television

Exciting new material about the filming of ‘The Persuaders’ TV series has been uncovered in the Archives of the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust (based at the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon, near Warwick) during a major re-cataloguing project. ‘The Persuaders’ celebrates its 40th Anniversary having debuted on British TV in September 1971. The stars of the show were Sir Roger Moore and the late Tony Curtis, who drove an Aston Martin DBS and a Ferrari Dino 246 GT respectively. Sir Roger Moore was re-united with the actual Aston Martin DBS used at a recent event, to commemorate the anniversary and the release of the series on Blu-ray DVD. Photographs, film production records and correspondence relating to this classic Seventies TV series have come to light in the personal collection of the late Roger Stowers. Roger Stowers worked at Aston […]

As the new season of Top Gear starts, you can almost feel the excitement on the wires. Well, maybe I exaggerate a bit, but people really are eagerly awaiting the new season of their favorite car show. As proof, check out the new fansite dedicated to Top Gear at site www.topgearshow.com. With subject ranging from the recent Stig reveal controversy to the reviewed cars themselves, there is a ton of good information on the site. (Let’s just hope they devote a nice section to Oliver, my favorite car from the show.) They are trying to create the ultimate fan site that is dedicated to classic moments of May, Clarkson and Hammond, so stop by and take a look. And don’t forget to tune in to Top Gear!

There’s an official-looking horizontal line about 3ft off the ground as you enter the new exhibition at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. The notice alongside says: YOU MUST BE THIS TALL (to be bigger than Richard Hammond). And that sets the tone for the World Of Top Gear section that opened last week, coinciding with the start of a new series of Top Gear today (June 21st). The motoring programme has a huge following in 80 countries but this will be the only place in the world where you can see some of the vehicles that featured in Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May’s best-known stunts. Cars such as the Reliant Robin Space Shuttle, Suzuki Swift that played ice-hockey and Toyota Hilux driven to the North Pole are almost TV stars in their own right and are expected […]

One man… stripped of everything he owns and challenged to just buy British… Join award-winning television comedian Dom Joly on an epic road trip around Britain in an attempt to fill his house from top to bottom with British-made products in the brand new series Made In Britain. As part of this unique experiment, Dom will have his family home turned upside down and stripped of everything he owns that’s not made in the UK. He’s then challenged to go on a remarkable shopping trip, travelling the length and breadth of the country to try and replace all his foreign goods with British-made products. Before the inspectors arrive, Dom’s quaint country cottage in the Cotswolds is a safe haven for foreign merchandise: the Italian coffee machine, a television manufactured in Japan and pants made in Taiwan. In no time at […]

He won 66 grands prix and was runner-up for the world championship four times in his brief racing career. Sir Stirling Moss is a motor sport legend — so who better to narrate a British TV series on car racing? Roary the Racing Car may not be the type of story Moss is used to telling, but the 78-year-old says he has had a lot of fun being the voice-over man for the new children’s show. “My agent called me, about two years ago, I think it was, and asked if I wanted to narrate a kids’ show,” he says. “At first I thought they (the kids) won’t even know who I am, they don’t know my name as the show is aimed at kids who are two to six years old. But he said their grandparents would hear (my) […]

What’s this, more British anthropomorphisation of mechanical objects, a la Thomas the Tank Engine and Tiny Robots? What’s with the fetish for talking metal? Must be a boarding school thing. Roary, the Racing Car focuses on Roary, a small, cheeky, zippy, red racing car, and all his friends at the race track. I suppose it was entertaining, in a Boy’s Own sort of way. There’s a lot of color and movement, competition, going fast and stuff but where are the princesses, the mermaids, the fairies? Entertaining? Yeah, if you’re a boy.