To avoid reading a biography, I was looking for a biopic about Isambard Kingdom Brunel (IKB), the second greatest Briton of all time. Bridge engineer, Railway director, Shipbuilder, and so on, he truly encapsulated the Victorian era. I had never seen a biopic, but figured the British must have done something. Indeed they did:

IMDB delivers this: Great (Isambard Kingdom Brunel) (1975): “An animated film about the British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who spearheaded numerous engineering marvels of the early 19th century – including the Thames Tunnel, the Great Western Railway, and the Great Eastern steamship (for 40 years the world’s largest steamship). Various styles of animation are used to depict events in his colorful life. “

So going to the usual places, I found a copy of this and watched it this past weekend, twice. The description does not do justice. Imagine Terry Gilliam meets R. Crumb, with some Ralph Bakshi and Schoolhouse Rock thrown in.

The cartoon is offensive (well, if you are a human being, it is offensive, also if you are among certain non-human species). It is bizarre (you just don’t get to see too much animated Queen Victoria soft-core in the US, maybe this is more common in Britain). It is mostly about Brunel, but it is also telling of the state of the UK in the early 1970s. Something was clearly wrong that this was green-lighted. I can imagine the conversation.

Producer: We are going to make an animated history of the Great Engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Network: Sounds great, we need more educational programming.

Producer: Um, Thanks, the budget will be 100,000 pounds.

Network: See our accountants.

And then many drugs were consumed no one supervised production. I don’t know when or if this aired, one imagines Saturday at 11 pm. One hopes not Saturday at 11 am. And because of this, no one else has since produced a Brunel biopic.

While generally historically accurate in the bits you would expect to be accurate, and pointing out stories I had not heard (the difficulty of launch for the Great Eastern, and the boiler explosion) (for lack of reading one more biography), it misses some of the best Brunel stories, like how he swallowed a coin in a failed magic trick, or how he nearly drowned in the Thames Tunnel. Still if you like animation, cheesy music (including a love song to the Great Western Railway), and can overlook what was barely acceptable racism in 1970s England, this is an interesting piece, telling you as much about the pre-punk, pre-Thatcher ethic as the Victorians.

For the record, IMDB records there were two other Brunel biopics, as well as some other documentary mentions, plus the very strange 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony, where he was portrayed by Kenneth Brannaugh. The other biopics:

• ITV Play of the Week” – Engineer Extraordinary (1959) TV episode, Played by Peter Wyngarde
• The Romance of a Railway: The History of Achievement (1935) Played by Carl Harbord

I have not seen these.

About U of Mn Transportation alumna and Capitol Hill staffer Avital Barnea makes both Politico and Parks and Recreation: Hill staffer enjoys some ‘Recreation’

In the mid-2010s, I watched Oh, Dr. Beeching!, a British situation comedy from the mid-1990s describing life at a small railway station (Hatley) in the mid-1960s awaiting news about the Beeching Axe chopping away a line built in the mid-1860s.
Dr. Richard Beeching led the British Railways Board and prepared The Reshaping of British Railways which controversially rationalized the network by eliminating many routes and stations. He remains an off-screen character in the series, who is talked about, and rumored, but never seen.
One of the creators, Richard Spendlove, had worked his first career as a Station Manager, and so this show has a level of detail about the workplace that is far richer than anything else I have seen, including Thomas, the Tank Engine. It is a comedy, so the goings on in this small town (little more than a station and some railway cottages where the staff reside) are farcical. And it is a period piece, so you can examine elements of British culture, including high-quality culinary dishes, the Beatles, the Mods, short skirts, and references to Swinging London.
If you are looking for a way to spend 10 hours watching television about transportation, Series 1 and 2 of this show (Series 3 was never produced, leaving the fate of the station unclear) are entertaining. It is commercially available on Region 2 (UK) DVDs from BBC. I don’t believe it is commercially available to play on unhacked US DVD players (DVD player hacking is legal, just frowned upon by Hollywood).
It is un-commercially available elsewhere, one supposes.

In memory of Andy Griffith:

Andy Griffith Show, Episode #111 (S4E15) “Aunt Bee the Crusader” Original Broadcast Jan 20, 1964. Aunt Bee champions the cause of a small farmer who has been forced to sell his farm to make way for a new highway. When Bee leads a group of ladies in a demonstration, Andy and Barney head out to break up the protest where they stumble over a group of six stills Farmer Frisbee has hidden away under his henhouse. — From the Mayberry Wikia

I loved the Andy Griffith show, it got me through my Master’s Thesis. Of course this episode comments on the Freeway Revolts and deals with the rights of the individual vs. the needs of society. But it cops out on the decision, since after the discovery of stills, the road inevitably goes through, though it should be an irrelevant factor. Surrendering the stills should not forfeit the farm.