An Evening With… Graeme Aldous, First and Last Overland, and the rediscovery and resurrection of ‘Oxford’.
Wednesday 1st May 2024
Fate can work in strange ways. If Graeme Aldous had gone shopping for his mum a couple of minutes earlier or later on 1 September 1955, SNX 891 (better known as Oxford from First Overland) wouldn’t still be travelling the world. But during those crucial four minutes in Lee Green in southeast London, the sister car ‘Cambridge’ was held up at the traffic lights at the Tiger’s Head crossroads. Graeme saw it, and it started a lifelong enthusiasm for Land Rovers.
But Fate still had its magic to work. If his father hadn’t received the Companion Book Club edition of Tim Slessor’s book First Overland, Graeme might have forgotten the incident. It was reading Tim’s best-selling book that sealed Graeme’s enthusiasm.
Jumping on half a century, a group of Series I enthusiasts had the idea of attempting ‘Golden Overland’, a recreation of the original journey by 50-year-old Land Rovers, driven by people who were of similar age. They advertised in the enthusiast press for others to join them. Graeme, who was by then an audio-visual producer and presenter, offered to make them a promotional video that they could show at rallies.
This led to him being loaned a VHS cassette on which expedition photographer Antony Barrington Brown (known as BB) had copied the 16mm film reels, commissioned by young BBC Producer David Attenborough for his Travellers’ Tales programmes. In the days before personal video recorders, the three films had been broadcast a couple of times and were no longer required. They were given to BB.
Clearly this was a fantastic find, and Graeme knew they would be ‘must-see’ viewing for the Land Rover enthusiast world. He went to Wiltshire to persuade BB to let him re-master the footage for a DVD. BB was reluctant, saying “Nonsense, dear boy. No-one will be interested!”
Graeme knew the enthusiast world and others most definitely would be interested, and so persuaded BB to release the footage. It was his first-hand sighting of Cambridge back in 1955 that had sealed the deal! Combined with contributions from the five remaining members of the original expedition, the First Overland DVD (and now an online stream) was prepared and has since sold all around the world.
And if that hadn’t happened, it’s fair to say that Oxford wouldn’t now be back on the road and travelling the world once again. Again, Fate played a big part in making that happen, and the production of the ‘After Overland’ film.
In An Evening With… Graeme Aldous, his presentation will include some of his favourite video clips from Oxford’s travels: the tiny ferry across the Ganges; coming down a mountain on Ascension Island with no brakes, and (after restoration) the first outing across the North Yorks Moors on Rudland Rigg. It also features an exclusive interview which explains why we’ll never see Cambridge again.
Join us on 13 June 2024 starting at 6pm. Tickets will be available to purchase on our website from Sunday 5 May.
