THE PRISONER MOKE TO BE AUCTIONED AT THE NEC
18 October 2021
One of the many attractions of the Silverstone Auction at this year’s Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show is a vehicle that genuinely merits the term ‘television icon’. HLT 709 C is an Austin Mini Moke, built on 15th May 1965 and registered a month later in London.
Shortly afterwards, Wood & Pickett converted it into a ‘beach car’, with four bucket seats upholstered in striped PVC with the spare wheel covered in the same material. The body was decorated with faux wood, the floor covered with red and black rubber mats, and the buyer also gained a Motolite steering wheel and a striped roof canopy. There was no heater, but then this version of the Moke was intended for use in St Tropez or Monaco.
The price for such an entertaining machine was £664 9s 2d, and affluent customers could place their order via Weircrest Ltd. of Curzon Street. The coachbuilder further planned to offer the beach car via BMC dealerships across the world. As the story goes, when W&P displayed the Moke in the Hilton Hotel, it was noticed by a member of Everyman Films, Patrick McGeehan’s production company.
By the 28th August 1966, HLT was one of the automotive stars of The Prisoner, careering through Port Meiriron and doing the bidding of Number Two. It always comes as a surprise to note that just four Mokes appeared throughout the 17 stories, with the Moke appearing in the first edition, Arrival.
It also boasts the 998cc Cooper engine, unlike its fellow ‘Village Taxis’.
After filming concluded in 1967, the production company sold the Moke fleet, and HLT appears to have spent some time in the Sheffield area in the early 1970s. Later in the decade, it was privately exported to The Netherlands and resurfaced in 2011 when it was found in a barn. Four years later, HLT was acquired by Phil Caunt and his friend and fellow Moke aficionado Jeremy Guy.
At that time, the Moke’s condition was best described as not “terribly good”, with a non-functioning motor and bodywork in the Albert Steptoe class, but at least it retained its canopy and ‘Penny Farthing’ bonnet motif. The result of years of hard work was one of only two known surviving Prisoner taxis; its sister car CFC 916 C now resides in the USA.
And as to the price HLT 709 C might fetch at auction – “Questions are a burden to others, answers are a prison for oneself”. Be seeing you…
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