Great Western Coffee Shop

From tvguide.co.uk:

Channel 4
8:00pm-9:00pm (1 hour ) Mon 30 Nov

During its nine-month-long season, the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express makes over 60 journeys, covering 150,000 kilometres, with the majority of trips between London and Venice. The train is comprised of 17 unique 1920s carriages that have transported a host of elite individuals across Italy, Switzerland, and Turkey for more than a century. This documentary follows the stories of the staff and passengers as the train makes its way across Europe, with some customers having paid more than ^2,000 for the privilege.

Recording set! I used to enjoy seeing the carriages at Bedminster station every Friday, long ago. I think it got washed when the train wash was by the bridge in St Lukes Road.

Hmmm... not the best effort by the producers in my opinion. I think it's adequate to be told once that passengers have to share a toilet and the screws in the wood match the direction of the grain.

As a general insight it was OK, but I felt it lacked depth. Perhaps they could have included a few more shots of the places they went through.

Seemed to focus mainly on the personalities rather than the train/journey?

Yes, there was a fair bit on the general manager, for example. I would say it had the opposite problem of the latest continental versions of Portillo's railway journeys, where he seems to spend more time chatting to the locals and "having a go" at doing something than on the stations/trains (though the last one in Spain I thought was excellent, just for the scenery). I'd rather just see the professional doing what they do best than an amateur quite often making a fist of it (Countryfile tend to use that format a fair bit as well).