In Popular Culture
The effect of the 'Beeching Axe' on a small station was the subject of Oh, Doctor Beeching!, a television sitcom by David Croft and Richard Spendlove from 1995 to 1997. A popular Flanagan and Allen song became the theme song which ran:
- "Oh! Dr. Beeching, what have you done?
- There once were lots of trains to catch, but soon there will be none!
- I'll have to buy a bike, 'cause I can't afford a car.
- Oh! Dr. Beeching! What a naughty man you are!"
Note: This is based on the once-well-known and railway-related poem.
- "Oh! Mr porter, what can I do!
- I wanted to go to Birmingham and they took me on to Crewe.
- Take me back to London as quickly as you can
- Oh Mr Porter what a silly girl I am!"
Flanders and Swann commemorated the loss of the branch lines and small country stations in 1964 in their song "Slow Train"; another song which remembers Beeching is The Beeching Report, a song against the Beeching Axe, recorded by the post-rock group iLiKETRAiNS.
Read more about this topic: Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching
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