is a carnival - the side-walks crowded with jugglers, one-man bands, string quartets, clowns and mime artists. Even the city's public transport seems to have sprung from the dream of a crazy Victorian inventor. The street cars are hauled up the steep hills by a continuous cable - and the brake-men who drive them are just as eccentric. MacLeod is shown the city by champion brakeman CARL PAYNE , and is welcomed aboard by the cry ' if you ain't a Christian at the top of the hill, you will be by the time we reach the bottom '.
Produced/directed by PETER HERCOMBE Editor JIM DUMIGHAN. BBC Birmingham