A star is born?
Steve’s been mixing it with TV celebrities. Has it gone to his head?
READERS OF LRM may be familiar with the TV programmes Shed & Buried, Find It, Fix It, Flog It and World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides – all produced, directed and presented by Henry Cole. If not, then check them out as they’re great viewing.
Now Henry is no stranger to LRM as we ran a feature about him around three years ago as he uses Land Rovers during filming; a Discovery 4 for him and his film crew, and for filming out the back of, and sometimes his own Series III for classic vehicle shoots. The idea of Shed & Buried is that Henry and sidekick Sam Lovegrove explore some of the country’s best sheds, and they unearth vintage goodies to bid on, fix up and sell on for, in Henry’s words, a small profit, or SPQR – small
profit, quick return. As a huge fan of the show myself, a couple of years back it was marvellous to have the opportunity to be invited to help out with one of the episodes. You may have seen it. The opening piece to camera was me wedged in the centre seat of a Series III between Henry and Sam. It was rather cosy! My ‘part’ was to advise Henry how best to sell his recently-acquired Landy. The answer was simple. Advertise it in LRM, of course!
Roll on three years, and Henry and Sam asked for my help again, but this time for their all-new show, Find It, Fix It, Drive It. The shows’ series is currently being aired on More 4 on Wednesday evenings. The concept of the new show is that, once again, Henry and Sam use their contacts to find relevant vehicles and other automotive objects, fix them up, and in this case drive them and actually do something fun in them.
Basically, for this episode, the duo found a V8-powered Range Roverchassised Lightweight in a hedge; they got it running and, as it was already off-road prepared with roll cage and winch, they tidied it up ready for some off-roading. This is where I came in.
I was asked by the production company if I could find them somewhere suitable to drive off-road, and whether I would like to hang out with them and film for the day. Of course I would. Both Henry and Sam are a great laugh. I organised the team to head to The Billing Off-road Experience in Northamptonshire as Richard and Sarah Arrowsmith, owners of the site, are great friends of LRM. They have been running an off-road course at Billing for 28 years.
We also had in attendance Mark Canvin, and his nine-year-old son Cody who are true Land Rover enthusiasts. Mark brought along with him his Series III 109 2.25 diesel – a lovely original motor. So the gig was, Mark and I would lead the way in his Series III 109, and Henry and Sam would follow us, driving the various tracks in their Lightweight all whilst being filmed. We were tasked with taking the proverbial out of them both along the way as they were newbie off-roaders.
They tackled everything with trepidation, but I think it was so that they could make good telly – a bit of an act if you like. Throughout the day, we would build up the difficulty rating with the finale being whether they could make it through the infamous Billing mud run.
You’ll have to watch the show to find out if they did. The show aired on More 4 in May, so if you would like to see it try finding it on catch-up. Whether I would make a career out of TV remains to be seen – I’ll watch it of course but not without hiding behind my hands!