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news
London cyclists at Hyde Park Corner (copyright Britishcycling.org_.uk).jpg"45 minutes of hatred" - Guardian journalist slams Channel 5 cycling documentary
When we heard last week that Channel 5 was airing a documentary tomorrow evening called Cyclists: Scourge Of The Streets, we feared the worst – after all, advance publicity for the show said that it would examine a so-called “war of the wheels.” An article by Guardian journalist Peter Walker today, who has seen the programme in advance of its TV screening, confirms we were right to be apprehensive.
Walker doesn’t pull his punches in his assessment of the show, calling it “undoubtedly the worst, most scaremongering, inaccurate, downright irresponsible programme on cycling I’ve ever seen.”
He says it “is, in effect, 45 minutes of hatred, misinformation and outgrouping against people who just happen to sometimes use two wheels to get about.”
As we pointed out last week, it’s not the first time that a televised ‘documentary’ has tried to sensationalise the perceived conflict between road users on bikes and those in motor vehicles – the BBC’s 2012 programme, The War On Britain’s Roads, being perhaps the most well-known example.
According to Walker, though, this is even more unbalanced – “uniquely damaging,” as he puts it, with “the overall tone is shockingly hostile and provocative” and the only balance provided by PC Mark Hodson of West Midlands Police, who helped pioneer its award winning close pass initiative.
His wide-ranging criticism of the programme, made by Firecracker Films, falls under a number of headings.
Cyclists are portrayed as an outgroup, the narration of the documentary is “openly hostile and aggressive,” once again there is the reinforcement of the misconception of some kind of “war” between different road users, and too much of the show is given over to people “openly hostile” to cyclists – in particular, London cab drivers, as well as the self-styled ‘Mr Loophole’ lawyer Nick Freeman.
The latter, you may recall, went for a bike ride around London with so-called ‘cycling vigilante’ Dave Sherry – besides PC Hodson, the only person appearing in the documentary to put things from a cyclist’s perspective, and whom Walker says “seems almost as fervent a self-publicist and irritant as Freeman, often delighting in the furious reaction of motorists.”
The lack of balance also results in some myths about cycling going unchallenged (it’s possible, of course, that organisations representing cyclists may have been approached to contribute to the programme but, given past experience of such shows, declined to participate – we know of at least one campaigner who was approached but did not take part).
We’ll watch the programme ourselves tomorrow evening when it airs at 9.15pm and bring you our reaction – and more – on Wednesday.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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53 comments
Scourge of the runways !!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-48980628
https://tonyrobertson.mycouncillor.org.uk/2019/07/10/are-cyclists-really...
Trash TV indeeed. Completely unbalanced, about 95% anti-cycling, even the vigilante was made out to be some kind of comedy figure. Funny how the programme makers didn't make anything of the sheer number of drivers filmed using their mobiles behind the wheel? We should all complain to Channel 5 and Ofcom about this inflammatory bile.
Slightly more realistic and credible https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=675051962963138
It was pretty unbelievable behaviour of the woman that was stopped for the close pass. She continued to be on her phone while the police motorbike escorted her to the kerbside and was still on it during the talking to from the police officer. Banned until a full driving licence re test would be appropriate.
Only watched the last 15 minutes but it was the usual CH5 dross.
Seriously? So they don't even bother fumbling it out of sight and pretending that "I wasn't using it at all, officer!"...?
Having been observed by both officers using the phone whilst driving she said "I wasn't on my phone I was ending a call".
Anyhow, she had to phone her sister and not waste time over trivia of close pass, using a phone whilst driving, failing to use a child seat for her youngster all whilst being pulled over !
"I wasn't speeding, officer, I was slowing down..."
The bit with box hill man claiming that cyclists poo in peoples front gardens. Really???
We had that accusation in the New Forest when it all kicked off over the Wiggle rides a few years back - the infamous Godshill turd. Even made the minutes of the local council. There was also outrage that one of the events took place on Palm Sunday when apparently we should have all been in church
It sounds like those people who move to beautiful instagrammable places and then complain because other people want to go there too.
