Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: from film to book

I popped into a charity shop (thrift store) the other week and saw an audio book version of Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I can't remember the last time I listened to an audio cassette, but I had to buy it, as I couldn't leave a Fleming-related object forlorn on the shelf. Interestingly, the audio book was read by Lionel Jeffries, who played Grandpa in the 1968 film version. Another point of interest was the inlay card, which showed a drawing of the magical car. The drawing was clearly inspired, not by John Burningham's illustrations that accompanied the original publication of the children's book, but by the car that appeared in the film.

That Lionel Jeffries narrates the audio book (published in 1982) is curious given that his character in the film, Grandpa Potts, doesn't appear in Fleming's story. Indeed, if Roald Dahl, who wrote the screenplay, had stuck more closely to his first draft, then Lionel Jeffries might not have appeared in the film at all; Roald Dahl wrote the character of Grandpa into the second draft.

As for the image on the inlay card, the illustration doesn't precisely copy the film car (designed by Ken Adam), but the essential traits or memes of that car are there: the passenger section that re-uses a wooden boat, the long silver cylindrical (or slightly cone-shaped) bonnet secured with a leather strap, the gold-rimmed radiator grille and gold headlamps, and the red-and-yellow-striped wings. The Potts family (actually, the Pott family in the book) in the car looks towards the viewer in a similar arrangement to that shown on the film posters and other publicity material, the only difference being that the family on the inlay card isn't waving. In other respects, however, the families are identical, even down to the clothes.

Covers from the audio book (left) and the 1968 novelisation

It's a similar case with other editions of the novel. In 1968, Collins published a young readers' edition of the book in its 'Beginner Books' series (which includes some Dr Seuss classics). The story was Fleming's, but the car was that of the film. This is not particularly surprising; the film had just been released and Cubby Broccoli's Warfield Productions, which made the film, co-owned the copyright to the edition.

Chitty as shown in Collins' Beginner Books edition

More recently, the illustrations of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang accompanying an edition published by Galaxy in 2002 looked to the film, giving the car a cone-shaped bonnet, the same wing arrangement as Ken Adam's design, and a boat-derived passenger section.

Chitty in the 2002 Galaxy edition

The boat-derived passenger section is also seen on the Chitty that appears on the front cover of a 2005 edition published in the US by Yearling.

Chitty,Yearling edition (2005)

Think of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and chances are that the car designed for the 1968 film will spring rapidly to mind. It seems that artists illustrating editions of Ian Fleming's story have been no less susceptible to the influence of the film car, whose attributes have repeatedly found expression in subsequent artwork. However, as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang finds new readers with Frank Cottrell Boyce's sequels to Fleming's original book, it will be interesting to see whether Joe Berger's illustrations, which owe more to Burningham than Broccoli, change people's perceptions of the magical car.

The disguises of James Bond

A toy version of a spy from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

While sharing creator, producer, writers, and production crew, the film of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is far removed from the world of James Bond, but there is still room in the children's adventure film for a couple of spies. Known simply as first and second spies (played by Alexander Doré and Bernard Spear respectively), the bumbling agents of Baron Bomburst are hardly the epitome of intelligence. They do, however, display one aspect of espionage work beloved of early spy fiction: they employ disguises to blend into their surroundings and fulfil their missions without raising suspicions.

In one scene, the spies are dressed as English gentlemen out for a stroll. In another, they wade on to a beach from the sea underneath funnels from a ship. That their disguises are so ridiculous and transparent is of course part of the joke, but their attempts are nevertheless expressions of a key idea or meme of spy culture, particularly in fiction, that spies routinely wear disguises to keep their operations secret and gather intelligence in enemy territory.

In order to keep his activities secret, James Bond uses false identities and elaborate covers, but he does not, in contrast to the spies in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, use disguises, at least according to the file held by the Soviet Union's Ministry of State Security or MGB (a precursor to the KGB) in the novel, From Russia, with Love (1957). Except that occasionally Bond does.

In Diamonds are Forever, published a year earlier, Bond's appearance is altered by make-up before paying a visit to Rufus B Saye's House of Diamonds in Hatton Garden. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963), Bond infiltrates Piz Gloria, Blofeld's Swiss base as representative of the College of Arms, Sir Hilary Bray. Bond does not exactly wear a disguise, but he does arrive at London Airport sporting a bowler hat and carrying an umbrella to give himself the appearance of a baronet. And in You Only Live Twice (1964), Bond's hair is cut, his eyebrows shaved, and his skin darkened to allow him to mingle among the crowd at Tokyo's main rail station, restaurants and temples without being recognised as a 'gaijin'.

