James Daley: The Cycling Column
Published: 25 September 2007
Alexei Sayle: I'm alive and well and living in a C4 picasso
Published: 18 September 2007
I was checking my Citroën C6 in for a service the other day, and the guy in the dealers was going through my details on his computer. I'd previously taken it to the same place to have a tyre changed, and when he got to the bit where it gave my address, he said: "According to this, you live here in the dealership."
James Daley: The Cycling Column
Published: 18 September 2007
Sean O'Grady: The car that died for a lack of love
Published: 11 September 2007
I think I've found out why MG Rover went bust. No one loved it. Sorry, I did that for dramatic effect. Obviously lots of people loved it. They loved the interesting cars that came out in spite of the fact that the firm was strapped for cash; they loved the heritage; they loved the Brummies who worked there, maybe apart from the "Phoenix Four" who oversaw its final collapse. There have been some nasty allegations about those boys. No too many people loved MG Rover sufficiently to actually buy a Rover 75 or MG ZR, but there we are.
Alexei Sayle: Push here for the rides of your life
Published: 04 September 2007
The Citroen C6 I've had on long-term test is a top of the range "Exclusive" model, so it comes loaded with all kinds of gizmos and gadgets. There's the device that punches you in the bottom when you drive over a white line; there's GPS and ESP and probably NUT and T&GWU; as well; and the headlights swivel when you go round a corner.
James Daley: The Cycling Column
Published: 04 September 2007
Sean O'Grady: This car is a Chihuahua
Published: 28 August 2007
This week, I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about and try the Honda Civic Type-R. Among what we might call the "petrolhead community", the Type-R has a very special status as a "hot" hatch. In the past, Type-R versions of Civics and Accords have done their revviest best to dissipate Honda's "trusty wheels for pensioners" image. So, I thought, would this one.
James Daley: Make mine a double, I'm catching a cab
Published: 28 August 2007
While there are many great things about cycling to work – and it'll take incapacitation for me to give it up – it can sometimes prove to be quite a headache logistically. If you're planning to go out for a few drinks in town after work, you have to make a decision to either leave your bike at the office, not cycle at all that day, or take your wheels with you and risk riding home tipsy.
Alexei Sayle: Who says Brits can't make cars?
Published: 21 August 2007
A few weeks ago as part of the documentary series I'm making about Liverpool, we spent a morning at the former Ford plant in Halewood on the outskirts of the city, now a Jaguar/Land Rover factory. Part of the scene was to take an ex-worker back to the production line and introduce him to the robot that now did his job. In addition, I wanted to find out what it was like working there in the Sixties and to discover why a plant once plagued with industrial strife was now one of the most efficient in Europe.
James Daley: The Cycling Column
Published: 21 August 2007
James Daley: The Cycling Column
Published: 14 August 2007
Alexei Sayle: My Land Rover gave up on the BBC near Dover
Published: 07 August 2007
The other Saturday morning, motoring back from Liverpool where I have been filming a documentary series, I had the most joyous experience. The roads were clear and the weather was good, but that wasn't the main reason I was so happy: there can be fewer more enjoyable things than a long drive when there is something really, really, good on the radio – a play, perhaps, or a serious investigative documentary where you learn lots of stuff to impress people with.
James Daley: The cycling column
Published: 31 July 2007
Sean O' Grady: Cheap, cheerful and great over the speed humps
Published: 31 July 2007
I was driving a Hyundai Amica, Britain's second-cheapest new car, along some potholed and excessively speed-humped roads the other day when it suddenly struck me what the odd little runabout reminded me of – the Renault 4.
James Daley: The Cycling Column
Published: 24 July 2007
Alexi Sayle: Truckspotting? I knew them all, I was the best
Published: 24 July 2007
At the moment, I am working on a series of three one-hour films about the city of Liverpool, the working title of which is "Alexei Sayle's Liverpool". It's for terrestrial BBC2, and it will be the first time for 10 years that a TV series has had my name on it.
Sean O'Grady: A bummer of a summer for the little ragtops
Published: 17 July 2007
Last week, it was the turn of our deputy art director, Dan Barber, who borrowed it to go to a wedding. Not his, you understand, but that of a friend. Which was just as well, as smoke emerged from under our little Daihatsu's bonnet – quite a strange experience, not to say a little frightening and definitely a bit of a bummer when you're en route for such an important event.
James Daley: The cycling column
Published: 17 July 2007
Alexei Sayle: Let's look at the bigger picture
Published: 10 July 2007
I've noticed that these days on TV documentaries and in news programmes there is a pixelation madness that appears to be gripping the makers of these shows. In case you didn't know, pixelation is the technique whereby something is blurred digitally to make the image all blocky and indistinct.
Sean O'Grady: Al-qa'ida's cute baby roadsters
Published: 03 July 2007
What kind of car does a terrorist drive? According to the Ministry of Defence Police, it could be a Daihatsu Copen. Last week I was cruising down the Victoria Embankment in London in a gold Copen, top down, Cool FM on the radio, like you do, when the coppers stopped me under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2002.
Alexei Sayle: My part in plot to destroy capitalism
Published: 26 June 2007
I have always thought that I have the most appalling memory and my total inability to recall almost all of my past leaves me in awe of peo-ple whose autobiographies go: "I remember it was a cool spring day. I was in my pram and mother was buying a copy of Descartes' Discourse on Method from Mr Molestrupp the bookseller, who was wearing a paisley cravat and corduroy trousers.
