Meet the stars of the new documentary going behind the scenes on the Tyne and Wear Metro

The first episode of four-part documentary Metro: A Rail Life Story went out on ITV at 7.30pm last night, Tuesday January 14, and showed how the system coped with thousands of people using Metro to get the Spice Girls concert at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light.

Three of the stars of the series have spoken of their pride at appearing on the show.

Customer Services Manager Alan Taylor said: “It was an amazing experience to be involved in. I think the whole place has a buzz about it now that the documentary is about to go out. I hope that our customers enjoy watching it.

“Everything about the whole experience was really rewarding.”

Lynne Dickinson, a Metro Station Delivery Manager, said: “Hopefully the viewers will get to see a good variety of what we do across Metro.

“The programme takes in quite a few different departments. It’s not just what people do from day to day when you come into a station. It’s also the staff behind the scenes that get the Metro ready for service.

“The documentary is a good opportunity for people to see what our staff have to do when we manage major events.”

Researcher Dave Wilson said: “I did a bit of singing and dancing with the fans on the way down to the concert. It was great fun. I loved it.

“I just wanted to get everyone into the spirit of the night and I thought I would get the bull by the horns and sing some Spice Girls songs. I sang ‘Mama’ and ‘Spice up your Life’.

“Being part of the TV documentary was a new challenge for me. I have worked for Nexus for a long time and I really wanted to be a part of this. I was previously in Metro the musical, so this was the next step for me.”

The series for ITV is the first commission for Leeds based production company Wise Owl Films, a Lime Pictures company that launched in 2018.