Search

The strategy of The Studio movie channel, a Vivendi-Universal venture, is examined in detail.

The making of a British TV series on the creation of pop stars, including the selection process, is examined in detail.

The life and work of TV producer and personality, Nigel Lythgoe, are examined in detail.

The debate on the role of radio in broadcasting current affairs programs in Britain is examined in detail.

Chief inspector of railways Vic Coleman gave Railtrack a month on Oct. 8, 1999, to make improvements to 21 signals which have been passed at red more than five times over the past eight years. The railway inspectorate also banned Railtrack from using the signal at the heart of the Paddington, England, rail disaster until it has been made safe. The driver of the Thames train that collided with a Great Western Express on Oct. 5, 1999, passed through signal 109 at red but the Health and Safety Executive's interim report into the disaster blames the system rather than the driver.

The potential of interactive broadcasting is examined in detail, including possibilities for teleshopping.

Virgin Trains Chief Exec. Chris Green admitted on Oct. 25, 1999, that the rail companies are learning to grow up and work together to restore public confidence in the industry. Green's admission suggested that the Paddington train disaster has finally made the rail industry realise that it must put safety above corporate profit. The rail summit called by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott on Oct. 25, 1999, produced an important agreement between the 25 train operating companies to review the way drivers are trained. They also reached agreement on an industry-wide whistleblowing scheme.

Photo-Me, the company that runs the largest chain of photo booths in the UK, announced a new venture on Oct. 20, 1999, that will allow customers to make customised compilation CDs. Customers will be able to compile CDs containing up to 70 minutes of music selected from a digital 'bank' of 5,000 to 10,000 tracks in kiosks located in such places as railway stations, airports, shopping centres and cinemas. CDs from a kiosk would be considerably cheaper than traditional compilation CDs since customers would pay around 60 p/song. Photo-Me will open 10 kiosks on a trial basis in 2000.

The family of gifted gynaecologist Joan Francisco had only criticism for the police on Oct. 13, 1999, after Tony Diedrick was found guilty at the Old Bailey of her murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Francisco's family accused the police of incompetence, pointing out that they had had the evidence linking Diedrick to Francisco's murder in their possession for nearly four years before it was properly tested. Trial judge Mrs Justice Heather Hallett emphasised the crucial role played by Francisco's family in bringing Diedrick to justice. Francisco was murdered on Dec. 26, 1994.

The structure that will allow investigators to enter carriage H to search for remains of the victims of the rail disaster at Ladbroke Grove, west London, England, on Oct. 5, 1999, was being completed on Oct. 8, 1999. A web of scaffolding has been erected around the burnt-out shell of carriage H, the inside of which has been reduced to a pile of ashes. Two Home Office pathologists will begin a detailed analysis of carriage H on Oct. 9, 1999, and the process of examining the debris could take some days.

More than 100 people are feared to have died in the head-on collision between two trains near Paddington station in west London, England, on Oct. 5, 1999, but only a few victims had been identified by Oct. 7, 1999. Westminster coroner Dr Paul Knapman does not expect to find any identifiable remains in the wreckage of carriage H of the Great Western train where a fire of such intensity broke out that temperatures reached 1,200 degrees C. Experts have a 'good idea' of the identity of 14 of the 28 bodies that had been removed to the mortuary by Oct. 7, 1999.

Police fear that the death toll from the rail crash at Ladbroke Grove, west London, England, on Oct. 5, 1999, could exceed 120. Officers revealed on Oct. 7, 1999, that 127 people could not be accounted for. At least 70 of the missing were known to have been on the Thames Train commuter service and Great Western express service that collided head-on near Paddington station. However just 30 bodies have so far been found and only one victim has been formally identified. The health and safety executive's initial report into the causes of the crash will be published on Oct. 8, 1999.

Some of the 160 cars parked at Reading, England, station at dawn on Oct. 6, 1999, almost certainly belonged to some of the people who died when two trains collided near Paddington station in west London, England, on Oct. 5, 1999. Some of the owners of the unclaimed cars are likely to have perished when a fireball swept through coach H, the first class carriage at the front of the Great Western train. One rescue worker explained that the temperature inside the carriage would have reached 1,200 degrees Celsius, reducing everything, including the passengers, to ashes.

The two trains that collided outside Paddington station in west London, England, on Oct. 5, 1999, had been travelling at a combined speed of 120 mph. Michael Hodder, the driver of the Thames Train service for Bedwyn that collided with the Great Western service from Cheltenham, had qualified just two months earlier. The importance of obeying signals was drilled into Hodder during his 11 months of training but he passed through a signal at red, causing one of the UK's worst ever rail accidents. However rail drivers had complained on a number of occasions that the signal was difficult to see.

The UK suffered its worst rail crash in a decade on Oct. 5, 1999, when two packed commuter trains collided at Ladbroke Grove, west London, England, at 8.11 am. Rescue workers had recovered 26 bodies from the wreckage by nightfall but had yet to go through one carriage which was known to contain no survivors. Some survivors were trapped for five hours before being rescued and 58 of the 150 people taken to hospital had serious injuries. The cause of the accident has yet to be confirmed but one of the drivers is thought to have gone through a red light.

The UK suffered its worst rail disaster for many years on Oct. 5, 1999, when a Great Western 125 express service collided with a Thames Train commuter service on a busy section of track near Paddington station in west London, England. The diesel tank in the power section of the Great Western express caught fire, engulfing the carriages of the first class section of the train with poisonous smoke and flames. The emergency services began arriving at the scene within four minutes of the collision but the scale of the crash was such that they barely knew where to begin.