Big Ben Does Strike 13!!
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shadokp
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Oh well, maybe it was a matter of "mad dogs and Englishmen out in the noonday sun" and they fried their brains in the heat wave...
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Mary
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It would have been more true to the episode, though, to use midnight .
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Captain Indigo
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Blue uses his radio then to get the 13 chimes - I wonder if that would have worked?
I agree with Captain Indigo - wandering around London at Midnight isn't a good idea (which is what amazed me about the CS's episode where Daddy's little girl, Victoria Gray, got kidnapped - WHY ON EARTH did the colonel let her walk home alone???) Oh, and the traffic is probably almost as bad as at midday too.
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Marion
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Marion wrote:If I remember correctly, at the end of the episode they were having a meal (and probably reeling from Melody's choice of outfit!) several floors up, across the river from Big Ben - roughly where the old GLC Building and the London Eye are now...
Blue uses his radio then to get the 13 chimes - I wonder if that would have worked?
I agree with Captain Indigo - wandering around London at Midnight isn't a good idea (which is what amazed me about the CS's episode where Daddy's little girl, Victoria Gray, got kidnapped - WHY ON EARTH did the colonel let her walk home alone???) Oh, and the traffic is probably almost as bad as at midday too.
During the video they actually called the BBC and asked if ANY of their radio stations broadcast the chimes... none did, hence the mobile/radio alternative.
I'll defer to those more knowledgable on London after dark, but I know for a fact that just about anywhere I've been at a late hour, it's been a LOT quieter than during the day. This includes midtown Manhattan after midnight -- not quiet as the grave, but significantly quieter (and still with enough "normal" people about that we didn't have to worry for our personal safety).
And don't forget that predators usually go after "prey" who are traveling alone, and then mostly on the weak, such as the elderly, drunk, single women (like Vicky ) etc. People traveling in groups are less likely to have trouble. While I can understand your concerns, IMO they're unfounded.
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Mary
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Of course, when they made 'Big Ben Strikes 13' - the BBC was using the chimes relayed from the Palace of Westminster, so I guess they assumed they always would.
When I asked if the scene at the end of the show 'would have worked' I meant : I wonder if Blue would have been able to recreate it that easily. But I guess he'd have done his homework before he started his demonstration.
While it is true that I haven't done so for some years, I used to live south of the river and work in central London and I often went to the theatre after work. Late night London is not a very nice place to be. There always seemed to be a lot of traffic about - especially near the bridges - and the bus I had to get home crossed Westminster Bridge right beneath Big Ben. It may have changed now, with the congestion charge and all...
I have to say that it has always amused me that whenever - and wherever - Spectrum take to the road, there is a remarkable absence of other traffic to be seen. Mind you, given that when they do encounter it they use the SPVs to nudge them out of the way - Captain Blue is certainly not a Knight of the Road in that respect! - so I'd imagine news like that gets around and people get off the streets.
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Marion
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Marion wrote:
I agree with Captain Indigo - wandering around London at Midnight isn't a good idea (which is what amazed me about the CS's episode where Daddy's little girl, Victoria Gray, got kidnapped - WHY ON EARTH did the colonel let her walk home alone???)
I agree too, he could at least have given here a bodyguard for the short journey i.e. Scarlet (ALMOST no one would have kidnapped her if he was around)
that's madness with a little 'm'... as in 'crazy'...
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MMK
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Of course, you could argue that the driver's suspicions would be aroused by the radio announcer starting to talk again before the chimes had finished, but that doesn't really wash: if Big Ben really WERE striking 13, the announcer wouldn't be expecting it any more than the driver, and probably would start talking too soon.
The same argument as above theoretically* applies if Big Ben were chiming 10 when the truck was three times the minimum distance; 9 when the truck was four times the minimum distance, and so on. Not only that, but the driver would have heard fourteen chimes if the car park had been twice the minimum distance and Big Ben had been chiming 12. The only clue would have been the differences in the volume of the sound that he would hear as either the first direct chime occurred, or after the final chime on the radio - but if he was still rather befuddled on account of still recovering from his injury he might not have noticed that - as indeed he didn't in the story.
Okay - you can all wake up now....
[* "Theoretically" because Big Ben might be so far away that he wouldn't actually be able to hear it anyway - just as the kids in the video clip couldn't.]
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Clya Brown
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