This is the kind of ballsy programming that the BBC used to have a pedigree for, and exactly what they should be providing now.

Welcome to another episode of WHY TF IS THIS IN MY RECOMMENDED?!?!

Who in their right mind just pops into central London for a scarf?

2003: the day Britain stopped

So for context, this was made during the era of Railtrack, which was when the infrastructure manager for the British railway network was privatised for a brief time and promptly driven into the ground at the expense of the infrastructure not being maintained properly at all. This resulted in the Southall rail crash in 1997, the Ladbroke Grove rail crash in 1999, the Hatfield crash in 2000 and Potters Bar in 2002 amongst other things, so this sort of scenario was actually a lot more likely than modern people might think at the time. Sometime in 2002-2003, Railtrack was renationalised as Network Rail.

Holy shit.

FFS I can’t believe that it actually took me 1hr 9 mins to realise that this isn’t real!!

This is terrifyingly well made, in the lead up to the plane crash I actually felt sick with what I was realising was going to happen. As soon as the father said bye to his family on that bus I knew what was going to happen to them and I actually had to pause it for a while

Why has this documentary made me sad about something that hasn't even happened?

The actors in this documentary are absolutely brilliant. They really managed to make it feel just so close to realistic. Like the emotions from the woman describing her husband pilot being on the wrong flight at 1:12:00 . And especially the transport ministers subtle inflections at the word "delay" at 1:04:55 conveyed so much. As if he was making some kind of mockery of the traffic controllers ability, just a hint of not really taking the situation seriously and perhaps hinting at blame to another party.

I like how this film demonstrates that major disasters don’t have one big cause, they’re a result of many small things going wrong (that independently wouldn’t have been a big problem but with all the others are a serious problem) in the correct sequence to cause the disaster.

What about every time England gets more than 2 inches of snow and they close the airports, the highways, and the rail system and the public panic cannibalism begins after 6 hours?

The cast of this are absolutely amazing in how convincing they are in their acting. Even though you know it isn't real it still feels heartbreaking at times. Pretty much identical to real documentaries such as the seconds from disaster series.

These actors are REALLY good at playing convincing interviewees.

The day Britain stopped... is every time it snows...