Yup, the Captain Scarlet suits were a huge giveaway once you spotted them
If I still had the outfit from 1970 it would *just* about still fit me now! I remember the microphone on the hat used to drop down just like it did in the series. My mate Dean's Mum made him an Ed Straker outfit in '71, he already had the blond hair to go with it
And I still haven't forgiven my younger brother for burying my SHADO Interceptor in the garden of our first house, I never did find it...!
mab01uk wrote:Anyone remember the Mini below which occasionally featured in the CHiPs TV show (1977-1983) about the adventures of two California Highway Patrol motorcycle officers? Here in the UK as a young Mini enthusiast it was a big surprise at the time to see a Mini driving around in California on a US tv show.
I seem to remember Ponch (Erik Estrada) used to call Jon Bakers (Larry Wilcox) Mini a shoebox!
I wonder if that Mini still exists?
The bridge at Theddingworth on the old Rugby to Market Harborough line where the robbery itself was filmed is about twenty minute's drive from where I live, I've been there a few times and aside from nature slowly taking over it hasn't changed that much since 1967...
Robbery #121.jpg
PH TWRTH.jpg
Robbery #118.jpg
When I joined the footplate in '83 down at Willesden I worked with one of the drivers who was involved with the filming back in March / April '67, when the filming was finished he and the other train crews involved were treated to a nice nosh up by Stanley Baker.
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I dealt with the accident where that lovely little tweed grey cooper was written off at Sagecroft Road in Thatcham. The boys dad bought it from the film co. The bloke who sourced the cars for The Italian Job also sourced the cars for this film too
My dad was a navigator based at Graveley and Fiskerton
Shows what a small world it is Peter! Quite a few coincidences surrounding the film and the real event - in '63 when the real mail train was stopped at Bridego Bridge and robbed, the first people on the scene after the gang had fled were a Rugby based train crew working a freight along the slow line. In March '67 when the film was shot the crew manning D318 were from Rugby and between the filming sessions the loco was stabled during the day at Rugby shed. One of the crew was hospitalised briefly when he was momentarily blinded by the film crew's arc lights and fell off the cab steps in the dark. D318 still exists and is undergoing a very prolonged restoration at Tyseley Museum in Brum, one of the guys working on it is from Rugby. The loco involved in the real event D326 was notorious for being involved in some nasty accidents (including a fatal one and a very serious derailment), it was eventually scrapped in 1983 with the BR Board insisting that nothing of it should remain for souvineer hunters, in the meantime many train crews had their photos taken aboard it for posterity including my late friend and colleague, (Rugby!) driver Roger Gilbert...
RY D326 & Roger Gilbert 1964.jpg
More pointless trivia will be available next week, book early to avoid disappointment...!
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I very briefly owned JOF129E in the nineties. It had been painted black and had a Clubman front end, rough as buggery - it came off the road in 1979. It wasn't a Cooper as such but iirc, it was a Mini Minor with a 998 Cooper running gear from the factory, an MA2S4 chassis number but 9F engine number. It may have been a police car - lots of Police Rover 3500 SD1's were specially built from 2300 cars with basic trim and no self levelling rear suspension. JOF is a Brum number plate.
Watch 'Robbery' and you can see the 100 mph speedo.
I sold it in 1999/2000 to a well known restorer of Minis. It has yet to resurface however.
