THE ITC WHITE JAGUAR; A CELEBRATION

As many readers know, ITC was the television production company that specialised in men of mystery pursuing fez-wearing villains across ‘Somewhere foreign’ (aka the Elstree Studios car park). Every week square-jawed heroes battled the forces of evil, plus the almost equally deadly forces of shaky back projection. And in November of 1965, the company introduced the world to their famous ‘White Jaguar’ footage when shooting The Baron episode Something for a Rainy Day.

The story so far; our hero, played by Steve Forrest, who looks depressed and/or comatose in nearly every scene, pilots a Citroen DS19 in ‘France’, aka the Home Counties. The guest villains are Derek Newark and Patrick ‘voice over king’ in a white 1957 Jaguar 2.4 Mk.1 careering around the Chilterns. A second Jaguar was filmed speeding off Box Hill in Surrey to land in Betchworth Quarry, as the two actors shout “Arrgh!”; they were probably thinking of their lost no claims bonuses.

It must be said that by the standards of 1960s British television, this was an elaborate and well-executed stunt. It works so well because the crew mounted an automatic camera on the dashboard, giving viewers a driver’s eye view of the Jaguar’s descent. They also arranged two cameras at the summit and at least three in the quarry to capture as many angles as possible. The stuntman Johnny Crackan was responsible for the actual driving. The Baron returned to Box Hill two months later to shoot an equally unfortunate red Renault Dauphine for the story And Suddenly You’re Dead.

The ‘White Jaguar’ scene not only looked good but was also expensive to stage, and so ITC recycled it over the next decade:

The company would also demonstrate their legendary approach to continuity by intercutting Renault footage, deputing the two car’s radically different appearances and paint finishes:

A third example of the Mk. 1 appears to have been used in The Queen’s Ransom episode of The Saint. Towards the end of the decade, footage of a pair of Mk.2s augmented The Baron stuntwork,

Best of all, one of the Mk. 1 owners recently contacted the splendid website. In March of 1966, Michael Cassidy sold his 1959 3.4 SE, registration UKV 668, for £100 to an agent who specialised in film/TV cars. And on the 30^th of September, he saw his Jaguar taking part in this eyebrow-raising adventure…