Beeching's Tracks , BBC ONE 

Viewpoint Productions has been commissioned to make a 30-minute documentary for BBC ONE: Beeching's Tracks-presented by Joe Crowley. This is part of the BBC's Beeching season and was broadcast Sunday 26th October.

Filmed during August and September 2008, Joe Crowley makes a journey around central southern England and discovers firsthand how Beeching's axe changed people's lives and the very landscape itself. Key locations include East Grinstead, where Dr Beeching lived, and the former site of of the carriage works at Lancing, which closed as a result of the restructuring in 1966, making nearly 2000 people redundant.

From here the programme moves to Hayling Island, once connected to the mainland by rail. Joe meets Peter Keat who has fond memories of family days out at the seaside, before he heads for Shillingstone to meet a group of enthusiasts who have rescued a disused station. Then it's on to the magnificently restored Horsebridge Station in Hampshire, now privately owned. After visiting the IOW Steam Railway Joe's journey concludes at West Grinstead where the site of the old station now forms part of a conservation area.

Interviewees include Nicholas Owen, who, apart from famous as a newsman, is a published authority on historic transport; and David Shepherd OBE, world renowned artist, conservationist and pioneer of the railway preservation movement.

Presented by Joe Crowley

Produced and Directed by David Ellery

Executive Producer for BBC Jane French

The BBC's Beeching season includes a series of 10 programmes exploring the impact of Dr Richard Beeching's reshaping of British Railways, both when his infamous report was first published in 1963, and today. Read full story Broadcast Now follow this link.