LOSE YOURSELF IN 1967

PERMANENT SPEED LIMIT

The 70mph limit had been introduced on 22 December 1965 as a ‘temporary’ measure and, in June of 1967, the Road Research Laboratory published a report stating it had reduced motorway casualties by 20 per cent, saved about 60 lives and greatly reduced injuries. On 12 July Barbara Castle, then Minister of Transport, announced that would continue indefinitely.

SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP

Lacklustre Hillman Imp sales helped to force Rootes into the hands of Chrysler. Chrysler completed its gradual takeover of the Rootes Group in 1967, which had begun with an approach four years previously.

The move followed Chrysler’s desire to have its own European operation, much like General Motors and Ford.

PRISON BREAK

The Prisoner confounded any viewer expecting a continuation of Patrick McGoohan’s previous series Danger Man. The quartet of Mini Moke taxis only intensified the colourful menace of the Portmeirion location, and it would be fair to say that the final episode was not a conventional ending to the series. But then: ‘Questions are a burden to others; answers, a prison for oneself.’

FROZEN IN TIME

Dr James Bedford, a University of California psychology professor, became the first person in the world to be cryogenically frozen. After dying of untreatable cancer, Bedford’s body was preserved and he remains in deep-freeze storage to this day, although the chemicals also used in the process would make any future revival unlikely.