Ashes to Ashes indeed for two Escorts...

[Karmann Ghiaman]

Still recovering from seeing DI Drake squash one blue Escort with the pink tank AND blow up the other one. Shitehawks everywhere will be in shock for weeks. But she did drive the quattro rather aimlessly up and down those tunnels on the Isle of Dogs and Gene got to deliver a few good lines. My favourite was 'What's a pudendum?' 'You are one.' Plus they've left it 'open-ended' so might have another series...hmmm...

 

Did anyone see that the Spanish have bought Life on Mars and they're going to make Vida en Marte set in Spain in 1978? This is not an early April Fool, it's true. Point is that Franco had died in '75, so Spain was 'emerging' from having been a fascist police state for 40 years. No doubt there are lots of laughs to be had for the modern, enlightened Spanish rozzer going back to those far off, simple times. They are still looking for the Spanish Gene Hunt, but at least his wheels have already been chosen:

 

SEAT 1200 Sport (preferably without hubs).

 

Personally I think they should have a modern Dutch gay squatter detective go back to the days of Van der Valk. Michiel has shown us that there is so much autoshite lying around Amsterdam that there would be no need to get any props, you could just start filming in almost any street. Not sure which Bowie song to name it after. Maybe an early one like Laughing Gnome?

[Mr Lobster]

Plus they've left it 'open-ended' so might have another series...hmmm...

There is going to be a second series, though not until 2009 sadly!

[55bloke]

I never thought I d see the day when I'd mourne the loss of a couple of Mk 3 Escorts, but it did cause minor palpiations!! And, on "He Kills Coppers" last night, a lovely looking Triumph 2000/2500 met it's end against a tree. We're gonna have to get up a petition to stop them making these period dramas!!

[Karmann Ghiaman]

Glad I didn't see that Triumph destroyed...Nooooooooooooooooooooh!

 

But do they really wreck old cars in these retro TV dramas? Obviously the 'two' Escorts in the Gene Hunt Show were in fact just one, & you didn't see it move much. Presumably they get a total shitter, do it up superficially, then finish it off. Heartbeat, set in a tiny area of the Yorkshire Moors in a completely unconvincing, crap recreation of 'the '60s', has more road accidents per square mile than the whole of Spain (and, worryingly, a lot of dogs get shot too). You do watch these things & think 'No! Not the Austin Healey...', but I s'pose they have sort of 'crash co-ordinators' who stop the real classics from getting hurt. Someone please tell me they do!

[retrogeezer]

I think the blue one she ran over was certainly a heap that had been given a quick respray. When the owner was standing by the hatch and holding the tailgate, the inside of the tailgate was a different colour and tatty looking.

[vicsmith]

I don`t remember actually seeing the Triumph crash in "He kills coppers", pretty sure they just showed it going a bit out of control and then just showed the car up against a tree but the area that would have been damaged was out of shot, I think it was just a low budget off camera "crash" thankfully.

[MrRegieRitmo]

The worst moments from recent TV for me were the Hillman Avenger estate that blew skywards in LoM. Hopefully just a shed of a car! and in PC Joe Mason's first appearance in Heartbeat, apparently a police chase in York, I think a Rover P6 & a Triumph 2500 collided, or something equally heartbreaking.

[Marty]

but I s'pose they have sort of 'crash co-ordinators' who stop the real classics from getting hurt. Someone please tell me they do!

In most cases yes. Partly because they are sympathetic to the fact that if they keep wrecking good classics there will be none left to use in period dramas and partly because its cheaper to make an old shitter look good on camera and then wreck it. I once spent a summer working at Limehouse Studios in London and spent an afternoon on an OL watching the crew "destroy" a Lambretta made almost entirely of balsa and ply wood - painted. From close up it looked like a wooden scooter - on camera it looked real.Apparently the wooden one cost less than a real one, with teh advantage that if they muffed the take they could easily make another to look exactly the same (for continuity).

[55bloke]

This subject has been discussed at length on previous occasions, and I like to believe that the cars that are destroyed are rotten heaps, but if I'm honest, I'm not totally convinced!! If the script demands that, say, a Triumph 2000 is required, and will later be crashed, do they have the time to find two- a good one to drive, and a heap to wreck? I wish someone in the industry could enlighten us. I guess the answer depends on which show/film you're talking about. The Triumph on He Kills Coppers was filmed from inside hitting the tree, with the bonnet flying up, but the actual impact and damage wasn't shown. And you're right about the crash on Heartbeat Reggie, except that it was a P6 which T-boned a white Mk 3 Zephyre, and bent it like a banana!

[vicsmith]

That`s right, I remember the bonnet going up on the Triumph in he kills coppers, as I noted that the bonnet was hinged at the front, something I did not previously know about 2000/2500s. I don`t recollect any actual crumpling of the front end in that shot, so hopefully it was just a bit of camera trickery. Put it this way, I didn`t become really annoyed and I would have done if I`d thought there was any damage.The Lambretta story is encouraging but it would be nice to know, I always feel a bit of a tit if I`ve been saying "oh thats nice" and then the car gets destroyed 10 minutes later.Its like an insult - "You see that dream car of yours? Well the same television studio that used to make Triffids out of rubber and twenty years ago would have substituted a Maxi for an Austin 1800 if there was a crash scene has just smashed it up for a laugh."

[CortinaDave]

On the PC forum they reckon it was later escorts that got blown up in the end..http://www.practicalclassics.co.uk/foru ... &start=110

[Marty]

This subject has been discussed at length on previous occasions, and I like to believe that the cars that are destroyed are rotten heaps, but if I'm honest, I'm not totally convinced!! :

Believe me, everything is done on a budget as cheap as possible in most filming. So they wont buy a concourse car if they intend to wreck it unless there is totally no option (unless of course its Top Gear). There is of course continuity, and the real risk that a shot may have to be taken more than once, hence using cars that can be duplicated

[Simon M]

This company provides a lot of the old cars that get smashed up on things - http://www.99cars.co.uk/cmtfiles/period ... link_id=82The Marina that the Arctic Monkeys set fire to was one of theirs - I don't think they're all total sheds they destroy either.......

[vicsmith]

Set fire to a Marina? I didn`t think it was possible for the Arctic Monkeys to become even more dislikeable.

[reallyloud]

Set fire to a Marina? I didn`t think it was possible for the Arctic Monkeys to become even more dislikeable.

I think they can be redeemed slightly for the fact they cruise around (or at least used to) in a Saab 900.Verve set fire to a Citroen GSA on their first album. I recall Travis doing something to a HC Viva in one of their videos. Must be a million bands who have destroyed cars.....

[michiel]

We've poured salt water on seventeen pristine Tagoras in the studio for our first album, and then left them to rust. It makes the bestest background sound evah!**(as if. we could only afford three at the time)

[vicsmith]

Set fire to a Marina? I didn`t think it was possible for the Arctic Monkeys to become even more dislikeable.

I think they can be redeemed slightly for the fact they cruise around (or at least used to) in a Saab 900.Verve set fire to a Citroen GSA on their first album. I recall Travis doing something to a HC Viva in one of their videos. Must be a million bands who have destroyed cars.....

Yeah it`s probably got nothing to do with the actual bands, just some video director. Verve`s first album must have been a long time ago, were GSAs even unusual at the time? Old Blur ones were best - P6s etc.just shown off as nice shiny old cars and left totally unharmed. THe Mk1 Granada fastback from Parklife still comes up as taxed.