News Flash

News Flash

An unexpected if very brief encounter with motoring history punctuated TV coverage of the Westland Affair, that unhappy or welcome piece of Government bungling, depending on which Party has your support, and which certainly showed up the vicious glee with which the Opposition makes the most of other’s mistakes. It came with the nine o’clock BBC News on Friday, January 24th. The Newscaster referred to the time when the Rt. Hon, Leon Britten’s father came to this country. This was followed immediately by a short film-flash showing vehicles running along a London(?) thoroughfare. The first one was an exciting-looking touring car of circa-1906. sans mudguards, followed by other vehicles, the last of which looked like a Dennis truck with a man running behind it, as if hoping to board, was anyone sufficiently perceptive to recognise the makes? The shot was probably from a film taking during the General Strike of 1926, when all manner of ancient cars were pressed into service.

I wonder if others have pondered on this, incidentally, what a wealth of such film, full of similar road-scenes which if of little actual historic interest, would entertain motoring enthusiasts for hours, there must be In BBC and ITV archives, — W B