Reviews

Just a minor point but I've just been watching this film on French TV (Channel D17 on 16/01/2014) and it's actually set in the early '60s, not the '50s as LeonStyloroy says.

The family's Peugeot 404 wasn't introduced until 1960 and there's also a '64 Panhard PL17 in the movie but the red 1970 Simca 1000 may be an anachronism.

However, the Jacques Dutronc track one of the characters was listening to ("Les Play Boys"?) was released in 1966 on his first (self titled) album.

Irrespective of any of that, it's a gem of a film even if you see it in French without English subtitles.

The vehicles weren't all Russian. The big black limo is my 1968/73 Tatra 603-T2, built in Czechoslovakia in 1968 and rebuilt by Tatra in 1973.

Although broadcast in 4:3, the series was shot in wide-screen on Super-16 film stock.

Locations also include D.E.R.A., Byfleet, Surrey and a disused petrol station on the A40.

A piece of trivia:- Paul Darrow (C.D. Mann) and Gareth Thomas (the police captain) played Kerr Avon and Roj Blake respectively in Blake's 7 and no-one in the production team realised the connection until it was pointed out part way through shooting!