THERE was an appalling mistake in last week’s Memories which had the engines of our old car spotters overheating. Sorry. We had a picture of a fancy sporty car which we said was a Jensen Interceptor, as could be seen in the second TV series of The Saint.

But it wasn’t.

Oh, no.

“You have been bamboozled by series one of The Saint in which a Volvo P1800 coupe was driven by Simon Templar,” said Richard Stone. “In series two, he upgraded to a Jensen.”

So our vehicle is a Volvo coupe.

“The Volvo was a little strange,” said Mike Crawley. “The 1780cc engine and four speed gearbox, body etc are from Sweden, but the car was assembled in the Jensen factory in the Midlands.

“In 1961, the Volvo was listed at £1,335 plus £613 purchase tax, total £1,948.”

Richard Stone added: “Jensen Interceptors were spectacularly good at rusting away-easily equalling Renault Dauphines (see Memories 520) but at far greater cost...”

David Pickup, Mark Cooper and John Askwith were among many others to spot the error.

The reason for it was that a real Jensen Interceptor had been spotted in a corner of a 1973 picture of Newgate Street, Bishop Auckland, where it must have been owned by a “man of means”.

“I wonder if that may have been Bernard Hathaway, a local businessman and former president of Bishop Auckland Football Club,” said John. “He had a Jensen Interceptor with his own registration plate, BH5545.”

Mr Hathaway formed Hathaway Roofing in 1967 and it became the largest independent industrial roofing and cladding contractor in the UK. He was president of the football club in the 1970s and owned several successful racehorses. He died in 2008, aged 74.