That post title should get me a few clicks from potential female readers.
And my digital recording device seems to think his current Discovery channel series involves nudity:
A bit of quick Internet research shows that the working title for Ant Anstead, Born Mechanic was Ant Anstead, The Naked Mechanic.
As it is, there has been no nudity so far and I watched episode 5 this morning.
The premise of the show is that he is doing up classic cars to fund the restoration of a very old farmhouse for his parents. He has the help of an old friend called Darren who seems to be giving his time free of charge. Ant also "calls in favours" from many "friends" for both car jobs and house jobs.
I wonder if these people may appear briefly on Discovery's payroll?
Not that it really matters - it's what we thespians call "artistic license."
Like in episode 1 when Ant tells us he is scared of heights then in episode 2 he appears very comfortable on the roof of the farmhouse.
Episode 1 was particularly enjoyable though because they were doing a Triumph Dolomite Sprint - it's ALWAYS a Sprint, they never do a 1500HL like I used to have but never mind, the Sprint is a fabulous car.
Darren reminds me of someone.
It may be that I have seen so many car shows over the years that he has turned up on one if them. Although I did also think that he looked a bit like an older version of former Stig, Ben Collins:
Then I spotted Darren's surname at the end of the show - Collins!
Maybe a cousin or something or maybe a complete coincidence.
But back to the show - I think the format is forcing Ant to sell his cars at auction with no reserve which seems somewhat unfair. He lost a fortune on a Jaguar XJS and made just £200 (not including auction fees which were probably more than £200) on a mint (and therefore extremely rare) one-owner Alfasud. And when I say "mint", I don't mean it had a hole in it - check out the auction listing.
A similar fate befell an original condition (and also extremely rare) MGC with just 5000 genuine miles on the odometer on the programme I watched just before Born Mechanic - that programme being Bangers And Cash, Restoring Classics. The team spent over £30,000 on getting the car ready for auction and it sold for just £22,500. Like the Alfa, it seemed almost criminal to let it go for that price but at least that show is about a car auction site so there is justifiable jeopardy there.
Nope, but his girlfriend is currently filming the next Bridget Jones film over here so that worked out quite well.
They obviously got their diaries aligned.
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