I was delighted to see the car too, the TR6 has always been on my list of cars I want to own (I've come close a couple of times but never quite made it). I'm sure my interest was started by Catweazle.

It was only when I got home and looked at the photos that I realised the registration was the same as the one in the programme. I emailed Gary and he confirmed that it was, in his words, "the real deal".

Out of interest, I looked up "Mr. Bennet's" Land Rover registration UFK 225 on the DVLA database and amazingly that is also still in existence - taxed and on the road! It would be great to see that at Hexwood one year too.

Sadly, Sam's £10 1935 Vauxhall "CPF 106" isn’t in the database. Shame!

~iw

Nothing to do with the car Ian - but I recognise the actor whose picture appears to the left of your message as Ronald Leigh-Hunt, always one of my favourites. A very elegant and debonair man, who appeared in more films and TV series than I could possibly remember - and incidentally the great-grandson of the poet Leigh Hunt and cousin to actress Barbara Leigh-Hunt. Sadly died in 2005, aged 88. This particular photo is from 1971 when he played Colonel Buchan in "Freewheelers". I know he never appeared in Catweazle, but I'm intrigued to know why his photo is appearing on the site!

Spot on with the identification, it is indeed from "Freewheelers" 1971 (now available on DVD by the way!) I've often wondered whether he was related to Barbara, I didn't know they were cousins. Thanks for that.

The picture is my avatar, I use the same one on all the forums I contribute to (although I notice that avatar usage is not common here). Just this once I'll change it for something more appropriate.

~ian

Nice one Ian - I'd recognise that guy anywhere! And there's Moray in the background if I'm not mistaken. Now I know what an "avatar" is - as I only have a reasonably basic understanding of computer terms, I wouldn't have recognised an avatar if it had jumped out and bitten me! Glad I answered your query re R L-H: I'd always thought he and Barbara must be related as the name is very distinctive and like you, I'd wondered for years. I thought they were possibly brother and sister, but I think it was Wikipedia or a similar website which clarified matters. Thanks for mentioning that "Freewheelers" is available on DVD - I might see if I can get hold of it. I never saw the original series but there's a snippet or two on YouTube. As with Geoffrey Bayldon's work, I'm always happy to see anything featuring Ronald Leigh-Hunt as like Geoffrey, he was a welcome addition to any film or TV series. I have the "Lancelot" boxed set where he played King Arthur - great stuff. Hopefully see you at Hexwood 2010.
Cheers,
Wendy.

There is actually more of a connection between my avatar, RL-H’s Wikipedia entry and Freewheelers on YouTube than you might imagine!

Anyway, back to Catweazle. Yes, that is Moray in the picture, I found him absolutely delightful, another real gent. Here a three more photos I took at Hexwood last month.




~ian.

You've got me curious now, Ian! Glad to report that Freewheelers series 6 arrived this morning, so I'm looking forward to seeing it. A great pity that series 1 - 5 were wiped, but that unfortunately was how they did things back then. However, in the impressive 16 page colour booklet it says that film prints from the entire first season and one episode from the second were rescued by the series' film editor, so perhaps we'll see those released sometime in the future. One can only hope ... I'm not sure if Freewheelers was ever shown in the north of England - I don't recall seeing any episodes so maybe it was just confined to the southern counties.

Thanks for those fantastic pictures of Geoffrey - I got some good ones myself despite my lack of a digital camera.

No real mystery Wendy, it’s just if you look at the history tab on Ronald Leigh-Hunt’s Wikipedia entry you’ll see my name as a contributor. I wish I could add more to it but so little is known about him, unfortunately. There was never a biography and even his year of birth is disputed (most sources say 1916 but he was registered in 1920).

You’ll also see my name on the, much more extensive, Freewheelers Wikipedia entry and the clip from series 2 on YouTube was put there by me.

There are provisional plans to release series 7 and 8 of Freewheelers on DVD but I’m not hopeful series 1 will ever get a commercial release. I’ve seen it and it would take a lot of restoration to get it watchable. Still, you never know.

I hope you enjoy series 6. In truth, it’s a bit “low budget” when compared to Catweazle but a lot of fun nonetheless. Catweazle really raised the bar for children’s TV in the 70’s.

