Oh Doctor Beeching!

Title sequence featuring 46521

Oh Doctor Beeching! was a BBC TV sitcom consisting of a pilot episode broadcast on 14 August 1995 and two series broadcast in 1996 (a repeat of the pilot episode All Change plus 8 further episodes) and 1997 (10 episodes). The cast included Paul Shane, Jeffrey Holland and Su Pollard (former stars of Hi-de-Hi! and You Rang, M'Lord?) and Stephen Lewis, better known as ‘Blakey’ from On the Buses. It was written by David Croft and Richard Spendlove.

The sitcom was set in the small fictional branch line railway station of Hatley, which was threatened with closure under the Beeching Axe. The filming took place at Arley station, where a row of Victorian railway cottages were built in the yard as a film prop. During filming services would not call at Arley at certain times.

Filming mainly involved Ivatt 2MT 46521, which was named 'Blossom' by cast member Stephen Lewis during a ceremony at Kidderminster town station on Monday 17 February 1997. Carriages used in filming included TSO 4345, BSO 9220 and RMB 1853. Wagons used included GWR Conflat 39860 and LMS Goods Van 271726.

Both series are available commercially and can be found on YouTube.

Gallery

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  Hatley (Arley) signal box

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  Film prop cottages at Arley

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  Film prop cottages at Arley

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  Film prop cottages at Arley

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  Studio audience admission ticket

See also

List of film and TV productions filmed on the Severn Valley Railway

Links

• BBC One programme guide
• British Comedy Guide
• Internet Movie Data Base page
• Wikipedia page