FANCY A VERY VINTAGE SPIN?

All Creatures Great And Small veterans Peter Davison and Christopher Timothy reunite for a charming new travelogue

Peter Davison and Christopher Timothy became friends while starring together in classic TV show All Creatures Great And Small 40 years ago. Now that friendship is being tested – in a very small car on some very testing roads!

The veteran actors – Peter is 67, Christopher is 78 – squeeze into a sporty blue Morgan roadster to take a trip along some of Britain’s most beautiful but hazardous highways in Channel 4’s charming three- part documentary Great British Car Journeys.

The first episode sees the old pals travel from near Inverness, across the Scottish Highlands to the Isle of Skye, along 100 miles of roads built for military use in the 18th century. In later programmes they head from London to Land’s End and from Cardiff to Snowdonia in Wales, at all times keeping firmly off the beaten track.

Or, as Christopher puts it, ‘We’re putting two fingers up to motorways and sat- navs. Our guides are those used by intrepid motorists in the 1930s, the socalled golden age of motoring, in particular The Everyman Guide.’

Christopher, who played vet James Herriot opposite Peter’s Tristan Farnon in All Creatures Great And Small between 1978 and 1990 – is amused to discover how The Everyman Guide describes the Scottish roads on which they’re driving.

‘It was published in 1934 and talks of the roads as “Narrow, torturous and seldom tarred”. At times they didn’t appear to have improved much in the 80-plus years since, and it did feel a bit like entering an untamed wilderness.’

Peter and Christopher first set off from Fort George, just east of Inverness, then head west past Loch Ness, eventually arriving on the Isle of Skye via the oldest car ferry of its kind in the world.

It’s Peter who takes the wheel for most of the journey and who therefore takes on most of the driving challenges, including the Inverfarigaig Corkscrew, a series of tight, hairpin bends near Loch Ness that sees the game little Morgan ascend 120ft in under half a mile. Peter deals competently with the tight turns but fares less well when, trying to manoeuvre the Morgan onto the ferry across to Skye, he manages to get stuck, prompting some very salty language.

‘It was very annoying,’ says Peter. ‘Mind you, Christopher’s guidebook did warn that getting a car on to a ferry in the 1930s was “a process of some difficulty owing to the slope of the jetties!”’

En route, Peter and Christopher check out one of the first British-made produc-

tion cars, the Arrol

Johnston Dogcart, and meet the eccentric Steve Feltham, who’s been living in a former mobile library beside Loch Ness since 1991, in the hope of seeing the monster.

The pair manage to keep smiling throughout most of the journey across Scotland, even when Peter takes Christopher down a 12-mile dead end, Chris- topher borrows Peter’s cap to wipe away the mist on his window and Christopher discovers water lapping around his feet.

‘We saw the funny side in most of what we did,’ says Peter. ‘My passion for classic cars, and Christopher’s for the past, meant the whole thing was never less than fascinating and enjoyable.’

Great British Car Journeys, tonight, 8pm, Channel 4.

The pair in All Creatures Great And Small in 1990 In an Arrol-Johnston Dogcart from 1903 Boarding the Isle of Skye ferry PETER DAVISON The classic car enthusiast is excited to be at the wheel of a Morgan 4x4 – but finds the winding roads a challenge.

CHRISTOPHER TIMOTHY Although delighted to be on the road with his old pal, he at first struggles to even get into the low-slung car.