The camera was manually undercranked to produce a fast motion film so that the journey lasted only four minutes instead of the actual time of about one hour.

[4][7] The film was made by Don Smith and the first version was narrated by David Lloyd James for an edition of BBC Television's Children's Newsreel regular weekend programme.

[note 5][16] Later, a version with a different commentary was made for the main Television Newsreel programme with a name change to Go Slow on the Brighton Line.

[5][17][18] As such it was a dramatic variation on the BBC's rather frequent "interludes" (such as the "Potter's Wheel") which were merely gap-fillers between programmes and which had a generally tranquil atmosphere.

The Brighton Belle operated using electrical multiple units running on the third-rail system previously introduced by Southern Railway.

[24] In 1982 Southern Region became the London and South Eastern sector and the following year all signal boxes were replaced by three rail operating centres.

The 1988 Thameslink project opened the way for through trains to run between Brighton and Bedford, north of London – this route does not go to Victoria but branches off to cross the River Thames at Blackfriars Railway Bridge and reaches north of London via the reopened Snow Hill tunnel.

An animated map of the route, synchronised with the 2013 film of the journey has been produced on an external website using innovative software.