Why not have a look at another celebrity owned Radford Mini DeVille that appears to have completely disappeared from the scene? This one is pretty good, if it was alone for the unusual touches - gloss black paint with dark green striped over its sides. And how about lantern style indicators? The man responsible for commissioning Harold Radford (Coachbuilders) Ltd. was film producer Roy Boulting - one of the Boulting brothers responsible for making screen gems such as 'Rotten to the core' (1965) and 'There's a girl in my soup' (1970). Anyway: Boulting had a taste for coachbuilt cars, too, as his 1964 Cooper 'S' based DeVille must have been quite something. From the picture that I found it seems that Boulting managed to tick all the boxes of Radford's sales programme. Just look at the Webasto roof, rosepetal wheels, Riley headlights, bucket seats, electric windows and chock full dashboard. Plus that cracking paint job and plain weird indicators.
One other thing that struck me when I looked up information about mister Boulting is that he fell in love with a 32-years younger actress named Hayley Mills - a former child star from the Disney stables. Now, where did I hear that name before? Ah… Miss Mills actually was the very first to commission that other London coachbuilder to revamp a Mini: Wood & Pickett! I believe this must have been either in 1964 or 1965. She also did some promotional work for W&P. Perhaps to pay the bill for her Mini? And did her lover's Radford inspire that car? It could well be. Fact is that Miss Mills' Wood & Pickett Mini became the first in a long row of Mini Margraves. What happened to it? Well, that's another question I'd love to see answered...
Film man Boulting with his richly equipped Radford Mini DeVille in 1964
Picture courtesy Small Car magazine
Radford man Boulting with Wood & Pickett woman Hayley Mills in 1968
Picture courtesy Britmovie.co.uk
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