The film series sees Bond wearing disguises more often. In Dr No (1962), Bond puts on a radiation suit to pass unnoticed in the reactor room of the eponymous villain's base. The film of You Only Live Twice (1967) shows Bond adopting the same sort of disguise he uses in the book, and in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), he wears tweeds, kilt and glasses to look more like a Scottish baronet. Bond wears the robes of a sheikh in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), and the poncho and hat of a South American gaucho (with more than a hint of Clint Eastwood in the Dollars trilogy) in Moonraker (1979). In Octopussy (1983), Bond disguises himself as a clown, allowing him to pass through security to enter the Big Top of Octopussy's circus. Bond briefly dons a fire fighter's uniform in A View To A Kill (1985), and in The Living Daylights (1987) wears Afghan clothes, which allows him to pass by Russian soldiers and plant a bomb on a Soviet plane.

Interestingly, James Bond is not the only character to wear disguises. In For Your Eyes Only, Q disguises himself as a Greek Orthodox priest, and in Licence to Kill (1989), Q wears the clothes of a Mexican peasant. Curiously, he wears false facial hair for both disguises.

Unlike the archetypal spy of fiction, such as the two spies in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, James Bond is not known for wearing disguises. However, he does occasionally adopt disguises (there is in any case a fine line between a cover or false identity and a disguise), and in the film series perhaps uses them more often than is perhaps realised. In that respect, the cinematic Bond is given more of the traditions of early spy fiction and the spy of the First and Second World Wars than is the Bond of Fleming's novels.

One possible explanation may lie in the origins of Fleming's Bond. Fleming was inspired in part by American crime fiction, particularly that of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, and consequently his Bond has some of the characteristics of a hard-boiled detective, who tends to be more open when investigating a case. In contrast, writers of the Bond films, in preparing the script of a spy film, are likely to have turned more strongly, perhaps exclusively, to the common tropes of spy, rather than detective, fiction.

After Bond: On the trail of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Just as some actors never like to see themselves on screen, I don't like to read anything I've written after it's been published, at least not for a while, just in case I spot a typo or factual error. Occasionally, such mistakes slip through, and unfortunately one appeared in my article, 'On the Trail of 007', recently published in MI6 Confidential on James Bond's journey through Kent in Moonraker. In the article, I stated that the M20 motorway, which connects the M25 London Orbital motorway with Folkestone, was constructed between 1975 and 1986. In fact, the first section was opened in 1960, and the final sections were completed in 1993. Well, I'm in good company: even Ian Fleming made mistakes.

I was alerted to my chronological mistake when I was flicking through the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang adventures. As the story takes the Potts family to some of the same parts of Kent visited by James Bond, I was keen to compare Fleming's descriptions. One obvious difference was that in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (published in 1964), the M20 motorway makes an appearance. Commander Pott lives beside a lake somewhere in Kent in sight of the motorway and about 20 miles away from Dover (near Ashford, perhaps). Naturally when he takes the newly-restored Chitty out for a spin, he chooses to take her onto the motorway. The car reaches 100 miles per hour, passing all the other cars “as if they were standing still.” 

The Farningham bypass in Kent. Bond speeds along this road in Moonraker. The M20, not built in Bond's time, is on the other side of the hill.

Later, when the Potts decide to have a picnic on the coast, they take the motorway again towards Dover, get stuck in traffic, take a detour through smaller roads and into Canterbury, then fly the rest of the way to Dover and out over the sea.

The descriptions of Kent in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang are interesting because they reveal how dramatically the landscape in Kent changed in the nine years since the publication of Moonraker in 1955. The experiences of Caractacus Pott hint at the effect that the construction of the motorway must have had on the residents of Kent and beyond, for example popularising coastal trips and giving greater access to continental Europe, especially France. The descriptions also reveal how changes in the cultural environment were constantly influencing and shaping Fleming's writing. His books may be 'of their time', but this gives them value as historical documents that usefully reflect contemporaneous developments and events.

