The Sycamore Gap Documentary on Ch4

[RobynRB]

I get that this was upsetting for people, but this documentary is ridiculous. It's almost like it's been done as a piss take...

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/dec/03/the-sycamore-gap-mystery-review-so-bad-it-should-be-charged-for-criminal-damage-to-your-intellect

Oh god, I thought it was just me.

I was interested in the case, but fuck me, it was so boring! I gave up after twenty minutes.

It's just a bloody tree and a Sycamore tree at that. Bloody invasive menace in this country and I laughed when I saw it had been chopped down. But it still won't die. It's a twat of a tree.
I would have been happier if they had replaced it with an Oak tree.
All the bloody awful shit going on right now and they make a two hour documentary about someone chopping down a fucking tree.
I haven't watched it but I will raise a glass to the two splendid chaps who chopped it down.

What’s wrong with a sycamore tree? @Redrosesposies

There was a lot of filler. It could have been done in 20 mins. It also wasn’t “hundreds of years old”, they actually said it was 130 years old, and it was n’t famous until Kevin Costner came along.

A sycamore isn't native (although they’ve been here a good few hundred years) they support very little wildlife, something like 30 species of insects compared to 300 on an oak tree. They seed everywhere and grow like weeds which is why i consider them a menace - I’m constantly pulling up saplings in my garden. They grow really fast, make pretty useless timber, not even good firewood.

A local village to us has had one of the sycamore gap seedlings to plant with great fanfare…would have been so much better if they'd planted an oak or a beech or an ash, but then the local paper wouldn’t have come and taken a picture of the councillors so…😜

Apparently the bit the trunk they’ve put in the visitors near by is mouldy.

Well I made it through both parts, quietly marvelling at the over dramatic reactions, especially the guy with the laptop who looked a bit like Michael MacIntire... I was barely functioning, I was in full on grief. Oh do behave. It's a tree. Some rapists get less than 4 years and yet it wasn't enough? Seriously.

It does make me laugh when I see people fawning over the saplings. As pp said, they grow like weeds, it's really nothing special.

An oak or something would have been much better.

Sycamores are prone to a Sooty bark fungus (that may not be correct name, DH isn't here to ask) which basically looks like soot/mold. A disease specific to the Acer family. It’s highly toxic to human lungs…Much better off with a lovely Oak!

The guys were massive twats, its was a beautiful tree etc..

But it was hardly the crime of the century.

I couldn't find any directly comparable images of how big the tree was when the film was made and just before it was felled, but these give some idea of how much the tree had grown in 30 years or so. It was quite scrubby when KC was there.

I know he's standing on the dyke but you can see the fork of the tree is much nearer the ground than in the proposal photo.

I agree with the comments regarding sycamore trees in general, we are unlucky enough to have inherited one with a TPO on it, and yes spend all year pulling up the bleeping saplings🤬
I have total contempt for brainless vandalism though, it says everything about a persons worth, that they feast off destroying the harmless joy of others.
Having read the comments on here regarding the documentary about the destruction of the tree, I am so glad I followed my gut reaction to the blurb on it and gave it a wide berth!

I’ve just watched this and honestly the people weeping over it are making me wonder if anything bad has ever happened to them in their life!
obviously I don’t agree it was chopped down but the reaction is crazy… it’s also not a 999 worthy incident in my opinion.