Fly-on-the wall (FOTW) documentaries are such a staple of TV now that a new doc has to really be outstanding to grab a viewers attention. Not necessarily in-your-face, or wacky and not even that clever-clever, simple stories told without artifice and without gimmicks can often make the best pieces of informative TV. 'The Tube' (BBC2) is no exception to this maxim. The London Underground is such an obvious terrain for the documentary maker and this doesn't fail to deliver. We meet the staff, management and drivers and, after seeing the amount of variables and problems they deal with on a daily basis, are simply amazed that they manage to keep the thing running at all. From the tragic and gruesome task of scoping up suicides from the tracks - dealt with great compassion by both programme makers and the staff concerned - to the humour and frustrations of the ticket counter sellers, 'The Tube' made 'thetvreviewguy' think twice about what it takes to carry one BILLION people underground every year. The FOTW doc has been satarised to the nth degree but can still occasionally enlighten and educate. 'The Tube' was an example of BBC production values at their best; a throwback to to the days when television wasn't about laughing at people but had more parts of their output seeking to explain the hidden and make things interesting. It was the unpretentiousness of it all that made the programme a great and moving documentary; 'thetvreviewguy' suggests you catch this train now leaving.
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