Drive Thru

Perry’s Blog

Drive Thru

Another classic tale from the legendary prop buyer David Fairfield comes from when he was the Production Buyer for Dr Findlay’s Casebook many, many moons ago. It’s one that really makes me laugh every time I think about it.

David was asked to provide some vintage cars for the production, and managed to get hold of a chap with an eminently suitable vehicle which would look ideal. The owner was asked if he would be prepared to be the “in-vision driver”, driving around in the back of shot to add to the authenticity of the village street scene. David asked the man to arrive at location at 10 o’clock the following morning where he was required to drive through shots.

The next day, call time came and went, and the guy was nowhere to be seen. Being in the days long before the mobile phone, he was un-contactable.  Filming continued for most of the day with no sign of the man or his period vehicle. Towards the end of the day, a telephone call came to the production office at the BBC from North Lanarkshire Police, asking if a man in their custody was part of the production. They had found him driving aimlessly around, and arrested him for contravening the Road Traffic Act. The production manager confirmed that he should have been with them at 10am but had not turned up at location.  The Police kindly agreed to provide a Police escort, and swiftly took him Auchtermuchty.

When the man arrived at location he very excitedly enquired if they had filmed enough of his scenes, and he also complimented the camera department for hiding themselves so well. "Were you concealed in the trees?" he asked them.

“Where were on earth were you?” they asked him.

“I was doing what you told me to … I was driving through Shotts all day…….”

( Shotts is a small town in North Lanarkshire, 53 miles from Auchtermuchty, in Fife!)

I'd like to thank another prop buying legend, Mike Ireland, for reminding me of this classic anecdote.