Edd China has revealed that he worked behind the scenes on classic Channel 4 comedy Father Ted – and that his stint on the programme inspired his first ever world record.
The TV presenter and car mechanic, who has appeared on Wheeler Dealers and hosts Edd China’s Workshop Diaries, has broken numerous world records with vehicles such as the fastest ice cream van, fastest toilet and fastest motorised shopping trolley.
However his first world record – the fastest piece of furniture – was inspired by his work on Father Ted as a special effects technician in the mid-nineties.
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Edd was a year in industry student working behind the scenes on the programme at the time and speaking exclusively to Daily Star, he revealed that he was responsible for a few of the comedy’s most iconic scenes – including the famous dented raffle car.
(Image: YouTube)
“I was doing a degree in engineering and product design and as part of that, I had a year out in industry,” explained Edd.
“I just thought, ‘I’m either going to do Lego as I was a Lego kid,’ or the movies of some kind. I went round a few different places and I popped into Shepperton Studios.
“I had a little scrapbook of things I’d built around the place and then they just said, ‘That’s interesting – when could you start?’ I said, ‘Whenever,’ and they said, ‘Can you start tomorrow?’
(Image: Channel 4)
From there he set about creating some of the comedy’s iconic moments, including the prize draw raffle car that is destroyed when Father Ted tries to work a dent out of the vehicle in the series two episode Think Fast, Father Ted.
“My first job was to shrink the car that has the crash at the end,” said Edd.
“I had a week pummeling – you know the storyline where the car again for the prize draw, it had a little bit of a ding and then comes the dawn chorus and you reveal the car and it’s trashed. It took me about a week to do that – I could barely move my wrists by the end of it from making the dents in that car – but it was great fun.
“Getting paid to play was the most amazing thing.”
(Image: Hat Trick/YouTube)
That’s not all, as the holiday episode where Father Ted, Father Doughal and Father Jack visit a caravan park featured a motorised wheelchair that inspired Edd’s future world record for the fastest piece of furniture.
Edd explained: “We had a wheelchair of course for one of the storylines with Father Jack getting pulled up this possessed hill. Doing 20mph going backwards up this steep hill.
“That was actually the inspiration for the sofa car. It was so much fun with playing around in the yard.”
(Image: BigDug)
From special effects technician to world record breaker, Edd is now working on a campaign with storage solution experts BiGDUG, who he says have helped him find “more room for more projects.”
“You’ve probably seen one of my workshops or my car workshop and it’s very, very messy.
“The good thing is, whether you want good, better or best quality, BiGDUG do all of those. You can tidy everything up, put it on your rack and it’s even more room for more projects – which is never a bad thing right?”
Edd China recently worked with BiGDUG, UK provider of garage shelving, storage and flooring.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