In this case - "I moved to the leafy gorgeous countryside that's in easy commuting distance for London, but I don't want anyone else to ever come here, dammit!"
(On the Palm Sunday thing - maybe they would have been fine about it if someone had brought a cargo bike with a cross on it...?)
To be fair, if I knew his address, I'd pooh in his front garden daily.
They're mixing up cyclists with foxes. A common mistake among confused older gammons. Hence all the complaints about cyclists crawling in through cat-flaps and biting babies, ripping bin-bags to bits and scattering the contents around the garden, attacking pet cats...
That makes much more sense
foxy.jpg
Now available to watch on line https://www.my5.tv/cyclists-scourge-of-the-streets/season-1/cycle-wars
I noticed that too, all the anti cycling contributors; cabbies, the Box Hill gammon, Mr Poophole. Lot of effort to hide number plates. Dave Sherry - clear pictures of the front of, presumably, his house.
Favourite piece of hypocrisy. Cabbie complaining about unused cycle lanes whilst sat belching out fumes and carcinogenic particulates in a stationary queue of traffic consisting mainly of empty taxi cabs.
What was also clear, especially the pieces filmed in London where the intent was to show some cyclists jumping red lights etc, was just how many people were able to use the small amount of road space allocated for cycle traffic without breaking any laws and without causing congestion or pollution. Not that this was mentioned in the narrative.
Strange at the end of the bit with Ferdi, the kerb side autos guy who got hit by the cyclist mid-crash, they ignored the car parked across and blocking the pavement. Think Dave the Bus will be having a few knocks on hos door with the program virtually giving his address out, somebody local will recognise it.
I'll send a few mails to them also.
So, advertiser’s who obviously are inadvertently condoning the production quality of this program by having their ads shown during and directly after it. Unfortunately my recording started at the program start so I didn’t get the advertisers immediately before. I have put the parent company or brand owners in brackets afterwards.
First ad break
1. Babybel (Le Groupe Bel)
2. Maltesers (Mars inc)
3. Aldi (ALDI Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG)
4. P&O Cruises (Carnival Corporation & plc)
5. Gorilla Glue (Maine Wood Concepts Inc.)
6. Play Ojo.com (SkillOnNet)
7. Vanish Gold Gel(Reckitt Benckiser)
8. Age Partnership (Age Partnership)
9. Amazon Prime (Amazon)
10. Compare the Market (BGL)
Second ad break
1. DFS (Advent International)
2. Citroen (Groupe PSA)
3. American Express (American Express)
4. Bloo toilet fresheners (Henkel)
5. KFC/ Deliveroo! (Yum! Brands, Inc. / Roofoods Ltd.)
6. Always Discreet (Procter & Gamble)
7. OpenTable (Booking Holdings Inc.)
8. Gorilla Glue again (Maine Wood Concepts Inc.)
9. Nescafé Azera (Nestlé)
10. Aldi again (ALDI Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG)
11. Barclays (Barclays Plc)
Third ad break
1. Magnum (Unilever)
2. Compare the Market (BGL again!)
3. Specsavers (Specsavers International Healthcare Limited)
4. Nissan (Renault-Nissan B.V.)
5. Gillette (Procter & Gamble again!)
6. Ribena (Suntory)
7. Lidl (Schwarz Gruppe)
8. Quickbooks (intuit)
Ads after the programme finished
1. Surf (Unilever)
2. Robinsons (Britvic)
3. Aldi again! (ALDI Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG)
4. Ikea (INGKA Holding B.V.)
5. Hagen Dazs (Nestlé)
6. Gillette again (Procter & Gamble)
7. Tax Credits (HM Revenue & Customs)
8. Trivago (Expedia Group)
9. Olay (Procter & Gamble, yet again!)
and then my recording ended.
I can’t get over how many adverts there actually were. Now, if a campaign could be started on their social media requesting comment from this lot as to whether they support the views aired by Channel 5, I think the responses might be interesting. Maybe we need Jeremy Vine to do the Tweeting for us?
