was it a Bedford HA?

[sierra3dr]

Ok gents,I have a vague memory of this childrens programme in the 70s as I was just a whippersnapper back then. The intro was a Bedford HA travelling through a country road,and the camera shot was at a distance as the HA approaches. Anyone remember the programme,or am I dreaming?

[JPB]

Are you sure it wasn't Postman Pat's Crayford William van that you're thinking about?
I remember the ex-Buzby HA van in the Beiderbecke affair, Beiderbecke Tapes and Beiderbecke Connection trilogy back in the mid eighties but haven't managed to find anything similar with a kids' telly connection.
Maybe take more water with your nightcap?

Oh, and Barry, as played by Timothy Spall, from Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, ran an HA van in the series where the team was refurbishing a manor house in Englandcestershire somewhere. He and another character used the van to carry their haul after a day off spent poaching, or something of that sort.

Other HA appearances include Roger Moore's film The Man Who Haunted Himself and loads more, all at IMCDb on the following search page:
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicles.php?make=bedford&model=HA

[Flatlander]

When I first read this, I thought "Bedford HA?" Surely he means a Bedford CA....then reading JPB's reply realised it was a Viva van that was being referred to. I can honestly say thats the first time I have ever heard it called a Bedford...even if that is correct.

Dont remember the programme though, or the van...

[JPB]

Curiously enough, even the non-commercial estate version of the HA Viva - using the same shell as the vans - was Bedford, rather than Vauxhall badged. That car, known as Beagle, was also available as a two berth camper van and although cramped in the company of a Tandy Fox, Austin Maestro or Ford Escort camper, I'd love to meet an HA with beds and furniture because they're so cute.


A straw poll of some colleagues, bearing in mind that I'm surrounded by jalopy enthusiast types, has failed to identify any kids' TV show with HA content but I can't let this go now that the idea is in my head. Will keep digging, suggest others do likewise as it beats the wotsit out of facing up to the new term at work.

[Flatlander]

I wonder if the Viva Owners Club would know?

[GHT]

Back then, we still had a raft of nationalised companies, the van you remember might have been a bright yellow, British Telecom HA, or another national company back then was British Rail, they also had eye bleach yellow HA's.

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That's why searching for an HA van in a TV programme is fruitless. You need to remember the signwriting on the van.
Now John, who loves these sort of, nondescript motors said something about beds and furniture. I tell you what, you would soon be in the fracture clinic if you tried getting your leg over in one. (John is one of those classic car lovers who would probably like The Fiat Strada, or Ritmo,) as it was also called.

I'd love to meet an HA with beds and furniture because they're so cute.

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Back in the 1970's, on a quiet night, if you listened carefully, you could actually hear a Bedford HA rust.

[JPB]

John is one of those classic car lovers who would probably like The Fiat Strada.....

I do like one Strada/Ritmo quite a lot. That's the bright green Bertone convertible version that had rear wheel drive and a slightly larger engine than FIAT themselves could supply at the time. I see this example occasionally at shows as it gets around quite a bit. Here it is as spied at - IIRC - the SECC, where it was part of the big National classic event there that year..



& Yes, that is a V8.

[GHT]

Oh that poor BMW engine, at least that's one FIAT that isn't an acronym for Fix It Again Tony. But, all said and done, there is one aspect that I remember, and liked, about that Italian car, even if the grille and headlights looked like a kid wearing national health glasses, and that was: (Turn your volume up,)
The marriage of figaro.

[JPB]

Ow! Bloody lossy compression, dumb mp3 files, loathsome things they are at a bitrate so low that the whole piece sounds as though my speakers are made of candy floss. Please fetch some ear bleach to me now! What's the maximum sentence for crimes against music these days? The - clearly dull of hearing - person who uploaded that version of the ad to youtube should be taken to Louisiana and bottomed to death by wild cattle.
I'm off to play the real thing, lossless fashion, in the form of a Deutsche Grammophon virgin pressing (and no, that doesn't mean an act of exerting downward pressure against a "romantically inexperienced" person in a cupboard..)

Oh, and I found what I believe may be something aimed at kids, shown in 1975 and including some HA (and lovely Renault 12 Break..) footage: I Stopped, I Looked and I Listened. A short film from something called "Nineteen seventy five".
Not heard of that? Me neither.

[GHT]

& Yes, that is a V8.

Well if you can shoehorn a V8 lump into a Strada, nothing stopping you dong the same to a Bedford HA. Of course you could just blag by sticking a V8 badge on the grille. But if you have gone to the trouble of chopping the roof, upgrading the suspension and fitted big, fat, in your face wheels, chances are that you wouldn't have the balls to blag about a V8 lump.

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Personally, I like Bedford vans with the sort of genteel touch, something like you would find in Dad's Army or Foyle's War.

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