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 Strong Kentish
connections can also be found in Ian Fleming’s legendary children’s book
CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, which was adapted for the cinema in the evergreen
1968 movie musical starring Dick Van Dyke as Caractacus Potts, and the
successful touring stage version, both produced by Albert R. Broccoli’s
EON Productions. Fleming’s ‘Chitty’ stories (illustrated by John
Burningham) are affectionately dedicated to the memory of the original
Chitty Bang Bang (sic) Mercedes built in 1920 by Count Louis Zborowski
(also co-creator of The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway) on his estate
at near Pett Bottom and Canterbury. In the ‘Chitty’ stories the Potts family
lived in a wood beside a big lake with an island in the middle, echoes
perhaps of Leeds Castle near Maidstone. On the other side of the lake the
M20 motorway on the old Dover road swept towards the sea. When Commander
Potts finished rebuilding Chitty, he and the family headed for a seaside
picnic, but the car, unhappy at being stuck in a traffic jam takes to the
air! They fly over Canterbury, where Commander Potts insists on circling
the tall tower of the cathedral and then on to Dover Castle. They fly up
the coast looking for a picnic spot beside the sea, but everywhere – St.
Margaret’s Bay, Walmer, Deal, Sandwich, Ramsgate – are all crowded with
families on the beaches who have the same idea. So the Potts family
eventually picnic on the Goodwin Sands in the English Channel. |
