Bangers & Classics – Details, episodes & analysis

It's the Bangers & Classics Christmas podcast, featuring some sparkling (it says here – not that anyone will believe it) chat about films, film music, and cars.

There's also news about the quiz. News which, it has to be said, proved to be wrong, thereby forcing the lads to step away from the delights of the B&C Christmas Party and make a last-minute correction.

We'll be back in 2023 if James and David have recovered from the party by then.

Merry Christmas.

Reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated (by us, it has to be said), yet here we are. And to mark our return it gives us great pleasure (it says here) to present the Bangers & Classics Quiz.

The rules are simple. There are twenty questions (unless we've contrived to get the numbers wrong, always a distinct possibility). Your job is to answer them and thereafter send your answers by Direct Message to the Bangers & Classics twitter account, @BangersClassics. 

We're counting on you to do this, as we're stumped by quite a few of the questions and need all the help we can get. 

If you get the outright highest score then you win a prize and we'll also give a prize to a runner-up (selected by lucky dip if there's no outright runner-up). 

In the event that more than one person achieves the highest score then we'll select two prize-winners by lucky dip. 

Each prize winner can choose between either a Bangers & Classics mug OR any one of the currently available books written by James or David.

You've got until midnight on 7th December, 2022, to submit your entry. Prize-winners will be notified by Direct Message on 8th December. 

The judges's decision is final etc. 

Good luck. 

We have come here to podcast and chew bubblegum, and we're all out of bubblegum...

Yup, it's 1988, and we're here to decide if it's a banger or a classic. Along the way,  the 3rd generation Vauxhall Cavalier faces the jury, we search for a boring car, and James attends a Christmas Party at Nakatomi Plaza in his new vest.

In this episode the boys reluctantly trudge back to the year 2000, a year filled with great, er, um, ah, let me think about that one.

Hmmm. More thinking time required...

Episode 77 sees our resident time-travelling mavericks return to 1986. Whilst there, they argue about the merits of a John Carpenter film, give the Volvo 480 the once over, and seek out interesting coupes to buy. Also, James pretends never to have heard one of finest songs of the 1980s but shows great interest in (it says here) either costume jewellery or an all-girl band.

The rumour: Bangers & Classics has a new format

The official comment (by B&C spokesgeezer Harry Callahan) : "Podcasts? They're for assholes..."

Exhausted by their previous lack of effort, the lads nonetheless draw deep from their energy wells (who writes this stuff?) to bring you the 75th episode of Bangers & Classics - an all expense spared extravaganza that's an avatar for all that this podcast stands for (it says here).

And that, we suppose, is an appropriate time to tell you that next week's episode will adopt a new format. Unless, of course, we change our minds. 

In spite of having to work with an idiot, James has dipped deep into his reserves of Zen and decided not to storm off in huff...

Consequently, he and the aforementioned idiot return with more half-baked opinions, dubious statistics, and controversial conclusions.

In this week's episode, the Bangers & Classics jury decides whether the Sierra Sapphire is a diamond in the rough...or just rough; tribute is paid to Paddy Hopkirk; James deliberately misunderstands the task set by this week's challenge; and the last pre-Fiat Alfa finds itself in the DangerZone.

Having extended their world record for shambolic podcasting to 72 episodes, James and David return with yet another low-fi episode.

Having clashed over the Golf GTI, the duo attempt to patch things up by buying a motorhome for the Bangers & Classics summer tour. But will this feeble attempt at reconciliation work, or is it curtains for B&C?

Elsewhere, David rambles on about a cult 1980s film, the Fiat 127 finds itself in the DangerZone, and Reliant is the subject of a typically poorly researched potted history.

After the shambles of the previous 71 episodes, James and David are back with a whole new approach, as evidenced by this episode's hard-hitting topics, which may include some, all or none of the following:

Why don't manufacturers fit toasters to cars?

Who invented liquid soap, and why?

Did David really suggest that his local council replace rubbish skips with Mazda MX-5s?

Elsewhere, we select an official nautical anthem for Bangers & Classics, talk about some abandoned ideas, issue a public information bulletin, buy a ridiculously opulent car, and try to drum up some enthusiasm for the FSO Polonez. Oh, and the Banger or Classic jury decides whether or not the Rover 200 BRM is a gas.