| Genre: | Factual |
| Director: | Rob McCabe |
| Narrated: | John Thomson |
| Composer: | Miguel d'Oliveira |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Num Series: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 3 |
| List Episodes: |
|
| Producer: | Emma Love |
| Runtime: | 60 minutes |
| Company: | Avalon Group |
The Crane Gang is a British documentary television series that first broadcast on BBC Two on 22 September 2013. The final episode aired on 6 October 2013.
The first episode attracted 1.24 million viewers on BBC Two. It was watched by 4.5% of television viewers during its broadcast.[2] Overnight figures show that the second episode was watched by 925,000 people, with an audience share of 3.7%.[3] The final episode received 992,000 viewers and a 4.0% share of the audience.[4]
Time Out gave the series two stars out of five and noticed a move towards documenting working lives recently (Ice Road Truckers, The London Markets and The Call Centre have been broadcast recently).[5] Jane Rackman of Radio Times called it "terrific viewing for fans of shows like Monster Moves – and there are as many characters as on Ice Road Truckers - while the sight of a German construction fair bristling with gigantic cranes is simply astounding."[6] The Daily Telegraph named it in an article about terrible television shows and said: "The hi-viz crane jockeys of Manchester’s Ainscough Crane Hire are no doubt very good at their jobs, and if you ever want a wind turbine or a Barbara Hepworth moving from A to B, they’d definitely be the people to call. But are their day-to-day lives truly deserving of their own TV showcase? Only if you’re Alan Partridge."[7]