SOMETHING NEW FOR THE WEEKEND?
I can’t remember how old I was when dad introduced me to Laurel and Hardy, but I do remember the shout from downstairs when there was an episode on the telly. I would rush down to watch with him and we’d laugh so hard that mum would shut herself in another room until it was over.
The physical comedy was the thing that I loved best, and that is something I still love in modern comedy. Mind you, back then it all seemed a bit more dangerous for the actors, particularly if the scene was centred around cars, which would crash and bang and fall apart with no apparent regard for life or limb. And of course, the car in those Laurel and Hardy films would more often than not be a Ford Model T. That’s no surprise, as it was the car for the masses way back then, and in plentiful supply – production lasted from 1908 all the way through to 1927, Ford famously sold 15 million of them and the Model T was even built in the UK, at Trafford Park in Greater Manchester.
Despite all that, how often do you see one at a local classic car show these days? I guess that if we were in California and asked the same question, we’d be told there were dozens of them about. The reason we don’t
