The Five Billion Pound Super Sewer
BBC TWO, 9.00PM; SCOT, 11.15PM
Like me, your initial reaction before watching the opening episode of this three-part documentary series might well be: “They really made an entire series about sewage?” However, The Five Billion Pound Super Sewer manages to be both informative and engaging television. It partially achieves this through some truly wonderful descriptions of excrement, including one worker who claims poo with panache”, a description of part of the River Lea, and partially because the story being told is genuinely interesting.
The film’s makers spent three years following the teams trying to construct a swear seven metres wide and 20 miles long which, if successful, will relieve the pressure on the old Victorian system built by Joseph Bazalgette. This will ensure that the River Thames is no longer London’s biggest sewage depository. “There’s a kind of choreography to it, it’s kind of romantic,” explains French site manager Emmanuel as construction begins. That might seem like a statement too far but, on the other hand, watching this will make even the foolhardiest think twice about paddling in any part of the Thames.