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BBC Four

BBC 4

Richard Taylor

Nicola Addyman

Tony Parker

The Age of the Train

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

13/09/2012

BBC Four - The Age of the Train

How the Inter-City 125 train helped turn around British Rail's fortunes in the late 1970s.

Documentary about the Inter-City 125 train, which helped turn around British Rail's fortunes and was launched using a memorable advertising campaign fronted by Sir Jimmy Savile.

In 1976 a new high-speed train, the Inter-City 125, helped save British Rail, an unfashionable nationalised industry suffering from a financial crisis, industrial relations problems and a poor public image. The train was launched with the help of a memorable advertising campaign, fronted by Sir Jimmy Savile, which announced that the 1980s would be the 'age of the train'. BR had an energetic new boss, Sir Peter Parker, who was determined to revive the railways. The result was a typically British success story, full of surprises and setbacks, as this documentary shows.

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