Wheels Of Fury
Starring Adam Faith
by John Horton
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, there used to be quite a few police serials on TV; Dragnet, Highway Patrol, Dial 999 etc. But one particular series that comes to mind was “No Hiding Place”. Starring Raymond Francis, who played Chief Inspector Lockheart, it also featured Johnny Briggs, later to become Mike Baldwin of Coronation Street fame. It used to be on TV every saturday, in good old black and white of course.
One particular episode called “Wheels of Fury”, written by Terence Feely, starred one of our top rock’n’roll idols of the era, Adam Faith. He played a biker called Vince, who committed a robbery.
One day in 1959, I remember the Sidcup by-pass being closed, then known as the “Mad Mile”. This was the stretch between the Dutch House bend and the New Eltham crossroads. Adam Faith was filmed along here being chased on a Triumph Tiger 110 by Lockheart’s men in one of those big Wolsely 690s.
The bike managed to clear Crittle’s Corner, but Vince was then tragically killed at the Ruxley roundabout. Several months later it was finally broadcast on September 30th 1959.
We all rushed back from the Noah’s Ark Café in Farnborough, Kent, later known as Ox-in-Flames, now a Frankie and Bennie’s. We picked up some friends at Corey Hall then stampeded into my friend’s home at Brockley to watch the programme.
What an evening to remember!