Trivia... A few odd little facts from the series
Beware!! May contain spoilers!
- Early drafts of Hainault had an introductory chapter which featured a ceremony launching the Department of National Security & Civil Defence, set some months before the Hainault incident. This was originally intended to introduce the Security Department to the reader. Later this awful introduction was replaced with a rather dire prologue (Viewable in the Deleted Scenes section) which in turn was duly slung out in favour of explanatory text incorporated within the opening sequence in Tracy Caverner's house.
- Hainault is the only novel in the series not to feature a major scene at the station whose name it carries.
- Green Park was the original working title for what became Waterloo which also carried the working title Westminster for a while. Green Park was used again as the working title for the fourth novel in the series which became Moor Park.
- Early draft's of Holborn had the new Transport Division's headquarters based in the office accommodation above Goodge Street station (hence the reference to '...not Goodge Street...' from the Commander when he is being recruited to the position of Divisional Commander) The location was changed to the Holborn offices when the author saw them being built whilst on one of his many trips to the model shop a few doors further up.
- The Haychester office building is in fact Chichester College of Arts, Science & Technology!
- The Holborn office building is in fact the home of the UK Government's Food Standards Agency!
- Routemaster buses were in fact withdrawn from London's route 8 in 2003 but seem to mysteriously continue in the Commander's universe, as do Southern/South Central's slam door trains which were in fact all finally retired from regular service by the end of August 2005. Westminster however is the first episode not to feature any slam door train workings.
- There was a rough draft prequel to Hainault at one time set after the Hainault incident but some years before the events of the first novel which featured the Commander when he was a junior officer. The 'work in progress' was lost in a computer glitch some years ago and may never see the light of day again.
- Tracy's identical twin sister Jennifer only came about due to an error in a very early version of Hainault that had Tracy in two places at once. The twin sister idea subsequently was developed successfully.
- The entire Euston to Waterloo chase sequence in Waterloo was written in one afternoon on the Eurostar (first class section) from Brussels to London. The seat and coach number quoted is the seat I was sitting in at the time I wrote it!
- On a similar theme, the entire sequence from the British Museum to Charing Cross in Holborn was written whilst waiting for a delayed train at Chesham on the Metropolitan Line. The usually quiet Chesham station was subsequently used as a location in Moor Park.
- Disused London Underground stations have always been a fascinating subject for the author and several appear throughout the novels. 'Holborn' features British Museum (Central Line) and Aldwych (Piccadilly) as well as disused parts of Holborn (Piccadilly Line) and Charing Cross (Jubilee Line). 'Waterloo' features Brompton Road (Piccadilly Line) and a disused part of Green Park. Moor Park passes through the former St. Mary's station on the District Line and in Westminster, the closed station at King William Street plays a pivotal part.
- Another closed railway station or rather the site of one appears in 'Haychester' with the location of the former 'Roffey Road Halt' which was between Faygate and Littlehaven on the Crawley to Horsham line appearing in one key scene.
- Moor Park is the first novel to feature a character uttering a strong expletive. As Tracy was being shot at at the time, I think we can forgive her!
- What is the Commander's name? Well if truth be told, when writing Hainault, I could not think of a suitable name so he simply became forever known as The Commander. His name was however finally revealed in Earl's Court to be Edward James Regent.
- A movie reference can be found in Moor Park. The Metropolitan Line train heading to Chesham towards the beginning of the novel has the running code 'Chesham 123', a reference to the excellent 1974 thriller The Taking of Pelham 123 about the kidnapping and ransom of a New York Subway car and its passengers.
- Another movie reference occurs in 'Embankment' with the three Security Service Thames River Division patrol vessels being named Esther, Ruth and Jennifer which are the names of the the supply ship, drilling rig and production platform in the film North Sea Hijack.
- Westminster is the first novel in the series not to feature Tracy riding a motorbike. Instead she gets to drive one of the Department's Patrol Car's through the streets of London, wrecking it as she goes. Then rather worryingly, the Commander lets her loose with an articulated single deck bus!!
- The train mentioned by its number in Westminster, Southern Class 377/4 Electrostar unit 377427 is a genuine train (Click here for a picture!) and can be found on Arun Valley services from Victoria to and from Portsmouth Harbour and Bognor Regis as depicted. Indeed the scene it appears in was written by the author while travelling on that actual unit!
- Earl's Court is the first novel in the series not to have any scene set in or indeed have any mention of London Victoria Station in it.
- Mention is made in passing in Earl's Court and more specifically in Lewisham to a secret file regarding the Commander identified only by the number 9906753, this was of course also the number of the crate in which the Ark of the Covenant was stored at the end of the Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Lewisham held the record for the longest episode in the series with 87,280 words very briefly in 2007, however its reign was short lived as Epping beat it with 91,193 just a few months later. The shortest is Moor Park at a mere 46,473.
- Future titles considered for the series include 'Bethnal Green', 'Temple', 'Charing Cross', 'Bank', 'Debden', 'Stratford' and 'Baker Street' with the last novel in the series whenever that happens likely to be called 'Morden' as it is the end of the line (Northern in this case). Titles ruled out and never likely to be used include 'Kings Cross', 'Canary Wharf' and 'Russell Square' for various reasons.
- There was at one stage an alternative ending planned for 'Leytonstone' where rather than recovering from her injuries, Tracy was actually going to pass away in the entrance of the ticket hall of Leytonstone Underground Station. After a lot of thought however I decided she was to live again for another day.
- Despite there being a long way to go for the series yet, the closing two scenes of the penultimate episode of the series (probably to be called 'St James's Park' plus the opening scenes of the very last episode (provisionally entitled 'Morden') are already in existence although it will be a good few years before these are published. The last two episodes are planned as a 'two parter' with the dramatic events at the end of the first part taking leading straight into the opening scene of the next.
GOOFS!!
- In Waterloo, Tracy goes clattering down the escalators to the Piccadilly Line platforms at Gloucester Road - Slight problem, Gloucester Road's Piccadilly Line platforms are only served by lifts!!
- In Moor Park, Roger Field reads a copy of that evenings edition of the London Evening Standard newspaper which contains an article on Tracy and the Commander's wedding earlier that day. The problem is that the wedding took place on a Saturday and the Evening Standard is only printed on weekdays!
- Also in Moor Park, the section of line at Chalfont & Latimer that marks the beginning of the Chesham Branch does not immediately curve off right as described, instead it runs parallel to the Amersham Line for a short distance, thus it would have been impossible for Robinson to observe the train curve off into the distance.
- In Victoria, for some reason Sir Richard Crowthorne was sitting in the pub having a quiet drink with his opposite number from MI6 when he was renamed for one paragraph only to Sir Richard Hawthorne! Editions subsequent to the publishing of Earl's Court correct the error but had it not been for me looking up the name of the head of MI6 for a second appearance in Earl's Court, the mistake may have gone unnoticed forever!
- Lewisham has a slight problem with the train services shown as operating in 1969. In the present day you can easily travel direct from Lewisham to London Victoria but back then, Eddie Regent's journey would actually have been impossible as the direct services all went to Charing Cross or the long since closed Holborn Viaduct.