Though the Ford Anglia ceased production more than 40 years ago, it is instantly recognisable to the young thanks to one of the most dramatic crashes in history. More than three million people witnessed this sit-up-and-beg saloon crunch into a willow tree with two scruffy schoolboys at the wheel. After missing their school train, Harry Potter and class chum Ron thought it would be a wizard idea to take the car, only to find that, when an Anglia gets going, it really flies! Though fans dreaming of driving one themselves may be disappointed that flight, invisibility and room to seat 10 adults in comfort were not available as factory-fitted optional extras.
The Anglia's quirky, American-inspired styling meant that, while it was ubiquitous, it remained an unusual sight on British roads in the 1960s. The last in a line of Anglia models first launched before the war, the classic 105E was produced at unprecedented levels in Ford's British plant in Dagenham. In an eight-year lifespan more than a million rolled off the production line and into the suburban streets and cluttered cul-de-sacs of the UK. For the baby-boomer Beatles generation it was the car their father owned, that they took their test in, where they stole their first furtive kiss. The nostalgia that the Anglia evokes has made it a very popular classic.
Unlike many modern Fords, like the mercilessly mundane Mondeo, the Anglia was a brave, striking design that lent it character and charisma. Though mass produced in Dagenham, it took its styling cues from Detroit. Its fins, frills and chrome grilles were reminiscent of a Cadillac or Chevrolet - but at a price most could afford. One of its most distinctive features was its back sloping rear window, an unconventional design borrowed from a Lincoln and claimed to aid rear visibility by preventing rain from settling. But in truth it owed more to form than function. The angle of the Anglia inspired later designs such as the Reliant Regal and, in the modern era, the Renault Megane.
But though the Anglia had an American style, it had a British soul. The name itself emphasised its Britishness. It has even been suggested that the name was adopted as a patriotic marketing tool when the model was first launched, shortly after war was declared in 1939. But times change and so do markets. When Ford looked to give the Anglia another facelift for the 1970s, it dropped this very English name for the more universal choice of Escort, hoping to break the continental market. Suffolk was as east as Anglia would stretch.
Earlier models of the Anglia, and its sister the Popular, were sluggish. In fact, instead of a time given for the 0-100kph, test reviewers would simply say "eventually, in a prevailing wind". But in the 1960s, motoring went through something of a revolution with high-speed motorways making travel easier and quicker. Manufacturers responded by increasing the power of their entry-level models with more modern, efficient engines. The 60s was the decade of love and even the most snail-like saloon was expected to have the occasional flirt with the speed limit. But the Anglia was still as much fun on an autobahn as a 30km tailback and far better suited to the chores of the conurbation, like dropping the kids at school and picking up some pebbledash at the hardware store. But what it lacked in pace, it made up for in endurance. For reasons best known to themselves, two British brothers took an Anglia to a circuit on the continent in an attempt to break some records. Their faith paid off and their car set several records for its class, including a 20,000km endurance trial. The Anglia proved so robust and reliable that the only repair required on this marathon of mileage was a few tyre changes. It was this durability and dependability that made it such a key part of the social fabric. This wasn't a summer sportscar, it was a winter weekday workhorse, as much part of the common-or-garden British family as Fido the dog.
Drivers are often enchanted by their cars but, in Harry Potter, the roles were reversed as the Anglia was enchanted by its wizard owner. But its television appearances have not always been a fantasy. The Anglia starred in a show that presented as grim and grimy a reality as you could possibly imagine, in the cult 1980s sitcom The Young Ones. This Ford was a car that demanded very little of its owner, which is just as well because Vivian was almost certainly the laziest television character ever created.
