SITCOM CLASSIC GOES UNDER THE HAMMER
AS CLASSIC cars go, the red, soft-top 1970 Triumph Herald 13/60 driven by Dame Thora Hird in the long-running BBC comedy series Last Of The Summer Wine is a truly rare vintage to savour.
And if you fancy bidding for it, the much-loved convertible goes under the hammer with an estimate of £16,000-£18,000 at the H&H Classics auction at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire, on June 22.
Last Of The Summer Wine was filmed around Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, from 1973 to 2010 and remains the world’s longest-running sitcom.
In the BBC show, the Triumph Herald belonged to Edie Pegden (played by Dame Thora).
The auctioneers note: ‘It’s fair to say that Edie was not a natural driver, taking three goes to pass her test and still struggling with the controls thereafter; blaming [husband] Wesley for “moving things around” whenever the long-suffering Herald got the better of her.’
Edie and the car were written out of the series following the death of triple Best Actress Bafta winner Dame Thora, at the age of 91, in 2003.
But her screen car lives on. Described as being fully restored and in mint condition, the Herald has ‘wellfinished red paintwork with contrasting black interior’. It retains the registration it wore during several series of the sitcom – CXE 604J – and now has 94,080 miles on the odometer.
The car comes with a matching diecast model bearing the same registration number, photographs of the vehicle taken during the series, and certification from both the owner of the Herald — who supplied it for the show — and also a retired head production buyer from the BBC.