Morning:
20°c
Johnny Depp has become, in his young middle age, like a star of the movies’ golden period
Don't panic ... it's only the latest disaster movie
By Valentine Low, Evening Standard 27.07.07The Houses of Parliament lie half submerged after the Thames breaks its banks.
Where once were London's streets and parks, now there is just one vast waterway.
London after the latest rain? Relax - it's only a movie, and this is an image from new film, Flood, about what happens when a colossal tidal surge overwhelms the Thames Barrier.
Starring Robert Carlyle, Tom Courtenay and David Suchet, the film is based on a novel by Richard Doyle. The book imagines how events might unfold when a raging storm coincides with heavy seas.
Torrents of water pour into the city and the lives of millions of Londoners are put at risk.
Carlyle plays a marine engineer, Rob, who with his exwife Sam (Jessalyn Gilsig) and father Leonard (Courtenay) has only hours to save the city. The book - published in 2003 - describes how thousands die and millions are left homeless.
According to Mr Doyle, it is not a question of whether such a disaster could befall the city, but when. He believes that the Thames Barrier is obsolete and should be replaced by a larger one at Tilbury. However, the
Environment Agency dismissed it as nonsense, saying: "It may make for a good read but it is not good science."
The film's producers, Justin Bodle and Peter McAleese, said they had tried to beat the big Hollywood disaster movies at their own game - but with a distinctly British approach.
Related articles
More
Reader views (3)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
So, either the "marine engineer" fails in his efforts to save the city, because as the picture shows, London gets flooded, or, he wastes part of the "hours" he has to save the city making a mock-up of how the city will look flooded, to scare the authorities into doing something before the remaining hours are up and it's all too late. Either way, I don't think I'll bother now.
- Md, London
Looks like a typical Summer's day this year!
- Squiz, Islington
Hang on a minute a few questions here!
Building barriers is one thing, but doesn't water in great quantities find its way around blockades flooding surrounding areas?
We need to be convinced that a larger barrier wouldn’t be counter active! Wouldn’t the volume of water involved in a freak storm surge with the energy driving it; find its way around any obstacle and filter back into the Thames further upstream, by the way aren’t we sitting on a water table which would slow down the drainage of receding water?
How do we know this is not good science when we are told by so called experts that we still don’t know for certain how climate change is affected by human activity as well as natural processes past, present and in the future? Any offers?
- John O'Rourke, London South West
