Parry Thomas remembered

It was very thoughtful of BBC2 to show a film of Parry Thomas (and `Babs) exactly 75 years after he was killed at Pendine on an LSR bid.

But the short film might have been better replaced by newsreel shots, because actors seldom manage to look like racing drivers — remember Rowan Atkinson as Sir Henry Birkin?

Thomas did not wear a towel over his face, as shown in the programme, and Babs looked too shiny and new, although it was nice to know that the exhumed car had at least enjoyed a day or two away from incarceration in various museums.

Appropriately it was filmed on Pendine Sands, albeit at perhaps 70mph, some 100mph short of Parry Thomas’ speed. Some of the background details and the rules of record-breaking were more or less accurate.

On the same day as the transmission, Wyn-Owen, who had the foresight to dig up Babs from her 1927 Pendine grave, was at Brooklands and at Thomas’ grave, paying his respects.