Turning Back the Clock

Meet Derek Mathewson of Mathewsons Classic Cars in Thornton-le-Dale, North Yorkshire. If you’ve seen Bangers & Cash, you’ll know him as the bloke in the flat cap, up on the rostrum with his gavel, charming the crowd and coaxing top bids for old cars that have been loved, neglected or hidden away in barns for years.

Over the years, Derek and his sons, Paul and Dave, have sought out and rehomed everything from rusty wrecks to pristine classics, collecting enough stories along the way to fill a book thicker than a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow workshop manual (all 1,500 pages of it).

Now, turning back the clock on his own life, Derek takes us on a colourful journey from cleaning windows in North London and earning extra cash as a mechanic to becoming one of Britain’s biggest classic car auctioneers and most unlikely TV stars. Alongside his co-starring sons, he now auctions over 2,000 vehicles a year, attracting enthusiasts from around the world who come to worship at the altar of good old British bangers. Like that much-admired 1971 Morris Marina: one owner from new, with all its original parts – just not necessarily in the right places. The gearbox was intact, but in the boot. ‘Not so bad,’ observed Derek.

Warm, funny and full of unforgettable characters, this is the story of a man who can identify a car ‘by smell alone’ and has turned a lifelong passion into an extraordinary adventure.