In my MI6 Confidential article, I speculated that had the M20 been available to Fleming when he wrote Moonraker, he would have taken James Bond onto it and described Bond's appreciation of its almost racetrack-like conditions. That Fleming took Commander Pott onto it just three or four years after the motorway opened supports this view. For Fleming, it seems it wasn't so much the journey that was important, but how one reached the destination.

Over the moon about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Just as Ian Fleming wrote three Chitty Chitty Bang Bang adventures, Frank Cottrell Boyce has penned a third sequel to the original series. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Over the Moon sees the modern Tooting family – who find and restore the famous racing car (with the help of a little Chitty magic) in their first outing – adrift 1966 when Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, now fitted with a time-travelling chronojuster, is stolen. There's only one to do: find the Pott family and the 'younger' Chitty, rescue the future Chitty, and go.... back to the future.

As with any story involving time-travel, the twists, complications and paradoxes soon mount up, and this latest Chitty adventure is no exception. What happens when the past and future Chitty Chitty Bang Bangs meet? What would become of the Tootings if the future described in the first two sequels never happened as a result of their saving the world in the 1960s? As with any time-travelling story, it's probably best not to think about it too much.

The story has much to enjoy. Meeting the Potts again is like seeing old friends. Or, rather, old-fashioned friends. Frank Cottrell Boyce nicely contrasts the attitudes of today with those of the 1960s, reflecting the changes in society that have occurred over the past 50 years. So, Commander Pott is authoritative, Jeremy is independent and capable, ever ready with a map, compass, pocket knife and catapult, Mimsie makes tea and thinks about picnics, while Jemima reminds everyone that she's not very good at things because she's a girl. Of course, the Potts soon learn that to overcome the villainous Tiny Jack, they all need to work together as a family – and with the Tootings.

There are nods to the Bond series and other films. Commander Pott drives an Aston Martin DB5. Tiny Jack, who's building up his collection of (stolen) cars, already has the Batmobile and Marty McFly's DeLorean. Other allusions are probably unintentional. When Tiny Jack hijacks Big Ben (actually the Elizabeth Tower), which is flying across the sky thanks to one of Commander Pott's inventions, anti-gravity paint, I was reminded of the plot of Bond spoof, Alligator, in which the eponymous villain steals the Houses of Parliament. I expect, however, that this vague similarity is purely coincidental.

With the Potts involved in much of the action, the spirit of Ian Fleming is never far away, and Frank Cottrell Boyce further links his adventures with the original stories with references to Crackpot's whistling sweets and Monsieur Bon Bon's 'Fooj' shop. And with these references, it seems that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's adventures have come full circle, and to an end. But I hope not. I've enjoyed reading these new adventures, and would love to see Chitty take flight again. After all, in the words of Commander Pott, never say no to adventure.

The home of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

One of the advantages of living in Buckinghamshire, as I do, is that many of the locations used in films made at Pinewood Studios are on one's doorstep. The Royal Saracens Head pub, which appeared in Thunderball (Bond makes a call from a telephone box outside) is a short drive away from me in Beaconsfield, and Stoke Park and St Giles Church at Stoke Poges, seen in Goldfinger and For Your Eyes Only respectively, are within easy reach. Another nearby location is the windmill at Ibstone, near Stokenchurch, which was home to Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), and last week I finally drove out there to take a look.

The best approach to the windmill is by foot from the south, beginning at Turville, a picture-postcard village situated along the floor of Hambleden valley. Parking the car next to the church of St Mary, I quickly found a public footpath that took me north up the slope of the valley and towards the windmill, which sits on the top of the hill. The climb was a steep one, and given that it had rained earlier in the day, rather slippery, but it was well worth it, as the view from the top over the valley is spectacular.

View of the windmill looking north from Turville

Unfortunately, the windmill is not accessible to the public, and the property to which it belongs, Cobstone Mill, is surrounded by a high fence, which gives visitors very restricted views of the mill once they're at the top of the hill. But no matter. I was thrilled to have found the windmill, and I enjoyed the walk.

