The 1987 Storm

[magicbeatle]

Just as I am writing this, there is a documentary on ITV about the 1987 storm. I cant even watch the rest. It is utter cr*p. Nothing but dramatisation. Where is all the Footage? The Photo's of the morning after? It is nothing but a cheap and lazy production put together with a few personal stories. I was looking forward to a generic overview of the whole night with loads of real footage and photo's from the time. Is there anyone else out there who was disappointed in this program?

[hippyhoppy]

I'm half watching it and half on here. I had a migrane on the actual evening, took a pill, went to bed and slept through the whole thing. and I was in West Sussex at the time. Woken up in the morning by mum to find all the trees fallen and someones garden shed on our front garden! It must have been a Friday morning or so as I was working in a beauty salon at the time and we had wedding parties due in that day and no power or phone... it was hell!

[hippyhoppy]

FYI - the windmill they are talking about is the one that Jonathon Creek lives in..in the show 'Jonathon Creek'!!!

[magicbeatle]

I slept through it too. A mate of mine said he went roller skating in it. I've never really belived him though.

[hippyhoppy]

believe him if he lived in Scotland! Trust me - south east was a complete mess. Northerners hate the fact that such news was made of this because London was involved. they feel that if this had happened in say Manchester/Liverpool or even Blackburn it would have been glossed over because London wasn't involved. as a southerner, I tend to agree. London isn't the be all and end all of England...

[hippyhoppy]

She Just Said LONDON as if it was soooo important...

[magicbeatle]

I lived in London at the time ...still do. But I totally agree with you. The north has always been forgotten about. It seems to be getting a bit better now with more footage.

[hippyhoppy]

michael fish has just said that he was referring to a friend on holiday in the states re 'there's not a hurriane on the way'. What a loser! (ps glad not to upset you re the old north thing.)

[jno]

I don't know about cheap, magicbeatle - surely it would be a lot cheaper to show old footage than shoot new stuff? Documentaries are all 'reconstructions' these days - really annoys me, I'd much rather see something authentic than something recreated. But as I slept through the original storm I can't really object - it's not as if I can offer them my own memories of the event.

[juliacornwal]

I didn't sleep through it and neither did my children, who were quite small at the time, but my husband did! We live on the Isle of Wight and I remember, particularly, going out into the greenhouse in the middle of the night to check that the rabbits were safe (my husband was appalled that I'd been so stupid the next day), and then sitting, with the boys, watching the power cables arching and sending out huge sparks, like lightning.
The next morning there wasn't a shard of glass left in the greenhouse and the rabbits were upside down in their hutch - looking pretty p*****d off - the fence was gone and the Island was a mass of fallen trees.
I actually quite enjoyed the documentary, I do have to say. If nothing else it made me realise how lucky we personally were that night. We weren't even particularly frightened, just completely fascinated.

[spudqueen]

Yes, I think it could have been better done, like you magicbeatle I was looking forward to more of an overview. There was too much of the personal stories. I watched it because I was living in London at the time (I'm back up north at the moment). I was woken up by the storm and me and the cat (flat mate was away) huddled in the hall as we had an emergency light in there which came on if the electricity was out. I was on the top floor of our building ((four stories high) and at the top of a hill. The building was swaying quite a bit - I'm glad I wasn't in a high rise! I walked to work the next morning round and over trees.

[spudqueen]

Oops - forgot about the Michael Fish thing. I'm sure I saw years ago that it was a lady who had a friend in France who rang about the hurricane. Her friend had rung her to warn her. I'm sure that if he was on about Florida they would have had additional footage to support that!

[Reverandfunk]

Living in the Midlands it means jack to me.

There was a storm in London ooooohhhhhhh

Wonder if there will be a programme on the floods in 20 years

[Pippa68]

It wasn't just London, Rev. it went from London right down to the south east & west. I believe Cornwall was hit pretty badly.

My old geography teacher played a part in that documentary as he published a book on it (I am from Surrey originally) and two of my son's teachers were actually interviewed for the programme as they had a segment on Worthing High' School's field trip..

[Reverandfunk]

Like I said pippa living in the Mids it meant s*d all lol.

Soft southern poofs.....

[magicbeatle]

Thanks everyone,
There are some good stories of the night told by some of you here. Anyone got any more?