Project Petrolhead

We’ve spoken before about movie cars and how much the right car can add to a piece of media but one aspect we failed to mention was the small screen. There have been some great cars on TV over the years, from K.I.T.T to the General Lee. Even Doctor Who got in on the action, with Jon Pertwee spending his tenure gunning about in a bright yellow 1910 Roadster. For some reason, however, the best cars always belong to people of a certain occupation. Those who spend their days investigating dead bodies and catching crims all while providing useful syndication for daytime telly; they are TV detectives.

If you’ve chanced upon an episode of Inspector Morse for example, you would probably expect a 1980s policeman to be rocking up to this week’s murder in a typical 1980s police car but… no. Instead, you get a Mark II Jaguar, resplendent in red with a black vinyl roof (an option with which the original Mk II was never available from factory). Why? Because it fits the character! Morse is a real-ale drinking, Mozart listening, crossword solving, dyed in the wool Englishman. Therefore, it makes perfect sense for him to pootle around Oxford in a quintessential English car.

The Saint’s Simon Templar is another such case, with the suave and sophisticated Roger Moore requiring an equally suave and sophisticated car. Step forward the Volvo P1800, with it’s sweeping Ghia-designed curves and elegant GT car silhouette. Originally, the production team had intended for Templar to drive another Jag, this time an E-Type, but Jaguar declined to let them borrow one. Seeing the popularity of the series however, Jaguar relented and 1978’s Return of the Saint featured new series lead Ian Ogilvy behind the wheel of a white XJ-S.

While not strictly a detective, secret agent John Steed of The Avengers (Nothing to do with Iron Man or Captain America) also had excellent taste in cars. From Blower Bentleys to a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, the bowler-hatted crime-fighter was no stranger to a classic British racer. The best of them all though was Steed’s… er… steed for the 1976 sequel series: The New Avengers (imaginative title, that) which prominently featured a Broadspeed-tuned Jaguar XJ12 Coupe (Side note, this won’t all be about Jags, I promise) complete with V12 engine, swollen wheelarches and a front splitter borrowed directly from Broadspeed’s touring cars. Like it’s driver, it was a classic brute-in-a-suit that was more than willing to flex it’s considerable muscles.

Not every detective opts for something with a cat statue on the nose (see, told you!) with Swedish metal also being fairly popular. Naturally, Wallander sees a Smörgåsbord of Volvos grace our screens, but even the Brits are at it; Line of Duty sees Martin Compton’s tiny cockney hardman DCI Steve Arnott looking stern in a Volvo S60; Idris Elba’s Luther must fold himself into a classic Volvo 740 whenever he wants to pop “Daaahn the staaashun” and Latter series of Midsomer Murders saw the world’s busiest small-town DCI behind the wheel of a Volvo S80. It’s not exclusively Volvos though, 2021’s Annika, starring Nicola Walker, Katie Leung and Paul McGann, features the titular homicide detective solving Glasgow-based wrongdoings while relying on her trusty Saab 900 Convertible, the same model of car favored (albeit in coupe form) by David Mitchell’s recent outing as amateur sleuth John Taylor in Ludwig.

It’s also worth giving a special mention to Philip Glenister’s DCI Gene Hunt of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes with his choice of Ford Cortina and Audi Quattro, perfectly setting the tone for the different time periods.

It seems to be mandatory then for a TV detective to drive something at the very least interesting, preferably a Volvo or Jag. Perhaps they make you better at solving crimes. Maybe sitting in an XJ, a car that has often been linked with ne’er-do-wells in the past, helps put you in the headspace of a criminal, while Volvo’s tranquil cabins help you focus on murder clues. Or perhaps we’ll never know why this trend has come about, but I definitely hope it continues.