Pining for the past...
Lovely little programme on BBC Radio 4 on Christmas Eve -
Merry Christmas Morris Minor!
Availability: Sorry, this programme is not available to listen again.
Last broadcast on Fri, 24 Dec 2010, 11:00 on BBC Radio 4.
Synopsis
Martin Wainwright sets off through the snow to give seasonal best wishes to the owners of Britain's favourite mass produced car - and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the special edition Morris Minor Million - the rarest minor of all.
Highlight of the programme is a special rendition of 'Jingle Bells' from a Morris Minor 'choir.'
Martin has a soft spot for the little car - often described as a large jelly mould with a speedometer sitting like a clock on the dashboard, and orange fingers for indicators. For it's time though, according to Stirling Moss, it was a nippy little car. Martin meets a mechanic who 'soups' the car up, owners like Dave Brown from 'The Mighty Boosh' and the drivers who 'danced ' their Morris Minors at the end of the Manchester Commonwealth Games .
Finally, using the horn, various clunks and clicks from the car door and boot, and a squeak from the chassis, he conducts a unique version of ' Jingle Bells' by the Morris Minor 'choir.'
Producers: Janet Graves and Geoff Bird
A Pennine production for BBC Radio 4.
-- which made me remember the far-off days of my childhood when the local vicar and a good number of other of the slightly better-off in my home, edge-of-London village pottered and spluttered and prettily popped about in them.
Made me smile, made me remember the few months I drove one (after the fairly current Morris 1100 and before the ancient Triumph Herald and succession of almost-as-old, easily maintainable Minis). Poop poop!
Made me remember the time during the mid 1980s when my Old Windsor terraced-house backgarden was filled with graphite rod sections (smashed in their drainpipe tubes by the Post Office and by various private carriers) supporting trussed tomatoes and propping up whatever flowers the current woman in my life was growing this summer...
All very nice added to the soft-focus memories of a boyhood fishing bamboo and biliously green glass on quieter (though often fish-free) waters reached by much-quieter, smaller roads. Could even bring a tear to me "old" eye, if I wasn't (despite being a lifelong dreamer of great dreams) such a feet-on-the-ground "beast".