IN 1988, All Creatures Great and Small returned to our television screens after a break of eight years with 22 episodes being screened in less than 12 months.
Somewhere in the background of one of those episodes is Dave Bond, driving his 1947 Riley.
“It was only repeated a couple of days ago,” says Dave. “There’s a gathering of people outside a mansion house, somewhere in the dales, and I drive behind the people but in front of the big house and then, later on, I drive back through them again.
“They also made me up for one scene at Askrigg, cutting my hair, putting me in an old jacket, and getting me to drive the car, but they never used it – I ended up on the cutting room floor.”
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Dave had got his Riley in 1985. “I bought it at Holmfirth, which is Last of the Summer Wine country,” he says. “There was a chap who lived there who had just bought an Austin Healy sports car and his wife said ‘either I go, the Healy goes or the Riley goes’ and, after a great deal of thought, he sold the Riley.”
Dave, 80, was summoned to Askrigg by the producers for filming at least three times in 1986, but the Riley only made the most fleeting of appearances. Fortunately, he took his camera as well as his car, and so has some great pictures, and memories, of his time rubbing shoulders with the stars of one of Britain’s favourite Saturday evening light dramas.
“One day, the crew were out on location filming at a farm and Robert Hardy turned up at Askrigg in his car, so I was able to chat with him – he was a very friendly chap,” says Dave.
Dave, of Spennymoor, now has five vintage cars and two motorcycles, which he takes to shows in rotation. “They all get their turn,” he says. “If it’s cold, I prefer to use a saloon, and on sunny days I use the Morris 8 tourer.”
And so, yesterday he was at the Witton Castle Vintage Rally, near Bishop Auckland, in his 1958 Vauxhall Victor, and today he's at Hurworth Grange in his 1961 Wolseley 1500 (below). The Grange is said to be the largest vintage car gathering in the district, with 600 vehicles on display, but, this year, the 1947 Riley – a car that was once an All Creatures star – will be staying at home.
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