Slow bus ride puts BBC on fast track to ratings success
THE BBC is lining up a new series of “slow television” shows after nearly a million people tuned into a BBC Four documentary that featured nothing more than two hours of footage captured from the front of a bus travelling around the Yorkshire Dales.
All Aboard! The Country Bus, which aired at 8pm on Monday, followed the number 830 “Northern Dalesman” along a 40-mile route around the national park, and had an average audience of 800,000 viewers.
In a coup for BBC Four, more people tuned in during the period from 8pm to 10pm than watched Channel 5, which aired a documentary about Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun, while Film4, which showed Hollywood blockbuster The Bourne Legacy, attracted less than half the audience of the bus journey.
While many programmes feature imposing background music and pro- duction gimmicks, the show featured no commentary, with only the occasional on-screen caption explaining the history of landmarks such as the Ribblehead viaduct or the importance of various geological features.
Viewing figures from ratings agency overnights.tv show that at its peak, 973,000 people tuned in. One in 20 of all Britain’s over-65s watched the show.
Slow television originated in Norway, and has been pioneered in Britain by BBC Four, with viewers finding solace in broadcasts such as a two-hour sleigh ride through northern Norway and a narrowboat journey along the Kennet and Avon Canal.
The corporation is understood to be working on new slow television shows for Christmas, including footage from a lengthy train journey.
Cassian Harrison, the editor of BBC Four, said: “We’d hoped our Country Bus trip would be the perfect coda to a sun-kissed bank holiday weekend, but we never expected it to be our most popular slow journey yet.”