An article about the special Mini Moke six-wheeler camera car that was used by filmer Gerry Anderson for his UFO series has recently been brought under the attention. Reason for me to dig deeper into its history. You can see the earlier article with several pictures here. I've now included many more and found out quite a lot more also.
I must admit I'm not so sure anymore wether the vehicle was made solely for Gerry Anderson, as I found it could be hired for many years by camera and filming equipment supplier Samuelson Film Service Ltd. of London, which offered an incredible collection of machinery to the filming industry. The number of camera cars alone was truly impressive with all sorts of camera vehicles. And the Moke was not alone either, as there were two of them. You've seen the first one, an Austin Mini Moke based six-wheeler registered RYW 677F in September 1967 as used for filming UFO. I have scraped together several new images of that car and they are all attached below.
But there was a second car, registered OYF 445F as a Morris Mini Moke in June 1968. Like its Austin sister car this one was also fitted with a 1300 engine for extra power and also came in blue with maroon accents since these were Samuelson's company colours. Both cars had names of their own also: Sam Minimook and Sam 'Casperised' Minimook, with the latter being the Morris and having extra additional camera platforms and adjustable tubular extensions to mount cameras in every possible position. I have found several pictures of that car, too.
Some of these are 'behind the scenes' shots taken during the filming. One shows OYF 445F at the set of the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Brodie. Another shot of it was taken during the filming of Dad's Army in 1970. Funnily the Morris can be seen in action in one movie also: The Games, about a couple of athletes preparing for the Olympic Games with them being filmed from the Morris Sam Minimoook. Avid Maximum Mini reader Henk van Brakel saw the car in action in London in the early to mid-1980s and was quick enough to point his camera at it. Anyone who recognizes the backdrop from a particular movie..?
The last sighting of the Morris car was in 1988 when it was part of the famous Patrick Collection in Birmingham and on display in its museum. Is it still there? It was last taxed in December 1985 while its Austin sibling was last taxed in May 1987...
