''BBC Four Goes Slow'' is a series of

slow television Slow television, or slow TV (), is a genre of "marathon" television coverage of an ordinary event in its complete length. Its name is derived both from the long endurance of the broadcast as well as from the natural slow pace of the television pro ...

programmes made for

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

, each without

narration Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

underscore An underscore or underline is a line drawn under a segment of text. In proofreading, underscoring is a convention that says "set this text in italic type", traditionally used on manuscript or typescript as an instruction to the printer. Its ...

. The channel's editor, Cassian Harrison, stated that the series is an "antidote ... to the conventional grammar of television in which everything gets faster and faster". Similarities have been drawn between the series and the Norwegian trend of slow TV programmes.

Programmes

''National Gallery: A Film by Frederick Wiseman''

Wiseman's film originally aired in December 2014. It is a three-hour tour of London's

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

, with no voiceover, underscore or sound effects.

''Dawn Chorus: The Sounds of Spring''

''Dawn Chorus: The Sounds of Spring'' is an hour-long composite recording of

birdsong Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs (often simply ''birdsong'') are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs (relatively complex vocalization ...

at sunrise in

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

. The programme was made from three consecutive days' recording in three different locations. The programme has no voiceover or commentary, save for a few captions of historical information.

''Handmade''

''Handmade'' is a three-episode part of the series, and focuses on the production of three objects—''Handmade: Glass'' documents the blowing and shaping of glass to create a jug, ''Handmade: Metal'' shows a bladesmith using a forge to make a knife, and ''Handmade: Wood'' sees a whittler create a wooden chair.

''All Aboard! The Canal Trip''

''All Aboard! The Canal Trip'' is a two-hour

narrowboat A narrowboat is a particular type of Barge, canal boat, built to fit the narrow History of the British canal system, locks of the United Kingdom. The UK's canal system provided a nationwide transport network during the Industrial Revolution, b ...

journey along the

Kennet and Avon Canal The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of , made up of two lengths of Navigability, navigable river linked by a canal. The name is used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than sol ...

from Bath Top Lock (lock 13) to the

Dundas Aqueduct Dundas Aqueduct () is an aqueduct in England which carries the Kennet and Avon Canal over the River Avon (the Somerset / Wiltshire border) and the Wessex Main Line railway. The aqueduct is near Monkton Combe, Somerset, and is about south-east ...

. The episode features visual information but no spoken commentary.

''All Aboard! The Sleigh Ride''

''All Aboard! The Sleigh Ride'' is a two-hour real-time

reindeer The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...

sleigh ride with

Sami people Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

filmed in

Karasjok Municipality or (Northern Sami language, Northern Sami; ) (also: ) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Finnmark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Karasjok (village), village of Kara ...

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. It aired on 24 December 2015. It was repeated on 24 December 2016 and on 16 December 2017. The programme features two Sami women in traditional dress leading three reindeer, each with a sleigh, across the tundra following a traditional reindeer postal route from the village of

Karasjok Karasjok is a Norwegianized version of the Northern Sami name Kárášjohka. Either one may refer to the following places: * Karasjok Municipality or (Northern Sami language, Northern Sami; ) (also: ) is a List of municipalities of Norway, ...

north-westward to the sea, crossing frozen lakes and birch woodland, and encountering dog sleds, ice fishermen and other nomadic Sami people. The programme covers a two-hour period, over which time the light fades and the way is lit by flaming torches. The two Sami reindeer herders are Charlotte Iselin Mathisen and Anne-Louise Gaup.

''All Aboard! The Country Bus''

A two-hour bus ride along the Swaledale valley in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

was broadcast on the bank holiday of 29 August 2016. The route 830 Dalesman bus operated by

Arriva North East Arriva North East operates both local and regional bus services in County Durham, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus, which operates bus and coach services across the United Kingdom. ...

, travels from

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

in the east to Ingleton in the west via the

Yorkshire Dales National Park The Yorkshire Dales National Park is a national park in England which covers most of the Yorkshire Dales, the Howgill Fells, and the Orton Fells. The Nidderdale area of the Yorkshire Dales is not within the national park, and has instead ...

. In the journey the bus passes through Grinton, Reeth,

Muker Muker is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the western end of Swaledale in North Yorkshire, England, within the Yorkshire Dales. The parish includes the hamlets and villages of Angram, Muker, Angram, Keld, North Yorkshire ...

, Buttertubs Pass,

Hawes Hawes is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, at the head of Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales, and historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The River Ure north of the town is a tourist attraction in the Yorks ...

Ribblehead Ribblehead is the area of moorland at the head of the River Ribble in the area known as Ribblesdale, in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, England. Ribblehead is most notable for Ribblehead railway station and Ribblehead Viaduct on the S ...

and Chapel-le-Dale. This episode of the series was the most popular with nearly a million viewers watching it at its peak with an average of 800,000 viewers, overtaking Channel 5 and a Film 4 showing of '' The Bourne Legacy''.

''All Aboard!''

After the initial season of programmes were broadcast, two more long-form televisual journeys were added to the ''All Aboard!'' strand on BBC Four. The first was ''All Aboard! The Great Reindeer Migration'' on 24 December 2018, with the second, ''All Aboard! New Zealand by Rail, Sea and Land'', being broadcast on 19 January 2020. The first journey followed Sami herders over 160 miles as they crossed Norway’s Finnmark region to Kvaloya Fala with their reindeer. The New Zealand programme followed the Northern Explorer train from Auckland to Wellington on the North Island, The Tranz Alpine service from Christchurch to Greymouth on the South Island with a road journey from Greymouth to Milford Sound/Piopiotahi being the last part of the South Island journey, with the programme ending aboard a boat at sea.

Reception

Michael Hogan, writing for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

's'' website, gave the series a 2/5 rating, describing it as "hypnotic", implying it is relaxing. A review for ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' said that the programmes were "oddly absorbing" and "soothing". Viewers took to social media to comment on the programme, with differing opinions; some described it as "the most boring TV show ever", and others "a proper elevisionprogramme".

References

{{reflist, 30em BBC television documentaries 2015 British television series debuts 2016 British television series endings Kennet and Avon Canal Slow television British English-language television shows