London's Burning (1986)
London's Burning is a British television drama programme produced by London Weekend Television for the ITV network that focused on the lives of members of the London Fire Brigade, principally those of the Blue Watch at a fictional fire station called Blackwall. It was broadcast between 1988 and 2002 in the United Kingdom and was shown in Canada on digital television station CBC Country Canada. In the UK, Discovery's entertainment channel, DMAX have also shown repeats of the later series, mainly 11 through 14.
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Episode 1 - Episode 1
Release Date: 1991-09-29A light aircraft carrying two businessmen crashes into a warehouse. In the process it breaks in half and sets fire to a lorry. When Blue Watch arrive, they are faced with the problem of how to make the plane safe enough to reach the two passengers, one of whom is seriously injured, as well as the dead pilot. The solution is to raise the fuselage on a giant airbag. Acting Station Officer Hallam is being interviewed for promotion. His wife Sandra feels sufficiently confident to order a new kitchen on the basis of his increased salary. Clare and her children moves in with Bayleaf and Malcolm has found a new lodger to help out with the mortgage - a classy law student called Helen. Sicknote decides to run as the Green candidate in the local elections. Dozy Colin misreads an address of a hotel fire and sends Hallam and the pump to the wrong place. Luckily it is a hoax call but Colin's probationary period is extended for three months. George's girlfriend Kelly tells him she's pregnant and invites him to a party to meet her family but a stunned George finds its their engagement that everyone is celebrating!
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Episode 2 - Episode 2
Release Date: 1991-10-06A basement recording session turns to disaster when a frying pan catches fire near a sleeping roadie. In the soundproof booths, no-one can hear the fire alarm until one of the technicians opens a door and is confronted by a blazing corridor. To make matters worse, the fire-door has been locked to keep the groups fans out. Four bodies are brought out. Hallam has done a good job but he has not gained full promotion. Sandra takes the news badly and in a bid to cheer Hallam up, Bayleaf volunteers the boys to install the new kitchen. But Sandra is left with a large hole in the wall when the lads forget to order the right size window. George remains sober on his his stag night. At the reception, one of Kelly's drunken relatives slags off the Fire Brigade and George flattens him. Then in the honeymoon suite, George gets his big surprise...... Kelly may not be pregnant. Meanwhile, Sicknote is elected to the council.
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Episode 3 - Episode 3
Release Date: 1991-10-13The arrival of new Station Officer Nick Georgiadis ruffles a lot of feathers. A strict disciplinarian, he finds fault with the appearance, sloppy practices and conduct of everyone from Hallam down. The atmosphere is hostile. Relief comes in the form of a shout to a sewer where three men lay injured by a gas explosion. Two had gone upstream to repair a fault but gas started to fill the sewer chamber. The noise from their work prevented them from hearing the gas detector. The result is that the pair are pinned under rubble while the third has a severe headwound. Under Nick's impressive command, Blue Watch free the trio. Afterwards, Nick has words with Hallam about their professional relationship and at home Sandra's constant nagging about the kitchen doesn't make Hallam a happy man. Kevin becomes involved in a brawl with his sisters boyfriend Rick and at the next roll call, Nick sends the battered and bruised Kevin home.
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Episode 4 - Episode 4
Release Date: 1991-10-20When an elderly couple try to put out a fire in their old couch, young neighbour Zoe ends up calling the Fire Brigade. Mabel refuses to leave without her pet budgie and Colin, who takes a shine to Zoe, volunteers to rescue it. As Colin tries to resuscitate the dead bird, he gives it a blast of air from his BA and sends the corpse through an open window. To Mabel and Zoe waiting outside, it looks like the bird has flown away. Colin is Zoe's hero and so he asks her out. The pump is sent on standby into the Kent countryside and dispite getting stuck in a mud field, assist in fighting a barn blaze. Attempting to remove a valuable tractor from the inferno, George merely succeeds in demolishing half of the barn. Councillor Sicknote has started holding surgeries in his living room. Beseiged by pensioners, Jean gets tired with every cup of tea, until a drunk Irishman comes in vomiting, mistaking it for a doctors surgery.
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Episode 5 - Episode 5
Release Date: 1991-10-27Bringing a party of young children to London for the day, a coach driver id distracted by their antics and has to swerve through the central crash barrier to avoid a car. The coach plunges down an embankment, leaving the driver, a teacher and one boy dead, with others screaming in pain. Rejoining the Watch is Recall, so named for his photgraphic memory, while Colins chosen venue for his date with Zoe is a home game at Millwall FC. He can't understand why she doesn't answer the phone the next day. Blue Watch are called out to a gruesome accident in a block of flats where a youth is decapitated after mucking about with his mate on the roof of the lift. The blood-soaked body is discovered at the bottom of the lift shaft. kevin reveals his feelings for Marion three, but finds she is still seeing Technique. Drunk and upset, he turns up at Nick's birthday party, held at Uncle Demitri's restaurant. Kevin tries to pick up Nick's teenage sister but becomes abusive. Nick sees it as a family insult and floors Kevin with a right hander.
