Australian Stags on the BBC

[Marco Polo]

Hi All,
Our local car clubs were invited to assemble in the main street of a local town, Innisfail, to fill the main street in front of the art deco town hall, while the BBC was filming an episode of the upcoming series "Great Australian Train Journeys", with Michael Portillo this morning.

Two Stags, including mine were present and were in shot for most of the filming. The other Stag owner, Tony was interviewed, surprisingly, because he has a face for radio!

Its due to air in the UK in November 2018 and Australia around February next year. The episode will be the train journey from Kuranda to Townsville, and will highlight the amazing tourist destination of Far North Queensland. Unfortunately we were asked to refrain from posting photos on any media until the episode airs.
regards to all,
Raoul

[mole42]

Thanks! I’ve marked the dates in my calendar.
Richard

[davidf]

Thanks for the update. I already knew of the series, because a friend of mine does a lot of work for the Pichi Richi railway in South Australia (including firing the locos some times), and he has already mentioned being filmed and interviewed for the episode about the Ghan. I didn't know when it was going to be shown here in the UK.

[Tdm]

With being currently in Australia, I wonder if the BBC will next move on to New Zealand to film the Railways there.
There are a lot of Stags in New Zealand, and met quite a few owners (and their Stags) when I visited Tauranga and Auckland in 2012.
I love watching the Great Railway jouneys series, and will make a note for this November as get BBC here.

[Ritchie6]

I see this programme started a couple of weeks ago but as yet we haven't seen the episode where he travels through Queensland so I guess it will be later in the series which consists of 6 journeys.


Richard

[Ritchie6]

This episode is on tomorrow evening. Note that they've changed the scheduled time to 6.40 pm-apparently a load of foreigners are kicking a football about which is deemed more important than sticking to the advertised slot.

Let's hope the Stags are featured, because they don't always broadcast everything they film.They spent days filming in our village last year for a new Dr Doolittle film and apparently non of it made the final cut.

Richard

[garyf]

That is probably one of the only programs I would watch on the BBC to be honest .Michael Portillo is a very interesting and decent fella and I will look forward to seeing it

[Stagdad]

Just seen it, spotted a white stag with wire wheels also an xjs.
The dance hall hasnt had much luck, wrecked 4 times by wind and fire.

[Richard G]

Just seen it, spotted a white stag with wire wheels also an xjs.
The dance hall hasnt had much luck, wrecked 4 times by wind and fire.

I saw it too, a "strine Stag!

[Richard G]

Have you ever seen the Australian built Goggomobil Dart? Looks quite good I think.

[Ritchie6]

I recorded this programme so was able to pause and rewind to do a bit of car spotting. Saw the white Stag and the XJS along with a couple of MGBs and an E type coupe. Unfortunately Michael seemed more interested in the architecture rather than the vehicles on display. When they were talking about how many times the hall had been rebuilt I couldn't help thinking "what on earth did they use cardboard?" It can't have been a very substantial structure.

Still an enjoyable show though.

Richard

[Tdm]

Had to record the program as was out last night, but just watched it and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Michael Portillo does great job of finding out as much as he can of the places he visits, and narrates it well.
There is more to Australia than a lot of people think.
Pity there wasn't more footage of the Classic Cars encountered.

Actually in a visit to Australia and New Zealand some 6 years ago, we saw more Stags in New Zealand than we did in Australia,
and whose owners met us when we docked in Tauranga and Auckland and took us out into the surrounding countryside to sample some local and beer and wine. Back on board ship afterwards I never made it to Dinner afterwards!
.

[022Dave]

Some nice classics, but not sure about Portillo's curious dress-sense. A Stetson and neckerchief? A bit like an Australian doing a documentary in England, wearing a bowler hat.

[Richard G]

We visited Sue Lowe and the NZ Stags in 2013, Sue had me driving her Stag and kept telling me I could go round the mountain bends faster!

[Marco Polo]

Just seen it, spotted a white stag with wire wheels also an xjs.
The dance hall hasnt had much luck, wrecked 4 times by wind and fire.

The white Stag is my car! Will have to watch the series when it comes down under