Coventry on television or in the movies

BBC4, Monday 17 May 2021, 9.00pm 'Classic British Cars : Made in Coventry' To celebrate the award of UK City of Culture 2021 to Coventry, local boy Mark Evans tells the full history of the classic cars made in Coventry, This passionate retrospective runs from the industry's beginnings in 1897 through to the present day and includes interviews and archive footage detailing the stories behind the creation of classic marques such as the Daimler, the Triumph, the Riley and the Jaguar and the companies and people behind them.

I'm hoping to be able to watch this in the U.S. in the near future as most of my family worked in the car industry. I've been trying to get a copy of last years May 6th edition of Autocar magazine as it has an article, including maps of the city, where cars and parts for cars were made over the years. A friend emailed me the article but the computer screen is too small to really enjoy it. I tried to order it from an agency in NYC but I think covid has closed them down.

I hope that everyone that viewed the programme enjoyed it, especially talking to Victor Riley - he's quite a character, having put a lot of time and effort into the Riley archive project at the Canal Basin.

I'm glad they called it classic cars, for they missed out two important issues with the car industry. One, the Morris group, despite all his good work, in 1928 he ran the Morris car factory in West Bromwich, around that time he visited Coventry, given several inducements and possibly the ground he built a factory, had a road named after him. But come the war, he refused to build a modern assembly line, fiddled about with a disastrously unproductive Spitfire engine. Churchill was furious, personally sacked him, replaced him with Lord Beaverbrook as Minister of Aircraft Production. Two, in the 1950s, the car industry was consistently plagued by the Unions stopping production for minor things that caused frustration and loss of wages, which in turn caused debt and many knock on hardships, and loss of orders from abroad, who built their own, from the frustration that had set in.

I really enjoyed the programme, thanks for the heads up! I was at school with Norman Dewis' son and ended up at band rehearsals at the Dewis' farm on a regular basis. I remember, with great pleasure, being driven by Norman with the other lads in a Jaguar Mk 9 sinking into the soft leather seats with a huge array of instruments and switches housed in the polished wooden dashboard in front of me. This experience has remained with me ever since. My grandfather was with Jaguar and trained the service engineers, however, he was very much involved with Norman in testing and development. I recall one of his stories of trips around the test track with Norman driving and my grandfather in the boot attempting to identify the source of a noise coming from the rear of the car. During my earlier years I frequently accompanied my grandfather to his Jaguar colleagues, "Lofty" England comes to mind and I seem to have a vague memory of some connection to gliders! Later, while living in Queensland, I came across a Jaguar D-type replica signed by Norman which is documented in this article I posted some time ago. See "Motor Racing history of Daimler, Jaguar, Triumph, etc. - see post 22.

A while ago I heard someone mention that parts of the 2015 movie, Spooks, were shot in Coventry, using the Ring Road. Even having watched the movie, I couldn't recall seeing anything of Coventry at the time. I do, however, remember that a scene was purported to take place in Coventry - when it most certainly wasn't! A busy street lined with grand buildings was claimed to be in our city, when it looked very much more like London, although I've since read that it was probably in Birmingham. Anyway, the opening scenes, which are supposed to take place in London, can be seen on YouTube, and I've added three screen-shots below. The first two scenes, from the angles, appear to have taken place in White Street Coach Park, which they've marked out to look like a busy street. As you can see, the "two famous spires of London" can be seen in the background! After using several subways, they end up on foot at this last location, which I've been able to work out exactly.... but I'll leave it as a mystery for you folks to have a go at!

Ah, found it. Don't follow the link if you want a guess. Looking from the right to left. The film The Hitman's Bodyguard was supposed to be set in Coventry at one point but I didn't recognise the city at all.

Well done, Helen - yes, spot on! I hadn't realised that The Hitman's Bodyguard was supposed to be partly set in Coventry, but I just Googled it and found a movie reviewer also quite perplexed as to why that should be.... There is a scene in this film that takes place in the English city of Coventry out of all places, although the interesting thing is that that scene wasn't actually filmed in Coventry (believe me, I would know, I lived there quite some time!), but in London in fact. The question is why didn't they just set the scene in London if they were filming there anyways. It wouldn't have really changed much about the plot of the film. But setting part of your story in Coventry but then not actually being in Coventry (even though its only about 2 hours away from London) seems strange.

I don't think this is the first time Coventry has been shown in one series or another. We saw Doctor Who in a couple of scenes and then the Minis driving through the tunnels in another. If anyone knows of any more I would like to know. My husband was once on the news, many, many years ago sitting at his drawing board at the Coventry Technical College (but then he was always very modest about it).

Dreamtime, this is another film of Cov. I think it has been mentioned before on this forum. Post war.

Thanks, Argon, what a nice surprise. I didn't expect that. That's what you get when you ask nicely.

For anyone interested, a film of the Nov 14 raid with much detail is showing now on channel 42. Great movie action.

I seem to remember a TV crew coming to Woodlands School in the early 60's. Anyone else remember?