Being a historical monument, the mill is described on Buckinghamshire's Historic Environment Record (HER), a database of all historical and archaeological sites in the county. The windmill itself was built around 1830 and continued in use until c 1910. By 1912, the site was deserted and the sails broken. Caractacus Potts must have worked very hard to restore the mill, as coincidentally the events of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang take place shortly after the magical car races her last grand prix in 1909. The windmill is dodecahedron in plan and comprises a blackened brick ground floor, with timber frame and weatherboard above, and a distinctive ogee or S-profiled roof. The structure was converted into a house in 1975 for actress Hayley Mills.

The roof of the windmill

The windmill's appearance in the film is also a matter of official record. The HER, mentioning the mill's starring role, describes how the mock sails fitted to the structure revolved without the use of canvas. Ah, the magic of the movies!

Does Chitty Chitty Bang Bang take off?

It must have been a challenge for Frank Cottrell Boyce to write a sequel. After all, there are two Chitty Chitty Bang Bangs. There's the film incarnation, which appeared on screens in 1968 and starred in a magical musical adventure. Then there's Ian Fleming's original Chitty, which began life as a children's book in 1964. Less well known than the film version, the story takes Chitty and the Pott family on adventures in England and France, where they foil a gang of burglars and villains. Boyce's solution is to embrace both Chitties, and the result – Chitty Chitty Bang Bang flies again – is a wonderful testament to the book's cinematic and literary ancestry.

In his latest adventure, Frank Cottrell Boyce introduces us to the Tootings. Dad, an inventive engineer, loses his job, but ever the optimist, sees it as an opportunity to explore and visit new places. Excited at the prospect, Mum acquires a rusty VW camper van, much to the embarrassment of children Lucy, Jem and Little Harry. Jem soon changes his mind, though, when given the chance to restore the van with Dad.

A visit to a scrapyard brings more excitement as they encounter an old engine – once the power behind the racing car of Count Zborowski. That's when the magic begins. The Tootings quickly find out that it's the van, not them, who's driving, as it takes them from England to France, then to Egypt for reasons that slowly become clear. On the way, they encounter a glamorous nanny, and the mysterious Tiny Jack, who has his own interest in the flying van.

The story is imbued with the spirit of Ian Fleming. The author gives the Tootings the same 'never say no to adventure' philosophy shown by the original Potts, and skilfully weaves in interesting facts, just as Fleming did. The name Jem, short for Jeremy, and an allusion to the original children, Jeremy and Jemima, is a nice touch too. The illustrations, by Joe Berger, recall the art of Fleming's illustrator, John Burningham. The film is not forgotten either. There is more than a hint of the childcatcher, and fantastic toys are an important feature of the book, just as they are in the film, while descriptions of Tiny Jack's hideaway could come from the drawing board of Ken Adam. There's even a cameo role for James Bond's most famous car.

At the end of the book, the author acknowledges that there are questions concerning some of the plot details that remain unanswered. But then again, the bigger question of how a car came to fly at all is one that even Fleming never addressed. Neither book, old and new, is the worse for this – we accept the magic, which papers over all the holes. Despite the nods to the past, readers of the latest adventure don't need to be familiar with earlier incarnations to enjoy the book. It stands on its own four wheels, and serves as the perfect introduction to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for the next generation.

From Chitty to Camper – the magical car flies again

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Ian Fleming’s only children’s book (although I started reading the Bond books from the age of 12), gets a sequel. Novelist and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce was invited by the Ian Fleming estate to continue the adventures of the magical car. The book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, will be published in November.

The original car was based on a racing car built in 1920 by Count Zborowski, who used a pre-1914 Mercedes chassis and a six-cylinder Maybach engine, a type normally fitted to Zeppelins. For the new book, Cottrell Boyce has retained the engine, but placed it instead into a VW camper van.

Why a camper van? It is possible, simply, that Cottrell Boyce likes the vehicle, perhaps having owned or otherwise experienced one himself. But the camper van does in any case seem an appropriate choice. I don’t know how the camper van has been depicted in literature, but in recent films the camper van has either been used to evoke period (Forest Gump), or identify ex-hippies (Field of Dreams). I suspect, however, that Cottrell Boyce has picked up the idea of the camper van representing adventure and freedom in the way shown in Little Miss Sunshine. The new owners of Chitty Mark II, the Tootings, may also echo the kooky, poor, and ultimately loving and accepting, family depicted in the film. If so, then the Tootings would not be very far removed from the original Potts, a poor family on the margins of society, whose lives are changed with the arrival of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.