Poirot's last chase

Browse pages
Current page

1

Current page

2

Current page

3

Current page

4

Current page

5

Current page

6

Current page

7

Current page

8

Current page

9

Current page

10

Current page

11

Current page

12

Current page

13

Current page

14

Current page

15

Current page

16

Current page

17

Current page

18

Current page

19

Current page

20

Current page

21

Current page

22

Current page

23

Current page

24

Current page

25

Current page

26

Current page

27

Current page

28

Current page

29

Current page

30

Current page

31

Current page

32

Current page

33

Current page

34

Current page

35

Current page

36

Current page

37

Current page

38

Current page

39

Current page

40

Current page

41

Current page

42

Current page

43

Current page

44

Current page

45

Current page

46

Current page

47

Current page

48

Current page

49

Current page

50

Current page

51

Current page

52

Current page

53

Current page

54

Current page

55

Current page

56

Current page

57

Current page

58

Current page

59

Current page

60

Current page

61

Current page

62

Current page

63

Current page

64

Current page

65

Current page

66

Current page

67

Current page

68

Current page

69

Current page

70

Current page

71

Current page

72

Current page

73

Current page

74

Current page

75

Current page

76

Current page

77

Current page

78

Current page

79

Current page

80

Current page

81

Current page

82

Current page

83

Current page

84

Current page

85

Current page

86

Current page

87

Current page

88

Current page

89

Current page

90

Current page

91

Current page

92

Current page

93

Current page

94

Current page

95

Current page

96

Current page

97

Current page

98

Current page

99

Current page

100

Current page

101

Current page

102

Current page

103

Current page

104

Current page

105

Current page

106

Current page

107

Current page

108

Current page

109

Current page

110

Current page

111

Current page

112

Current page

113

Current page

114

Current page

115

Current page

116

Current page

117

Current page

118

Current page

119

Current page

120

Current page

121

Current page

122

Current page

123

Current page

124

Current page

125

Current page

126

Current page

127

Current page

128

Current page

129

Current page

130

Current page

131

Current page

132

Current page

133

Current page

134

Current page

135

Current page

136

Current page

137

Current page

138

Current page

139

Current page

140

Current page

141

Current page

142

Current page

143

Current page

144

Current page

145

Current page

146

Current page

147

Current page

148

Current page

149

Current page

150

Current page

151

Current page

152

Current page

153

Current page

154

Current page

155

Current page

156

Current page

157

Current page

158

Current page

159

Current page

160

Current page

161

Current page

162

Current page

163

Current page

164

Current page

165

Current page

166

Current page

167

Current page

168

Current page

169

Current page

170

Current page

171

Current page

172

Current page

173

Current page

174

Current page

175

Current page

176

Current page

177

Current page

178

Current page

179

Current page

180

Current page

181

Current page

182

Current page

183

Current page

184

Current page

185

Current page

186

Current page

187

Current page

188

Current page

189

A car in disguise and a crash that never happened – time to send for the little Belgian detective

You’ve seen Bullitt; you’ve seen Ronin. But we all know that the best car chase ever filmed comes in an episode of ITV’s Poirot, when the baddie’s Vauxhall Light Six is pursued around seaside Bosham by Captain Hastings’ Eliso Freccia’. As the YouTube label says, it has GEESE! And CROCKERY!

When your excitement has subsided you might rewind and decide that the ‘Eliso Freccia’ bears a remarkable resemblance to a short-chassis Alfa Romeo 2900A. Which, given the immense value of every 2.9 left, might cause a wince when it rams the cornered Vauxhall causing apparently more than skin-deep injuries to its Milanese nose.

There was only one of these sophisticated twin-supercharged eight-cylinder sports cars bearing that blue/grey livery, the car restored and owned for many years by that fount of 8C Alfa knowledge Simon Moore. After watching The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman again recently I asked Simon about the filming, and how it felt to see his precious charge being used as a battering ram.

This particular episode weaves the usual murder into a blackmail plot hinging on a beautiful Italian lady who is part of the sales team for an exciting sports car, the Eliso Freccia. Captain Hastings, who is considering buying one to replace his faithful Lagonda, goes to the showroom for a test drive and agrees to buy one, seduced as much by the lady’s lingering glances as by the machinery.

