November, 2016
As a relative newcomer to the children’s television show Fireman Sam, here are some observations I’ve made after watching several episodes with my daughter:
- An urgent inquiry is needed into the astonishingly high number of fires and other emergency incidents in Pontypandy, whose population must be 25 at most.
- The inquiry must assess whether Fireman Sam really can be relied on to always save the day in the range of situations to which he is frequently exposed. Notwithstanding the risk of being discriminatory against small, community brigades, the inquiry must determine whether Sam’s reputation has been dangerously exaggerated due to the lack of competence and experience around him (i.e. is he simply a big fish in a small pond?), and whether this places his — and the community’s — safety at further risk.
- Questions must be asked as to why the government has poured tens of millions of pounds into state-of-the-art trucks, helicopters etc. for Pontypandy’s fire department but not delivered even the most basic fire safety education to hapless residents.
- An appropriate plan to educate the community about basic fire safety must be mapped out and implemented as soon as possible to ensure residents of Pontypandy are saved from themselves. Even if Fireman Sam is as adept at “saving the day” as purported, tragedy seems certain to strike if urgent safety measures are not taken. This would be especially likely to occur if Sam went on holiday, but might also happen if someone simply failed to “move aside [and] make way for Fireman Sam” — as the theme song instructs — before a situation spiralled beyond control.
- The inquiry must explore whether this systematic failure to educate the community has proved politically expedient for any members of parliament. For example, has reckless overspending at the Pontypandy fire department — an apparent band-aid solution to the frequency of emergency situations in the tiny town — served to consolidate a local MP’s reputation for “delivering for their electorate”?
- Finally, an intervention plan specifically for young resident Norman Price must be developed and carefully implemented before his deviant behaviour — however amusing and ultimately harmless it may seem now — descends into outright criminality and he finds himself as a permanent fixture in his country’s already overcrowded prison system.