Whitnash man celebrates success of his BBC2 documentary

Lee Reading, who now lives in East London, grew up in Whitnash and studied media and film at Stratford College.

Lee developed, filmed, directed and produced “The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway: The Final Countdown” series over three years.

The two-part documentary follows the team of more than ten thousand engineers and construction workers as they race to build a brand new railway under London – Crossrail – London’s new Underground.

Costing fifteen billion pounds, it’s the biggest engineering project in Europe.

Lee said: “I was born and raised in Whitnash and studied media and film at Stratford College, where my passion for television production was encouraged.

“There’s a small but talented pool of film, TV and radio talent in Warwickshire - and the Midlands as a whole - and I’d love to see that grow.

“I’ve been directing/producing for seven years but this was the first time I had worked on a project with an extended timeframe (three years), which is quite unusual in television .

“Normally, we’d develop, shoot and edit a programme in a matter of months.

“This was also my first series producing credit.

“The documentary series looks at a £15 billion construction project based in London, which relies on skilled engineers and materials from all over the country including the Midlands.

“The train / rolling stock was built on a site in Derby with 140 years of train building history. The series also followed a third and fourth generation train building family as they raced to build 66 trains.”

The series was broadcast on BBC2 May 22 and May 29.

Lee said: “The first episode of ‘The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway: The Final Countdown’ achieved astounding viewing figures.

“It won the Monday evening slot with 3.4million viewers and was BBC2’s highest rated show of the year.

“It also smashed the channel’s 1.7million slot average for the past 12 months.

“Episode two received 2.4 million viewers – which we’re very pleased about as it went up against Corbyn Vs May debate.”

‘The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway: The Final Countdown’ is available on BBC Iplayer.