The Ghan - Slow TV in Australia Only

The Ghan Slow TV

Australia is currently broadcasting its first Slow TV Sunday evening (for them) prime time TV.

Available on SBS On Demand in Australia only (courtesy of geoblocking) or SBS Australia Facebook page sometimes with a small inset box with studio chat and banter taking centre stage.

Shame - Norway's Slow TV goes out online without geoblocking when it's live and serves as a fabulous advert for its landscape and cross-country and around-country travels.

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An earlier post on The Ghan from The Slow TV Blog.

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The Ghan - Slow TV in Australia

This is NOT Australian Slow TV 

UPDATE FOR BROADCAST: The Ghan will be broadcast on an Australian prime-time TV slot, 7:30pm on Sunday 7th January 2018 on SBS.

Plenty of reviewers already anticipating some 'Weird TV', so it'll be fascinating to see how Slow TV is received Down Under.

The actual broadcast is a mere 3 hours long (not the 3 days journey), robbing the viewer of most of the actual journey. Nevertheless expect some fabulous Aussie real-time Slowness to ease in the New Year.

A potentially kick-arse Slow TV project is set to arrive in Australia during December 2017. That's kick-arse Slow TV style in an aussie accent and attitude, by the way.

The Ghan is a train journey, bisecting Australia, travelling near 3,000 km (approaching 1,850 miles) from Darwin in the Northern Territory to Adelaide in South Australia. There must be return trains, too, so feel free to reverse the direction if needed.

If it is broadcast continually on traditional TV  ("Linear TV"), it will thrash the proverbials off Norwegian Slow TV train journeys, as it will take three days. Not a mere poxy 7 hours. But it remains to be seen where it is broadcast in terms of channels and platforms, and if it is continuous. 

The Norgies (Australian slang for Norwegians, as I was told in a curry house in Trondheim in 2014) haven't even managed a day long continual broadcast of a train journey. Though they did pull off that world-record breaking ferry journey, Hurtigruten, taking five and a quarter days.

Can't wait until the New Year for some new Slow TV? The BBC has some wildlife Slow TV up its sleeve for the Christmas TV Schedule with Wild Wanderings.

Hopefully it will be available online, too, so those of us in the Northern Hemisphere about to go through the cold and dark of midwinter can enjoy the Australian midsummer.

If you're going to make Slow TV, give us the whole story!

Hopefully this will be a proper Aussie train going walkabout all over the SBS schedule and completely kicking everything else off. Could we even get Ozzy Man Reviews in on it? Let's see him keep up a commentary for three days. I think I can hear his response in my head.

Mint Pictures was commissioned by SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) in Australia to produce The Ghan, a transcontinental train journey, which will also feature archival material.

The Slow TV Blog will carry more information as and when it becomes apparent. 

First published 1st November 2017, updated 14th December.

New to The Slow TV Blog? See social media links, notable internal links or to get in touch, the media centre page.

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Flying Scotsman on BBC4 Live Blogging

More BBC Slow TV for Christmas 2016

Thursday 29th December on BBC4, 21:00

The Beeb are once again treating us with some Slow TV for Christmas as The Flying Scotsman gives us an hour of The Severn Valley Railway:

"BBC Four viewers can sit back and enjoy a sixty minute trip from the driving seat of the Flying Scotsman, with a signal-by-signal guide to life on the footplate of the nation's favourite steam engine. In a special one-off slow tv treat for Christmas, the crew take locomotive 60103 down the Severn Valley Railway, cutting through stunning landscapes on a journey from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster, in the midlands of England.

Commissioned by Clare Paterson, Commissioning Editor, Documentaries. It is being made by Roger Keech Productions Ltd."

Some footage from 2009 of The Flying Scotsman by Roger Keech Productions Ltd at this link here.

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NRK Slow TV Projects - Nordlandsbanen (2012)

Nordlandsbanen minute by minute – season by season – train journey in the Arctic Circle

Broadcast 29 December 4:00 pm on NRK2

Recorded, 9 hours 50 minutes. 

About 1.2 million tuned in, market share 13 %

http://tv.nrk.no/serie/nordlandsbanen-minutt-for-minutt/dvfj60010112/sesong-1/episode-1

Courtesy of NRK.

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NRK Slow TV Projects - Holmenkollbanen (2011)

Prerecorded 23 minutes. 
During the World Ski Championships there were hundreds of thousands of people in Holmenkollen. Many of them used Holmenkollbanen to get out into the countryside and into the arenas. When the Holmenkollen Line was opened in 1898 it was the first Nordic suburban railway, today the line part of Oslo's Underground network and carrying residents and tourists to Holmenkollen and Frognerseter. 
NRK1 08/03/2011 10:35 pm
http://tv.nrk.no/program/DVFJ65002011/holmenkollbanen-minutt-for-minutt

Courtesy of NRK.

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NRK Slow TV Projects - Flåmsbana (2010)

Flåmsbana minute by minute – scenic tourist route

Broadcast Sunday 5 September 8:05 pm on NRK1.

Prerecorded, 58 minutes. 

About 500,000 followed the entire journey

Market share 40 %.

Watch the program here: http://tv.nrk.no/program/dvfj64001010/flaamsbana-minutt-for-minutt

Courtesy of NRK.

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NRK Slow TV Projects - Bergensbanen (2009)

Bergensbanen minute by minute – a train journey across Southern Norway, Bergen to Oslo.

Broadcast Friday 29 November at 7:55 p.m. on NRK2.

Prerecorded, 7 hours 14 minutes. 

Approximately 1.2 million Norwegians tuned in to the show.

Market share: 15 %.

More on: http://nrkbeta.no/2009/12/18/bergensbanen-eng/

Courtesy of NRK.

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