The Telly Addicts Hall Of Fame–London’s Burning 1988-2002

Back on the 7th December 1986 ITV broadcast a 2 hour TV movie about a fictional London Fire Brigade, entitled London's Burning. That TV movie went onto become a hit series that ran for 14 years between 1988 and 2002.

     So what makes London's Burning worthy of entry into The Telly Addicts Hall Of Fame? Well at it’s height it regularly received 17 million viewers. In fact it’s record was a figure of 18.86 million for the final episode of series 4. That episode dealt with a spectacular 20 pump warehouse fire. Although the series became reliant on the big disasters, it also dealt with the human side of being a fire-fighter. The characters often suffered from Post Traumatic Stress as a result of ‘the job’. Their wives and husbands also suffered as a result of the dangerous job their other halves did.

     Despite the drama that being a fire fighter entailed, there was still quite a lot of humour within the show. In fact for the first 3 series it was treated as a Black Comedy. It was at the end of the 4th series that a huge climax was planned. The climax was a huge warehouse fire which ended with one of the fire-fighters being trapped under a collapsed wall. This episode is the one which drew the record audience figure for the entire shows run.

     Because of those record breaking figures it became part of the series to have one major disaster per series. These included such things as a collapsing fairground ride like in series 5. Despite the strong ratings the series began to wane in the mid nineties with figures falling below 16 million. It was for this reason that the shows producer, Paul Knight, decided to introduce a real shock into the show by killing off one of the shows main characters at the beginning of series 9. The character was to be Sub Officer John Hallam who had been with the show from the beginning. He fell 80ft from a gantry while recuing some girls from a warehouse fire. This event and the subsequent fallout helped to get London's Burning back on track. Series 9 is widely regarded as the shows best series.

     After series 9, budget cuts meant that the show began to explore the home lives of the fire-fighters more. This essentially sounded the death knell for the show and despite managing another 4 series, London's Burning was cancelled in 2002. The last episode was broadcast on 25th August 2002.

    I’m going to finish off with a clip from the show and that huge shock at the beginning of series 9 in which John Hallam died.