“I think the art director may have had a soft spot for 2.9s”says Simon, “because he’d done two charcoal drawings of the cars, which you can see hanging on the walls of the showroom. And now they’re hanging at home!” The smart Central London 1930s showrooms are actually an Avis depot behind Oxford St, opposite Selfridges. “They also borrowed Rodney Felton’s 2.9 to dress the showroom scene,” Simon adds.

Once Poirot has unwound the twisted threads of fraud and deceit, they lead to a south-coast port where the blackmailers plan to escape by boat, until thwarted by our heroes.

“Filming at Bosham was tricky,” says Simon. “There’s such a high tide range that continuity was a problem. When the tide was right and they’d got the car and the boat in shot, some guy with an iridescent green windsurfer would go sailing back and forwards behind…

“I’d agreed to loan them the car for filming, but made it clear that they could not drive it. So when you see Hastings driving, it’s me dressed up, not Hugh Fraser, and when the Italian woman is driving, it’s my wife Elly in the same outfit. The close-ups of Hastings grimacing at the wheel are done on the low-loader. But the director came to me and said ‘when Hastings leaps off the boat into the car and sets off in pursuit we just can’t do the continuity unless Hugh actually drives off in it. And after all he is used to a centre throttle on the Lagonda…’ So I said okay.

“The engine’s running, Fraser leaps off the boat and into the car, puts it into first successfully — first and third are different on a 2.9 ‘box. But he’s used to this slow Lagonda, so he gives it a bit of welly and lets the clutch up, and the 2.9 takes off like a bat out of hell. There’s a big wall opposite, but thankfully he remembered where the brake was, stamped on it and came to a halt. He got out a bit ashen and said ‘I didn’t know a pre-war car could accelerate like that!”

After a spirited chase in which the wheezing Vauxhall heels like a dinghy through corners at, oh, dozens of miles an hour, the brave captain rams the bad guy’s car. “They parked both cars nose-to-nose, then reversed them apart. When they reversed the film it looked like a prang.”

To show the resulting damage the film crew built a mule with nose, bonnet and front wings copied from Simon’s car. “I think it was Williams 8e Pritchard who measured up the car and did the panelwork,” he says, “and it was built on a Beetle chassis pan. It was driveable, just for moving it around. For the accident they set about it with hammers, then pushed it against the Vauxhall for the scene where Hastings hits the baddie and knocks him over the bridge into the water.” Followed by a close-up of the rueful look on Hastings’ face as he checks the damage and is told this was to have been his new vehicle…

“It all works pretty well,” Simon thinks, “though there’s one continuity fault where the Italian girl gets in the car wearing gloves but Elly is driving without gloves. But I can see why people work as extras. The food! It’s nonstop!” For anyone who hasn’t visited a film shoot, it’s an eye-opener: the hub of the day is a double-decker bus whose sole duty is to continuously produce four times as much food as the entire crew can eat, from dawn to dusk. It’s an occupational hazard of acting.

“They looked after us very well,” Simon recalls. “Both the main actors, Hugh Fraser and David Suchet, were very nice guys. I actually missed the first showing of the episode, in February ’93, but someone taped it for me. I still have the VHS! It’s still on regularly, even in the States. I get phone calls from American friends asking, ‘Is that your car?”

In fact it no longer is: a few years back Simon had to admit that a knee problem was stopping him making proper use of it, and it has now gone to a private collection in the USA. Meantime, having already published the definitive works on both 2.9 and 2.3 8Cs, he has occupied himself writing an equally impressive history of Alfa Romeo Grand Prix cars. It’s due out shortly from Parkside. I can’t wait.

For years Simon thought no more of the crash mule and its battered nose, until an e-mail arrived showing what later happened to it. Starting from those few panels, someone built up an entire car on a new chassis, using Jaguar XJ 3.4 running gear and a glassfibre rear end. It may not look quite like a 2.9, but it’s a testament to one enthusiast’s determination.