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Episode 6 - Episode 6
Release Date: 1991-11-03Two boys break into a boat moored in a marina and take out the cooking gas cylinder to sniff it. Alerted by an alarm, a security guard goes to investigate. One youth escapes, but the other is still sniffing when the guard turns on the light, causing a huge explosion. When the Watch arrive, several boats are on fire. Kevin spots the security guard in the freezing water and dives in without a line. Nick then has to dive in to rescue Kevin and see the mutilated body of the second youth floating alongside them. George learns that he is going to be a father but Nick is fed up with the constant pressure for him to marry cousin Ariadne. Colin and his uncle Jaffa taje their revenge on Technique who has sold them a dud window-cleaning round. Marion finally realises Technique is a rat and tries to make it up with Kevin. When he won't have anything to do with her, she takes pills and vodka and is rushed to hospital.
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Episode 7 - Episode 7
Release Date: 1991-11-10A City yuppie, much the worse for drinking, drops his filofax on the track at a London Undergound station. Amazingly he climbs down to retrieve that scattered contents - in the path of an incoming train. Blue Watch arrive to find the man still alive and free him by jacking the carriage up. Riddled with the guilt at her suicide attempt, Kevin visits Marion. They patch it up and agree that Kevin should move in. Kate is getting dis-enchanted with Jeff, the fireman she met in Kent, but passes her end-of-probation exam. A hotel goes up in flames, leaving guests screaming for help from upstairs windows. Inside, Colin risks his life to save a colleague. Nick is suspicious about the hotel's safety and, on confronting the manager, discovers that alterations made since the building's fire certificate was issued had turned the place into a death trap. And when a constituent chains herself to Sicknote's railings, he decides he's had enough of being a Councillor.
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Episode 8 - Episode 8
Release Date: 1991-11-17A builder uses a pneumatic drill in an attempt to clear a load of duff cement from the drum of his lorry before it sets. But a massive lump of concrete crashes onto him, trapping him. His young son, playing nearby, calls the Brigade who realises that he has to be got out quickly before more concrete falls down. Just as he is released, he dies. Touched to learn that Recalls son Jamie has cystic fibrosis, Bayleaf has organised the Watch to take part in a charity pram race to raise enough money for the family to go to Disneyworld. It is a great success, raising over £1,000 and Maggie's daughter has managed to get free tickets for the flight to Florida. nick decides the Watch should go on a trip to Boulogne which he leaves Sicknote to organise. George has to fight off the attentions of Kelly's mum who tries to seduce him!
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Episode 9 - Episode 9
Release Date: 1991-11-24There is a surge of excitement when news of a massive warehouse fire comes through on the teleprinter. The scale of the incident is getting bigger all the time and Nick, Kate and recall are send into a basement to find the night security man. Josie and two other members of Charlton Blue Watch are back up. The security man is found on the second floor and Nick's team are called back. but as they return, an explosion rips through the the basement where Recall is pinned by a huge wooden beam with his air supply running low. At ground level, Bayleaf locates a hydrant under a lorry. He succeeds in attaching a standpipe to the hydrant by crawling underneath a lorry but needs Hallam's help to turn it on. Suddenly the building collapses burying the two under an avalanche of rubble. Meanwhile, Josie's team have reached Nick, Kate and Recall and give them much needed air. At last the vibraphone locates life in the rubble, Hallam is dragged out alive but Bayleaf is still missing.
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Episode 10 - Episode 10
Release Date: 1991-12-01The warehouse shout continues and a tabloid journalist worms her way into Sandra's kitchen where the anxious wives and girlfriends have gathered. Clare, who's late fireman husband died on duty, faints when she is told bayleaf is missing presumed dead. At the shout, nearly all personnel is involved with clearing the rubble, with Blue Watch and Josie working frantically. At last, the vibraphone picks up something under the lorry and Kevin and Colin crawl under to jack up the lorry. they find Bayleaf unconscious but alive and drag him out to waiting paramedics. In hospital, Bayleaf has a head injury and a broken leg. Hallam is suffering real traumas. Sandra says he is cracking up and hasn't kept any appointments with the Psychiatric councillor. unlike Bayleaf, he was conscious while buried. Hallam insists he is fit for work, but Nick refuses to let him back until he has had councilling. Nick leaves him sobbing in Sandra's arms.
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Episode 11 - Londons Burning, The Stunts and Stars
Release Date: 1991-12-011991 Documentary on some of the shows most explosive stunts and blazes.