London's Burning TV Series (1986 till 2002)

[onthebusesfan]

Does Anyone Remember This Brilliant Tv Program ?

I Loved Watching The Repeats On UKTV Drama .


did anyone else like or watch this back in the day?

[Richard1978]

Re: London's Burning TV Series (1986 till 2002)

Yes it was good viewing for many years, normally on a Sunday night.

It went downhill when most of the original cast had left & it was re-tooled to be more soap like.

I've also spotted it on Drama.

[amethyst]

Re: London's Burning TV Series (1986 till 2002)

Yes it was good viewing for many years, normally on a Sunday night.

It went downhill when most of the original cast had left & it was re-tooled to be more soap like.

I've also spotted it on Drama.

I watched a few episodes in the afternoon on drama but I wasn't to keen when the oldies left to be replaced by new

[George 1978]

Re: London's Burning TV Series (1986 till 2002)

It was on Sunday evenings, usually with school in the morning and all that - I often think of it as Casualty or The Bill with the London Fire Brigade instead of the ambulance service or the police. I watched it while waiting for Spitting Image or Hale and Pace to come on.

[amethyst]

Re: London's Burning TV Series (1986 till 2002)

Who remembers Sicknote(Bert Quigley)Think he loved opera and singing.Bayleaf(Mike).Malcolm blonde posh guy.Was George & Recall the only 2 that remained.Didnt like Jeff

[George 1978]

Re: London's Burning TV Series (1986 till 2002)

I was thinking about those nicknames of Sicknote and Bayleaf (or was it Bailiff?), and thought whether anyone in the fire service (or any other public service for that matter) had crew with ironic nicknames?

I suppose that it was Fireman Sam for adults...

[Richard1978]

Re: London's Burning TV Series (1986 till 2002)

Bayleaf was because he liked cooking I think.

I remember Charisma (would-be ladies man) and Zorba (of Greek origin).

[amethyst]

Re: London's Burning TV Series (1986 till 2002)

Vaseline he died

[George 1978]

Re: London's Burning TV Series (1986 till 2002)

There was an episode which featured a school setting a fire alarm off and, I think, was a false alarm and the school getting a good rollicking as a result. Another one was some plants hung up over a television set, and we are seen that water and electricity don't mix after the plants were watered. Anyone remember those episodes?

Managed to get a signed photograph of actress Zoe Heyes (I cannot think of anything else that she had appeared in), who had played a female firefighter in the 1997 series - I believe that she was a homage to the first female firefighter who killed on duty not long before she joined the series.

[Big Tim]

I was a huge fan of London's Burning back in the day. The show was at the height of it's popularity in the mid 90's, and every weekend would be rounded off on a Sunday evening with You've Been Framed (with orginal host, Jeremy Beadle); followed by Heartbeat (the Nick Berry / Niamh Cussack / Bill Maynard era) at 8pm, then London's Burning at 9.

The show was a very gritty, character-led hard hitting programme in the early series. The pilot film in 1986 featured most of the cast who starred in the first series which screened in 1988 - the pilot also featured a young Jerome Flynn, (playing a firefighter named "Rambo") although he didn't appear in any of the later series. The film was a two hour episode, which drew much of it's themes from the earlier Broadwater Farm Riots, and some of the tensions in inner-city London at that time.

There were many huge stunts and dramatic plot-led storylines through to around 1997/98, but sadly by then the show had become a shadow of it's former self. As mentioned in previous comments it became more of a soap-opera, with more emphasis on affairs and on irrelevant issues not directly related to the main ethos of a show which had originally had the work of the fire brigade at the centre of it's agenda.

The final series (14) in I think 2002 was an absolute embarrassment, with very few earlier cast members involved, and others written out with no real reason or explanation. I seem to remember Tristan Gemmell was a new addition to that final series; and most plots seemed to revolve around his character (Frank Mooney) - from having affairs with the Station Officers wife, liaisons with fellow watch member Sally Fields, and being involved in some scams away from the job, culminating in him and a colleague (Adam) taking a beating. The actual work of the fire brigade was pretty much second fiddle by this time.

Only Glen Murphy (George Green) remained as a cast member from the original 1988 series by this time. "Sicknote" (Richard Walsh) was killed off in series 12, having been in the pilot film and the last of that original line up to disappear. "Recall" (Ben Onwukwe) was around for many years and was one of the best known and loved characters, but he didn't appear until series 4 in 1991 (similar time to Nick Georgiardis / "Zorba"), and was written out in 2001/02.

ITV produced "Steel River Blues" a year or two after the end of the London's Burning tenure, which was another drama which revolved around a fire station - I think in Middlesbrough / Teesside areas rather than London - but it only lasted for a single short run, and isn't well remembered by many.

I too have enjoyed the re-runs of London's Burning (series 1-9 were by far the best) on the Freeview channel Drama the last couple of years, although most episodes have been heavily edited for a daytime audience and to fit into an hour-long slot which tend to be "advert-heavy".