The Route Masters: Running London’s Roads

Series one, episodes one
The general public are idiots. They drunkenly stroll through the Blackwall Tunnel. They try to drive from Kent to Bedford by going straight through central London. And they assume they’ll be able to use a road, even though it’s just been the scene of a helicopter crash. This is another of those increasingly frequent documentary series in which unheralded but deserving public servants – this time the good people of TfL – get a televisual pat on the back.

And if, by the end of this opening episode, you’re not reasonably grateful that there are people driving buses, coordinating farcical levels of traffic and filling in potholes in the pissing rain, then you’re probably Jeremy Clarkson. Whether or not this makes for scintillating television is another matter, however. This is perfectly watchable but, with the best will in the world, very missable too.