Mary is a 1934 Derby Bentley Thrupp & Maberley bodied Coupe. BLE 430 – B 96 BN. Two were made but the other one has not been seen since WW11, so she is unique. She is also the only Bentley in the world to have been blown up twice on screen. She was owned by Speed King Donald Campbell in the early fifties.

I acquired her in 2009, to go with my 1947 Mark VI. Since then the engine has been completely re-built, including a new head and block, with a new clutch put in at the same time. She has also been re-wired, new kingpins, total brake overhaul, new radiator and fuel pump with suspension and one shot lubrication system overhauled. Also had the speedometer and rev.counter serviced in 2018. She runs superbly and has just had her annual service at AB Classics, who specialise in pre-war Bentleys & Rolls Royces. (He also looks after my 1936 25/30 RR ).

She is currently insured for £295,000 and I will be looking for an offer around £265,000.

History

Ordered for Jack Odling in September 1934. One of two 3 ½ lt Coupes made by Thrupp & Maberley. The other one has not been seen for several decades and presumed lost during World War 2. Not much early history but owned by Speed King Donald Campbell in the early 1950’s. We have a photograph of the car at that time being offered for sale, with silver wheel discs. His ownership is acknowledged by all the relevant history
available in various publications and agreed with both Bentley Drivers Club & Rolls Royce Enthusiasts Club records.
She went through three owners from October 1954 to October 1961. Next piece of history is she was acquired by a Mr Silk of Romford in 1973 and underwent extensive professional restoration up to 1994, with a mechanical overhaul in 1994. She was back on the road in 1998. She was then purchased from P & A Wood by Andrew Smith in August 2001. He kept her until early 2008 when he sold her to Brian Classic as he did not wish to re-
wire her. I bought her from Brian Classic in April 2009 with money left to me by my late Mother, Mary. We only just made the 100 miles home with many electrical problems. I am glad to say that Brian Classic eventually made a substantial contribution to the re-wiring by Jeremy Padgett.
The following year going into the RREC Concours the heating nearly went into the red so back to Jeremy Padgett to sort out. Result was a complete engine re-build by Ristes, also replaced the radiator core and new clutch plate. Finally back on the road in May 2012. Very expensive period. However, she is now in superb condition, being regularly serviced by AB Classics. More recently the carburettors have been re-built. Following an accident on set in 2017 she was sent to Steve Penny at Penny Vintage to restore the damaged door. Sadly this was one of his last jobs before retiring. What a superb craftsman he is, he made a fabulous job of restoring her. Needless to say she still looks superb. I have owned and enjoyed classic cars since 1969 and Mary must be my ultimate car.

TV & Film work

Whilst paying the engine re-build bills, I asked my accountant if I could offset costs against my regular income as a Wine & Hamper merchant. I then started www.ClassicBentleyCarHire.co.uk as I was already doing the occasional wedding with Mabel, my 1947 Mark VI. In January 2014 I received a phone call from a TV film service company, TLO Film Services. Would I be interested in bringing Mary down to Taplow near Maidenhead to
appear in the Endeavour series of Inspector Morse on Saturday and Sunday in early February. I duly arrived at an old warehouse complex by the Thames where this episode was being made. I was shown where to park and told to go and have lunch. Having been shown where to go I sat down and found the running order for the day’s scenes. Half way down was a scene called “Bang goes the Bentley”. Quite put me off my lunch. I
found the TLO guy fairly shortly afterwards who explained that my car would be put somewhere near a series of pyrotechnic effects and no, they could not afford to really blow it up. I then went for a ride in Morse’s black Jaguar.

As soon as it got dark, I was asked to position Mary near a set of what can only be described as bamboo firework gadgets. Just managed to get into place, despite the heavy mud. The storyline is that a schoolboy drops a match into the fuel tank and up she goes. The young actor pretended to light a match having opened the outer fuel flap. CGI provided the spark and the pyrotecnic machines burst into life. There was a shot of the boy running to join the others with a big burst of flames in the background lighting up the quadrangle. All done in one shot. The next day the boys were being driven down the street by the “baddie”. Mary was
stationery with lights going round 360o and a certain amount of pushing up and down on the bumper to simulate movement. The schoolboy actors, who were heavily chaperoned, were thrilled to discover they were in an 80 year old car. And that was it. Drove home the 120 miles to Lincolnshire. Kept in touch with TLO and used Mabel in another episode of Endeavour and a friends XK140 in the Outcast in 2015.

