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Private Notes
The glory days of British motor racing are celebrated in this sleek archive series, which buffs up some of the BBC's most memorable coverage from the sport's earliest days. The opening programme concentrates on the 1950s, when British drivers Stirling Moss and Mike Hawthorn took on the dominance of the great Argentinian driver, Fangio - all presided over by the chummy commentating presence of Raymond Baxter, fresh from a fight of his own as a Spitfire pilot in World War II. From track to paddock to a changing Britain beyond, and driven by a powerful period soundtrack, this is Formula One's 'Rock 'n' Roll Years'.
Formula One's archive series continues by charting how the oily rag pioneers of British motor racing emerged from the garages of rural England to take on the slick, Italian marques. A mixture of inspiration and perspiration led teams like Vanwall, Cooper and Lotus to dominate the sport for over a decade from the late 1950s onwards. Former mechanics Jack Brabham and Graham Hill became world champion drivers, John Cooper revolutionised the sport by moving the engine from front to back, and Colin Chapman, the genius of Lotus, created the aerodynamic racing shape we know today. All powered by a treat of a period soundtrack and some alarmingly pukka BBC voices.
The 'Rock 'n' Roll Years' of Formula One archive series reaches the undoubted golden age for British drivers that was the 1960s. This was when a quiet Scot, Jim Clark, and a debonair Englishman, Graham Hill, could be regularly relied on to lord it over the world championship. As they swinged their way through the rankings, Britain beyond the paddock was swinging its way through the Sixties. And the BBC was on hand to link the glitz and the glamour of grand prix racing to the aspirations of a growing audience of 'petrolheads' with the magazine show Wheelbase - a blokeish forerunner of Top Gear.
The 1970s was the era of Jackie Stewart, but also of the topless Pirelli calendar.
A look at an era when motor racing lit up the world... with cigarette advertising.
