Any access to vault of British crime dramas? A

PETER Eccles now lives in the Orkney Isles but still keeps in touch with his birthplace of Huddersfield via the Examiner and cuttings he is sent from the paper and he was delighted to read a recent piece from this column about John Lindley and the Ford Popular he has had for 60 years.

John had written to explain how, in periods of cold weather, he cleared ice from the windows of the car in the 1950s and 1960s. He rubbed them with salt that he packed into one of his wife’s old stockings and it worked a treat.

Peter remembered John and the Ford fondly.

“That is a car I have known for 50 years. John bought Crossley’s newsagent in Marsh and I bought all my motoring magazines from him. The Popular was garaged behind the shop.”

He says it was totally unlike a normal Ford Popular.

“It had extensive modifications to the LL I wanted was to discover if there was a television channel that broadcast classic British drama starring the sort of sleuths I remember with fondness and would like to join for a re-run.

Like Wycliffe in Cornwall, with Jack Shepherd as the thinking man’s detective.

My wife Maria and I make no secret that we enjoy foreign language dramas on TV, but we also appreciate the best of British, present and past.

Yet I can’t find a simple internet link that might tell me where Lovejoy or Bergerac might be. Or if Michael Elphick is still riding his motorbike to the rescue somewhere on the world wideweb in Boon?

And what about Alan Plater’s superior Beiderbecke trilogy from the 1980s with James Bolam?

There is a lost archive of domestic detection somewhere but it’s either well hidden or unavailable unless you buy the boxed sets, which is an expensive business. The Beiderbecke Trilogy is £21.49 on Amazon and complete sets of Lovejoy and Bergerac are £37.99 and £43.99. I’m not sure Maria would approve of me spending that much.

My search did discover UKTV Drama, which shows episodes of The Bill, London’s Burning, Inspector Lynley Mysteries, suspension, wheels, brakes and engine, which was supercharged. I believe John entered hill climbs with it and it was a superb little car.

“He said that when he retired, he would rebuild it with his son, but the last time I saw it, some 25 years ago, the garage roof had collapsed on it and it was in a very sorry state.

“The photo used in the column shows it restored to its former glory.

“Thanks for the memories, Denis.” Taggart and others, although not necessarily all episodes. Sometimes it’s just a few to tickle your fancy. So where do you find the rest?

They also have two of my all-time favourites, Bergerac with John Nettles solving crimes in picturesque Jersey, and Lovejoy with Ian McShane as the dodgy antique dealer. They have all 71 episodes of Lovejoy but only 32 of the 87 episodes of Bergerac that were made. BBC iPlayer allows viewers to catch up on recent dramas and also has a back catalogue. ITV Hub offers similar, with a good choice from the past of Inspector Morse, Heartbeat, A Touch of Frost and even The Protectors from 1972. All4 has detective dramas, mini series and boxed sets of classics. But there is no specialist website that tells you precisely what’s available and when and where it’s broadcast.

At least I can save 38 quid watching Lovejoy for free on UKTV Drama. I’m still considering the £44 for Bergerac.

If there are other channels out there showing the best of British, they are well hidden. It seems a shame that so many good home-grown dramas are apparently gathering dust.

Unless anyone can tell me where to find them?

I can’t find a simple internet link that might tell me where Lovejoy or Bergerac might be