TV
Car Junkies: Highway To Hell
"Will we ever kick the car habit?" muses narrator Ian Curtis during the opening scenes of BBC2’s new car series Car Junkies.
Good question. There’s no AA meeting or Nicorette patch to cure our obsession with the motor car and the chaos caused by our favourite form of transport has been rarely out of the news since the M1 opened. Our environment is ruled and ripped up by the car and yet you can’t switch on the TV or open Sunday supplement magazine without being seduced by sleek, sensuous images of the little petrol-guzzlers.
So is the first programme in the series a Lexus or a Morris Marina? Answer: A Lexus. And one with aubergine leather trim at that.
Firstly, Car Junkies doesn't take itself too seriously. Admidst the serious debate are car-related heckles from the likes of Craig Charles and Tony Blackburn. Our relationship with car in film and TV are also examined so get set for some swishy shots of Bodie and Doyle sliding over the bonnet of their Capri. Groovy.
The most fascinating part of the programme is when it examines the relationship between car advertising and marketing and how our car-buying habits moved from ‘rational reliability' to ‘emotional reliability’ ending with actress Claire Grogan delaring her car "a friend".
All sides of the car versus environment argument are well represented here. We’re bombarded with advertisements telling us that by buying a certain car we’re buying into a glossy lifestyle but not building the roads to cope with all the cars. Yet building more and more roads is turning Britain into a choking criss-cross with a never-ending trail of concrete and tarmac slashing through the countryside.
The final section of Car Junkies: Highway To Hell deals with the thorny issue of Twyford Down Bypass. When local action to prevent it being built failed,the dread-locked, Levellers-listening, dog-on-a-string New-Agers moved in and caused maximum embarrasment for the government. The bypass was built but both sides claimed a victory.
Car Junkies closes on topic as it manages to squeeze in London’s new Congestion Charge and the £5 billion road-building scheme was recently announced by the Labour government and the endless paradoxical cycle of car making and road building.
Anyone with even a passing interest in the politics of car manufacture, the environment, the powers of advertising and marketing should catch the first in what looks set to be an intriguing series.
The programme is full of memorable one-liner statements."You can’t build your way out of the transport problem" speaks a transport adviser while narrator Ian Curtis chillingly warns "If we can’t be stopped from driving, road-building will be… endless…". What a frightening thought.
Although documentaries rarely change the world and it’s not likely to make you don a big, stripey jumper and go chain yourself to a bulldozer in front of the A2/M2, Car Junkies presents you with the facts and
its’ groovy soundtrack and good use of archive footage and prevents it from becoming just all narrative and opinion, and good production values makes Car Junkies thought-provoking yet enjoyable.
Warning: Car Junkies contains Va-Va-Voom.
Quality viewing.
Rating 8/10
Car Junkies aires on BBC2 on 23rd Feb at 8.30pm.
Good question. There’s no AA meeting or Nicorette patch to cure our obsession with the motor car and the chaos caused by our favourite form of transport has been rarely out of the news since the M1 opened. Our environment is ruled and ripped up by the car and yet you can’t switch on the TV or open Sunday supplement magazine without being seduced by sleek, sensuous images of the little petrol-guzzlers.
So is the first programme in the series a Lexus or a Morris Marina? Answer: A Lexus. And one with aubergine leather trim at that.
Firstly, Car Junkies doesn't take itself too seriously. Admidst the serious debate are car-related heckles from the likes of Craig Charles and Tony Blackburn. Our relationship with car in film and TV are also examined so get set for some swishy shots of Bodie and Doyle sliding over the bonnet of their Capri. Groovy.
The most fascinating part of the programme is when it examines the relationship between car advertising and marketing and how our car-buying habits moved from ‘rational reliability' to ‘emotional reliability’ ending with actress Claire Grogan delaring her car "a friend".
All sides of the car versus environment argument are well represented here. We’re bombarded with advertisements telling us that by buying a certain car we’re buying into a glossy lifestyle but not building the roads to cope with all the cars. Yet building more and more roads is turning Britain into a choking criss-cross with a never-ending trail of concrete and tarmac slashing through the countryside.
The final section of Car Junkies: Highway To Hell deals with the thorny issue of Twyford Down Bypass. When local action to prevent it being built failed,the dread-locked, Levellers-listening, dog-on-a-string New-Agers moved in and caused maximum embarrasment for the government. The bypass was built but both sides claimed a victory.
Car Junkies closes on topic as it manages to squeeze in London’s new Congestion Charge and the £5 billion road-building scheme was recently announced by the Labour government and the endless paradoxical cycle of car making and road building.
Anyone with even a passing interest in the politics of car manufacture, the environment, the powers of advertising and marketing should catch the first in what looks set to be an intriguing series.
The programme is full of memorable one-liner statements."You can’t build your way out of the transport problem" speaks a transport adviser while narrator Ian Curtis chillingly warns "If we can’t be stopped from driving, road-building will be… endless…". What a frightening thought.
Although documentaries rarely change the world and it’s not likely to make you don a big, stripey jumper and go chain yourself to a bulldozer in front of the A2/M2, Car Junkies presents you with the facts and
its’ groovy soundtrack and good use of archive footage and prevents it from becoming just all narrative and opinion, and good production values makes Car Junkies thought-provoking yet enjoyable.
Warning: Car Junkies contains Va-Va-Voom.
Quality viewing.
Rating 8/10
Car Junkies aires on BBC2 on 23rd Feb at 8.30pm.
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