Original JK 7443 Austin Bis Seven 1938 car from ‘It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet’ feature film of April 1976 arrives at the World of James Herriot inThirsk.
The original Austin car that appeared in the feature film ‘It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet’ that was released on 11 April 1976 (UK) now has pride of place at the World of James Herriot In Thirsk. The team at the attraction are buzzing after an eventful delivery of the vehicle using hoists to lift it over the rear wall to place it in a newly created presentation space in the garden.
Centre manager, Kate Pawlett said:
We are so glad to have the car home from the great film staring John Alderton, Colin Blakey, Lisa Harrow and Bill Maynard. It arrived in style, if the car could talk it certainly could tell a few stories and, who remembers it getting stuck in the river?
The vehicle was first registered in Eastbourne on 29th March 1938 and cost new £139 and when road tax was £6.00. Its engine is 900 c.c. 7.99 b.h.p., it does 40 miles per gallon with a top speed of 60 m.p.h. and has 70,000+ miles on the clock.
World of James Herriot’s managing director, Ian Ashton, said:
The car has been something we have wanted to find and when we spotted it on an online auction just had to buy it to accompany the Austin Seven already on display at the Centre from the ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ TV series.
It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet (in the United States also known as All Things Bright and Beautiful), is a 1976 sequel to the 1975 film All Creatures Great and Small.
Although having the same title as James Herriot’s second novel, the film is actually based on his third and fourth novels, Let Sleeping Vets Lie and Vet in Harness, which in the United States were released as a compilation volume titled All Things Bright and Beautiful. The film, which has a British-American joint venture, was entered into the 10th Moscow International Film Festival and the story continues where All Creatures Great and Small ended, and follows the lives of James, Helen and Siegfried from 1938 until the outbreak of war.
The World of James Herriot is open every day except Christmas Day and New Year’s Day and attracts many coach groups, families and a large following of James Herriot fans. It is enjoying much new attention due to the Channel 5 Yorkshire Vet TV series about the present day version of the very same veterinary practice that James Herriot (Alf Wight OBE) made famous with his books, films and BBC TV series about his life as a country vet in what is now known worldwide as ‘Herriot Country’.
Ian Ashton, said:
It’s great to have the car ‘home’ and visitors will remember its most famous moment on film and TV as ‘the water splash’ scene where James Herriot traversed the Yorkshire Dales and drives through the ford between Arkengarthdale and Low Row in Swaledale.
