Usually on a Thursday lunchtime in the Motor Sport office conversation revolves around the upcoming Grand Prix. Nowadays there seems to be a heavy slant towards Mercedes GP’s form after I made a £10 bet with art editor Damon Cogman that Michael Schumacher would win a race this year.
After a similar bet was made about Honda fighting for the World Championship in 2009, and said bet was dismissed when Honda was renamed Brawn, an actual contract (see below) has been drawn up this time. Trust is hard to come by at the Motor Sport office…
Anyway, today’s talk didn’t involve any racing as such because it was all based on an ITV drama called Midsomer Murders. Last year we got a call from the show’s production team, asking whether it could Photoshop some of our old covers to make it look like the racing drivers in an upcoming episode had featured in the magazine. We agreed of course, and having visited the set to watch a scene being filmed, forgot all about it.
However, while flicking through the channels last night I got a glimpse of Motor Sport on ITV. The penny dropped and I sat watching the rest of the episode, amazed at how much we actually featured in it! Apparently this isn’t the first time this has happened – deputy editor Gordon Cruickshank pointed out in our lunchtime discussion that you can find Pierce Brosnan reading a copy of Motor Sport in the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair.
Midsomer Murders has recently been in the news quite a lot because of rows over its lack of ethnical diversity, but it’s still watched by millions of people. So we shouldn’t have been surprised when we got a few e-mails today from readers saying that they’d seen it. One even commented: “That bit of ‘product placement’ in Midsomer Murders had all the exquisite subtlety of a wrecking ball. Nice to see the familiar green cover and relieved that our esteemed editor-in-chief hadn’t been found drowned in a barrel of Castrol ‘R’ before the episode’s end…”
We would have mentioned our starring role before, but we had no idea the coverage would be quite so prolific! If you missed it, then click here to view the programme on the ITV Player.
The contract:
France's narrow Clermont-Ferrand circuit threaded through volcanic rock faces, sheer drops, and untamed countryside, posing one of F1's greatest-ever tests of nerve. No wonder only the very best drivers won there, says Matt Bishop
Hülkenberg's long-awaited first F1 podium at Silverstone was the result of bold strategy, perfect timing, and a faultless drive from 19th on the grid in a race shaped by changing weather and opportunity. Here's how he pulled it off
Was Oscar Piastri the real winner in the long run after Silverstone? asks James Elson
From long-overdue milestones to costly misjudgements, the 2025 British Grand Prix delivered plenty of drama and emotion