THE makers of a two-hour TV programme in which viewers will be taken on an two-hour, uninterrupted bus journey through the Yorkshire Dales have denied it will be like "watching paint dry".

The show, to be screened on BBC4, has been commissioned on the back of increasingly popular "slow TV", a phenomenon triggered by a Norwegian broadcaster screening a voyage around the country's fjords.

Other slow TV shows - billed as an an antidote to the digital age - broadcast recently by the channel which are said to have been ratings hits include one in which James May reconstructed a lawnmower, a year-long study of an ancient oak tree and journeys on a canal and a sleigh.

Viewers of All Aboard! The Country Bus, a screening date for which has yet to be announced, will ride on the Northern Dalesman Richmond to Ingleton service, which runs on Sundays and bank holidays from May to the end of September.

Mounted camera will capture scenes on the bus's 40-mile route, passing through the Swaledale villages of Grinton, Reeth, Gunnerside, Muker and Keld, before travelling over the Buttertubs Pass to Hawes and then on to Ribblehead and Ingleton.

To add interest, the cameras will also eavesdrop on chats between passengers, while captions detailing facts about the area will be shown on landscape shots.

According to the Dalesman's timetable, the route is scheduled to take two hours, but the programme's makers say viewers may not see it arriving at Ingleton, as passengers getting on and off may delay the service.

Cassian Harrison, editor of BBC4, said: “The route is saturated with history and filled with stories, and there’s nothing like a nice bumpy bus ride going uphill and over dale. It will be a beautiful thing to watch, the best guided bus tour you could ever have.

"This programme promises to be another very special treat; an opportunity to sit back and appreciate the sights and sounds of the beautiful Yorkshire Dales in a rich and absorbing antidote to the frenetic pace of modern life.”

“There will be knowledge and enlightenment in there, it’s not just watching paint dry.”

Viv Hardwick, TV critic for The Northern Echo, said: "There will always be a market for slow TV, but not in my house.

"If it's supposed to be escapism, what are viewers escaping from by going over the Buttertubs Pass on a bus? It's not exactly Bonnie and Clyde."

Possible slow TV programmes in the region

  • Snails racing over the Great North Run course
  • Darlington librarians re-categorising books
  • Richmond bell-ringers performing a full peal
  • Solo fly-fishing in the River Tees
  • Following sheep grazing in a Swaledale hay meadow