I had sold our business in 2014 to a very nice Italian couple to take it on to the next stage. Apart from old age creeping up, we had run out of space. The business struggled on that year and then I found a near perfect industrial building in Bourne. It moved in August 2015 leaving me with my old premises where I can, if everything was perfect, stash up to 17 cars. Should explain that our old premises are in the back garden of our home. I had bought a little 18’ cruiser to do up when the call came. Jeremy, I am looking for a 1926 Derby Bentley, preferably black. Can you find me one please. I explained that they were not invented until 1933 and that mine was made in 1934 and is grey and black and has not changed since Endeavour three years earlier. Half an hour later phone goes again, can you bring your car down for production to have a look at in Ealing early next week.
Production were delighted with Mary, especially after a bit of a run round Ealing. At this point no-one would tell me what it was all about, apart from the fact that this was “The Big One”. Two days later phone goes again, she is going to be Crowley’s Bentley in “Good Omens” by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. My wife quickly ordered the book and read it. The Bentley was mentioned almost 80 times. Can I please take her to a specialist body maker for her cab to be replicated for studio scenes. Can I find an interior etc. I phoned Hew at The Real Car Company, who was a tremend ous help. A complete set of instruments and a steering wheel duly arrived.
Next, I was asked if I could take the car to Wokingham to be copied. Absolutely staggered to discover they wanted the car at Rushton’s Farm, where I lived from 1957 to 1963. Father’s chicken sheds had been converted into industrial units. A half hour drop off turned into four hours, as I took an old photograph album to show the current owners. The farmhouse had been separated from the rest of the farm by this time. A real trip down memory lane for me. Looking for a Derby body, seats etc, Hew recommended talking to Bob Petersen. He was stripping down a Thrupp & Maberley saloon to make one of his famous specials, so that was purchased complete with dash, seats etc so Mary could be well and truly replicated. Even changed the indicator switch so that both were identical. By this time the cast list had leaked out on the Internet. David Tennant and Michael
Sheene are the main stars with others being added on a daily basis. I met many people but mainly worked with these two, especially David. He is one of the nicest guys you could ever wish to meet. Very hardworking but happily chats to everyone. I got Mary back from the farm in September, ready to start filming. The first scene was near Marlow for a two day shoot where I started to meet the cast and crew. 

Trying to teach David how to drive Mary was a bit of a struggle. Most people in their forties haven’t a clue about cars without syncromesh on all gears, and David normally drives an automatic! However, Rob, the stunt driver did know how to drive Mary and quickly picked up the fact that the clutch cannot be depressed for any length of time. The main problem with David and Rob changing over was about six inches in height. Don’t think the seat had been moved so much for years, with a gentle application of oil on the runners and avoidance of catching the carpet. During this period Mary used the registration NIATRUC, Curtain spelt backwards (the subject is the end of the world ). The Morris Minor had SID RAT , TARDIS spelt backwards. David was an earlier Dr Who! Being the grandad on set meant that I was well looked after by everyone, who made sure I had Mary in the right place and usually a radio as well. There is a lot of hanging about on set then a burst of activity. Some shots are repeated over a dozen times to get differing angles and eventually sort out which take will be used. Within a few days I was getting the hang of it, meeting the directors, the camera guys, the sound technicians, moving from location to location, usually in or around the M 25 then in central London. Naturally you can watch Good Omens on BBC iplayer and see how much Mary appeared. There are a few pictures of what it is like on set. 

The second “Blowing Up”. As mentioned earlier we had purchased a rotten Thrupp & Maberley four door body and this was jury rigged onto a frame with wheels. Crowley drove his on fire Bentley on to the USAF base where it was spectacularly blown up by the pyrotechnic guys.. I must admit that I was rather sad to see this happening but as one of the guys said to me “ It’s either this one or yours”. I have my video of this happening which we will try to put on the BDC website. We should have finished by Christmas, but pushing snow and ice out of the way, rather delayed things especially whilst the extras wandered about in their summer clothes before diving into thick coats etc at the end of the shot. We returned for the final ten days shooting on 8 th January 2018. Rob, Mary’s stunt driver, was on holiday so someone else was brought in. I showed him how to drive Mary, but he was not used to old cars. Unfortunately the passenger door was not closed properly and in a scene with Mary coming down the street from an angle the suicide door flew open and hit another car, writing that off and Mary’s
passenger door at right angles. If he had reacted quickly and slammed on the brakes the accident would not have happened. It took an hour to dismantle the door and jury rig it back onto the main body then tape it up, and paint it. Obviously the door could not be used again so had to change a few shots. The day after the accident, Mary had a different stunt driver, who know exactly how to drive her. He had been driving Rowan Atkinson’s Aston Martin round the Alps the week before for Johnny English 3. The final day loomed, very cold and Mary was in the last UK shot at 8.00pm. Suddenly it was all over, no time to say goodbye, as we had to get everything off site by midnight. 

Fast forward to April 2019 and there was a request from Amazon for Mary to be used for the launching of Good Omens. First she appeared on the “Green Carpet” in Leicester Square. The event was organised chaos with the stars appearing from all over the place, and the fans behind barricades. The next five days saw us in Greek Steet, Soho on the opposite side of the road from a mock up of Aziriphale’s ( Michael Sheenes Angel ) book shop. Wonderful to meet all the directors and main stars again and properly say goodbye. The fans were queuing round the block to see the Book Shop and Mary. Now back to normality. Mary was amongst the 1321 Bentley’s at Blenheim, as well as appearing at the RREC Concours event for Derbys in June. Now in my heated warehouse under cover for the winter. In 2023, seven of us ran the 90 th Anniversay weekend of the launch of Derby
Bentleys, where 104 of these cars turned up at some part over this period. Final part of the weekend was at Chatsworth House on the Sunday. Prior to this five of us met with Simon Taylor of Classic and Sports Car Magazine so that he could do an article about these wonderful cars. His article finally appeared in the December 2024 edition. Naturally Mary is one of these five.