Wheeler Dealers: Trading Up

6AM, Quest, 6 December

Can’t wait for new Wheeler Dealers to grace UK screens? In that case, why not take a look at a vintage episode, with a twist.

If you don’t remember this offshoot, Trading Up saw cheekychappy-Cockney-geezer Mike Brewer attempt to cross the globe while buying and selling a few motors to make a bit of profit. This first series has six one-hour episodes, in which Mike visits India, the UK, Sweden, Japan, Mexico, the USA, and the UAE.

The episode in question is number one: based in Kolkata (Calcutta for those who still call Zimbabwe Rhodesia), Mike has just $3000 to spend. Unsurprisingly, a Hindustan Ambassador takes centre stage early in the script.

By the end of the series Mike trades his way up to a Porsche 911, but don’t let that distract you from enjoying the programme. It might seem like a simple idea, and although some of it is obviously staged, putting it altogether in a coherent structure as Mike goes from country to country was a massive task, and one that looks great on screen. Murray Scullion