PP
Where do I sign up to boycott HMRC?
Is it worth a watch though?
I got on alright with 5's player before.
Is it wrong to say I actually enjoyed it?! It was a gammon fest of hilarious contradictions.
Next time I’m in the car, in a jam during rush hour, I will start spouting off ‘where did these cars come from - it’s like a plague of locusts - I can’t get past!! I’m doing, like, 3mph!!’.
The best bit was definitely saved for the end, when an irate taxi driver spots a delivery rider carefully scooting his bike on the pavement to a cycle rack - do you not care that you are breaking the law?! He yells. What mate, says the cyclist, riding on the pavement? Mate, I done worse than that, that’s why I’m doing this job.
It's a very stupid programme that fails to challenge any of the claims of the contributors.
If you knew nothing of London, you would go away thinking cyclists and cycle lanes are the cause of congestion.
It's only 45 mins and less if you FF through the bloke repairing his car.
i Thought the taxi driver with the poor grasp of English was funny, they even played his quote twice! “They’re like a plague of lotus’s”...
Right, onto my recording to get all the advertisers.
PP
i've got so many vid clips of drivers going through reds, 351 of them on the phone, 6 in ONE QUEUE yesterday alone, yet nobody cares about that. Its like a tribalism thing becoming worse through increasing traffic- you increase traffic with more cars, less people feel safe to cycle, programmes like that put out stupid drivers opinions making people feel too afraid- thus increasing number of cars still further. Ironic. Does make me feel at least a tiny bit better knowing its not just me that gets abuse re cycle lanes or my road position. The dumbest part was ''they hog the whole road''. Um- a car hogs 5 times the width of the road. 5 times more. That makes it more of a road hog. Why is it ok for people to drive TWO ABREAST or even three abreast at zero mph in long traffic queues, but not ok for cyclists to ride side by side at 10 mph plus? like i rode my motorbike home this eve and barely got above ten mph the whole way, having to overtake the long lines of cars taking up the whole road. Channel 5- bunch of hypocrites desperate for ad revenue. If that old man in his red truck can't overtake riders on box hill then he needs to get a scooter or a motorbike, or cycle himself. I doubt he'd even be able to hold onto the slowest riders rear wheel if he didnt have an engine....
Well that was a waste of time
I did laugh when Mr loophole claimed cyclists would behave when subject to the same scrutiny as vehicle drivers.
Not sure what the point if boxhill Ian was. He was incapable of overtaking a cyclist without going on the verge so what the hell does he do when confronted with a car coming towards him?
What it needed was an epilogue from boatsie.
Get someone to read Boatsie's posts, over archive footage of bike riders in Days Past, with some low fi Geoff barrow/adrian uttley music... Hmm, I might be onto something here...
Unfortunately, to comment on the content of the program is simply expressing an opinion*, you actually need to watch it to have the much more valuable "informed opinion".
*I expect it will be a rancid turd of a program as well articulated and balanced as a Donald Trump tweet.
I think we are being a bit over sensitive here, there are a fair few cyclists who really are a "Scourge Of The Streets", I come across them daily, but thankfully this is a small minority of millions of others who are not.
I would also say that this is true with car drivers, I must get passed by thousands of cars everyday and that a vast majority are good drivers with only a few who are also "Scourge Of The Streets”, there have been loads of programmes about bad drivers but nobody complains about those programs because they are showing the truth, unfortunately I am in no doubt that this programme will show a fair amount of bad riding also, it exists and I have no issues with it being shown the way it is.
Do you honestly think this programme is going to go with "there are a fair few cyclists who really are a "Scourge Of The Streets", ..., but thankfully this is a small minority of millions of others who are not."???
Nothing so nuanced. What its going with, is basically a TV show version of the bloke you meet who tells you that all cyclists should be banned from the roads cos they don't pay for them and anyway this one time he saw a cyclist jump a red light...
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