Sunday, February 19, 2012

Tube drunks highlighted in first episode of BBC2 series - The Tube

Looks like the first episode of new six part series on the London Underground - The Tube - will be featuring drunks. The episode airing on BBC2 at 9pm this evening is reviewed in The Daily Star. They say "It turns out that watching drunk people on telly can actually still be really funny. It all depends on the context....

Be Careful After Drinking by bixentro
Be Careful After Drinking by bixentro

"The drunks that make you laugh aren’t your obvious lairy kind, but the seemingly respectable types in suits who’ve clearly sunk a skinful after leaving the office. What’s so funny is they’re trying so hard to act normally, and yet can’t help walking into walls etc. Either that or passing out on the train and waking up in the middle of God knows where."

Agreed these people can be funny, but often only when you don't have the pleasure of being on the same train as them or I imagine being one of the members of staff who have to deal with them.  It'll be interesting to see how the show pulls this off.


I was on a downwards escalator at Holborn a week or so ago late one night, which abruptly stopped (really weird sensation incidentally, giving you a feeling you're about to tumble head first into the person in front of you).  Some drunk suited guy had decided it would be fun to press the emergency button on the escalators, or had possibly just fallen onto it.  He was at that "so drunk, he could hardly stand" stage and when questioned by members of staff, raised his hands in an incredulous "What me? No I had nothing to do with the escalator stopping" kind of way.  Sadly his swaying & slurred words indicated that he had everything to do with the escalator stopping.

Wake me up at: stickers & badge by sleekit
Wake me up at: stickers & badge by sleekit

I dread to think how he managed to continue his onward journey and he should have definitely bought a packet of the "Wake me up at......" stickers, designed for fellow passengers to take pity on you so you don't go past your stop.

The problem with most Tube drunks is that a) they'd never remember to put the sticker on the first place and b) they'd probably be too wassed to write the station name on the sticker, if theirs wasn't already pre-printed.

197.365.2010 by version3point1
Priority seat stickers by version3point1

Let us know some of your London Underground drunkards stories, funny or otherwise.  The Daily Mirror also point out that it's not viewing for the faint hearted:  "This first episode is all about the weekend as we watch station staff patiently shepherding the usual Friday night crowds of drunks and we witness a bizarre but terrifying stabbing at Leicester Square in which a woman was randomly shoved on to the track.

“No one cares,” says station supervisor Wasim Malik. “I worked at Holborn once. There was a person dead on the floor, on the escalator, and people were still trampling over him. Welcome to London. Welcome to the Underground.”

Looking forward to get your first impressions of The Tube when it airs tonight.

You might also like
Wake me up at.... Subway Sleep Masks
Tube staff star in new BBC2 Documentary Series
The Train Man - Fantastic Japanese Subway & Geeky film
Drunks on Trains
Pissed on / Pissed off

No comments:

Post a Comment