The New Year has us spoilt for classic car TV, with Bangers and Cash set to return for a second series in February. Rather than being filmed specifically for the small screen, the shows follows the happenings at Mathewsons auction house in North Yorkshire, which you’ll no doubt recognise a regular on the pages of Classic Car Buyer.
Mathewsons is a family-run business led by Auction House Manager Derek, aided and abetted by his sons Paul and Dave, grandsons Charlie and Jack and ever-patient office manager Sarah. The team searches for forgotten motors in the garages, barns and sheds of the nation before bringing them back for auction. But there’s more to it than that, with each episode revealing the story and history behind each find, plus a fair degree of humour and warmth.
The first series of Bangers and Cash was a big success, averaging 342,000 viewers across its 10 episodes. Stand-out stories from the debut series included the discovery of a rusty wreck of an Austin Mini Cooper S in a garage, which sold at auction for a staggering £18,000.
This Talbot Sunbeam Lotus is just one of the finds to feature in the new series.
Series two promises to unearth even more amazing finds. Highlights of the auction lots include a rare and elegant 1960s Bentley S3 from France and a rare 1980s Talbot Sunbeam Lotus that has been rotting away in a farmyard for 29 years. One particularly endearing story is of a Ford Fiesta XR2, which eventually goes for £5000 over its reserve to its first-ever owner who managed to track it down again.
The new series will be shown on UKTV’s Yesterday channel, beginning on February 6 at 8pm. The 45-minute episode includes the story of an extremely rare 1946 Chevrolet panel van, and a last-of-the-line Ford Capri 280 Brooklands.
