INTERVIEW
A CUP OF TEA WITH...
Broadcasting legend, prolific author and stellar journalist, John is many things – but a car man? No. And yet…
You don’t call yourself a car enthusiast, but you have an enthusiast’s car. How did that come about?
‘I used to have Rover 800s, and to be honest they were bloody useless. I remember on one occasion driving my 800 to Liverpool, going fast and the bonnet decided to lift off. Ever since then I’ve always coupled the idea of a violent and unpleasant death with the Rover 800.
‘But I did a bit of internal communication stuff for Rover, and got to know one of them rather well. He persuaded me that the Rover 600 was going to be completely different because it had a Honda engine – which would work! So I bought it, a 620Si auto, in British Racing Green. It had everything I could possibly dream of and it went beautifully, and continued to go beautifully with only minor things going wrong, until a few months ago.
‘I was in Hampshire and it wouldn't start, so I called the AA and they couldn't make it start either. I was looking pretty bashed up by this point and the driver’s window wouldn’t open, so when a friend of a friend who owns a scrapyard offered to get rid of it, I decided to let him.
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But it still lives. Tell us what happened…
‘Well, that weekend, I went on my Sunday program on Classic FM, where I said, ‘I’m sad. I’ve had a bad week because I had to get rid of my old friend, my Rover, and it’s doomed.’ A few hours later I got a text from a name that I recognised, but I wasn’t quite sure – Denis Chick. He said: ‘I’m a bit offended, because I’m the man who sold it to you 30 years ago!’ He said he knew this bloke called Danny who runs a magazine and that they’d probably be interested in giving it the once-over… and here we are!
Denis is a national treasure like you, John. One of the world’s real enthusiasts. You have that in common.
‘Well, I never had that sort of enthusiasm for cars, except that obviously I needed them. I bought my first car when I was 17 – a pre-War Ford Anglia. Sit-up-and-beg job. This should be whispered quietly, but I didn’t actually have a driving license… I bought it was because it was £27, and I could afford it because by then I was earning £7 a week.
Bit of a false economy in a way, and it had minor problems, like the vacuum operated wipers. If you were moving quite fast, say 40 miles an hour in the rain, they just didn't work at all. I remember trying to drive from Oxford to Cardiff in freezing fog, and I had two girls sitting in the back saying ‘left a bit, right a bit’ because I couldn’t see where I was going, b
