As some of you will know, that's me that is! It's one third of my 15 minutes of fame on the BBC's Top Gear motoring programme, when Top Gear was a motoring programme rather than a sycophant-fest in an aircraft hangar. It was broadcast on April 14th 1988, when Jeremy Clarkson was still just an obscure motoring hack. (Jaloux, moi? Jamais!)

FWIW, I wrote the script myself. Also, that's only half the item. The other half was all about the Peraves Ecomobile, with me test driving it for the first time.

I had 24 hours to learn how to drive it before the film crew arrived. Also, it was only because of the Ecomobile that the Feet First part came about at all; although it appeared first in the programme it was shot afterwards at the Science Museum annexe on Wroughton airfield near Swindon which was where the Avro Monocar was kept at the time. I had said to the Top Gear director, Ken Pollock, "You can't feature this amazing Swiss device and make no mention of the 80 year history of FFs in the UK and elsewhere". Fortunately, he agreed. 

There are some photos from the filming here:

Paul N Blezard