As a child in early 1990's Britain, London's Burning was a staple of Sunday night TV. I have just been re-watching the show on DVD and it's still as relevant today as it was 20 years ago when the show was at it's peak.I highly recommend this show to Firefighting/Fire Brigade enthusiasts around the world as it showed Blue Watch of Blackwall Fire Station dealing with work and personal triumphs and tragedies. The realism of the show was what made it so successful with a big budget being spent on the spectacular, well crafted and well produced "Shouts" that Blue Watch were called to (A "Shout" is a Brigade term for an Emergency call) in the days before Computer Generated Imagery which the later seasons of LB had to suffer from as the budget was cut.Here's to the crew of Blackwall!

I moved to the capital the year this series began, so it had a particular resonance for me. I'd also had some experience in the fire-fighting game so I was particularly interested to see how well it fared.The first few episodes were quite decent with a good mix of mostly likable characters. The technical researchers also appeared to have done their homework.But the trouble is; with all dramas that run for long enough; they just turn into soap-operas, with personal issues gradually eclipsing the raison d'etre. In the end, it doesn't matter what the characters do for a living. Firemen, coppers, soldiers, teachers; we seem to finish-up worrying about marital issues, debts, drink problems, etc. They're good for - say - a 10 or 20-week run and then that's it. Fires become just fires. Now, what's up with yer missus? This series seemed to outlive the fire engines themselves. And it sure as hell outlived my interest. For the first 10 programmes I'd have given 8 or 9 stars, but by the time it was finally extinguished I couldn't give a damn.

I watched LB from the movie to almost the bitter end and if you'd asked me six months ago I would have been hugely complimentary.However time plays tricks with the memory, and I've recently had the chance to view the early episodes again.I was shocked at how empty and limp the stories were, though punctuated by increasingly spectacular yet predictable 'shouts' with associated danger, drama and of course death. Death was a major player in LB, and 'Blue Watch' would surely have been renamed 'Death Watch' and would have come to national media attention due to their high attrition rate.Some of the drama between 'shouts' is incredibly wet, and usually punctuated by sax background music. The stereotyped characters that I had enjoyed any years ago only annoy now, and Josie's lines when she returned to the show during the big 'shout' made a roomful of viewers laugh with embarrassment.Best remembered and not re-watched - you may spoil your memories.

London's Burning was a mainstay of ITV's Sunday night scheduling during the late 80's and 90's. The series emerged from the TV film written by the late and great Jack Rosenthal and followed a group of fire fighters belonging to Blue Watch at London's Blackwall fire station.Initially the series kept a lot of Rosenthal's influence. The humour was lively with station pranks and the loves and lives of the watch being the backbone of the series. In between all this were the fires and other shouts which helped to highlight the diverse work of the fire brigade as their role has changed over the shows lifespan. A few dark moments relating to death or injury of the fire fighters or victims put a dark edge on the show which helped to prevent it from becoming a farce and the whole package made for extremely addictive viewing.Sadly the last few series beginning in 2000 started the downward spiral. By 2000, most of the original cast had left as they had become disillusioned with the writing or wanted to pursue other opportunities before they became typecast. Their replacements were usually dour characters that had plenty of personal baggage and the humorous aspects were replaced by deep thoughts and crisis in relationships. ITV also tried to increase the number of episodes per year whilst reducing the budget which diminished the number of spectacular fires that the brigade would attend in a series and it became more of a soap rather than the refreshing series that it had been when it first started.Eventually around 2001 the series was axed and it has now been replaced by Steel River Blues which has all the promise to be like London's Burning was in the early days.