~ian

Thanks Ian - I'll have another look at R L-H's Wikipedia entry. Regarding his birth year, I've also seen it listed as 1921 - so anybody's guess as to which one is correct! Anyway, he was a jolly good actor irrespective of his date of birth. Nice to hear that Freewheelers series 7 & 8 might be issued - I can't say that I'm a particular fan of this genre, but when you have really good actors it makes all the difference and you can put up with a large degree of improbability! Well, after all, no-one can really jump into a lake and bounce out again bone dry, can they? But when it's Catweazle, we just accept that all things are possible and wouldn't dream of questioning the logicality of it all. Yes, Catweazle certainly did raise the bar for quality entertainment, and I don't think anyone much has been able to scale the bar since. When will those 'in charge' listen to us and air the programme once again on prime-time TV? So many of today's youngsters obviously love it as much as we did back in 1970.

Series 8 of Freewheelers is the one to wait for. It features Neil McCarthy as the henchman Crouch (alongside fellow baddie Naylor played by Robert Gillespie). The final scene with them walking into the sunset together discussing their future plans is like the end of Casablanca!



You are right about Catweazle being enjoyed by children today, my 14 year old son and 10 year old daughter both love it. We have a double episode screening every Saturday lunchtime.

~iw

That's great news to me Ian - I'll be on the lookout for series 8! Neil was yet another actor who never disappointed the viewer and he could turn his talent to all kinds of role. In real life he certainly was nothing like the rather "slow on the uptake" Sam who he portrayed so brilliantly in Catweazle. I've been so busy this last week that I still haven't got around to watching Freewheelers 6, but it'll happen! Incidentally, a great programme to watch if you want to see Geoffrey and Ronald Leigh-Hunt together is an early episode (in black and white) from Series 2 of "The Saint" from 1964 where Geoffrey plays an evil character called The Scorpion who is blackmailing his employer (played by R L-H). There are quite a few of my favourites together in that one, including Philip Latham and Nyree Dawn Porter. Geoffrey is the perfect "steely-eyed" villain, although in the early part of the episode he appears to be a very honest and trustworthy family friend. Just another classic example of Geoffrey's enormous acting talent, since in real life he wouldn't hurt a fly! There's so much good stuff coming out on DVD now. The whole output of "Saint" episodes is being issued fortnightly by Eaglemoss Publications with two episodes per DVD, each one with a colour booklet, but we'll have to wait for Geoffrey's "Scorpion" antics for a while yet. He also appeared in another episode called "The Art Collectors" in Series 3 (1967). They can be ordered on the website either by subscription or as back numbers. I must watch Catweazle's "Magic Face" episode again and his hopeless efforts to clean that lovely TR6!
Cheers
Wendy.

Hard to believe this topic is coming up for 7 years old.

Following the recent update on Mr. Bennett's Land Rover, I've just checked to confirm that the TR6 (PRW 741G) is also still going strong with tax and MOT.

Due to VirginMedia discontinuing their web hosting service there is nothing I can do to stop the avatar in my original post from disappearing sometime soon. Just to put the previous thread drift about Ronald Leigh-Hunt into context, the original picture is on the left.


~iw

Hi Ian,

boy time delay on this topic LOL, Sorry.
I'm sort of new to this site.

Re: your quote.
Do you know if the plans are still on for Freewheelers 7 and 8?
I tried to find it but no luck.

Thank you much,
Adara

Country USA

Hi Adara

I'm afraid series 6 is the only one ever likely to be issued on DVD.

Renown Pictures Ltd., who own the rights to Freewheelers, discovered that some of the master tapes for series 7 and 8 were missing so further releases were abandoned.

Sorry for the bad news, especially considering your interest in Neil McCarthy. The positive thing is that copies of all the episodes of series 7 & 8 do exist, it's just that some of them are in "domestic" quality and not suitable for commercial release.

~iw

THank you Ian.

I figured it may have been something like that, or if it was recorded on video, it may have been that it had deteriorated beyond recovery for commercial release.

Adara.

Country USA