Professor Sir David Cannadine explores political fame and image by looking at how an object or prop can come to define a political leader. In this episode - Clement Attlee's family car.

While he was campaigning for the 1945 election, Clement Attlee travelled around the country in his family car, driven by his beloved wife, Vi. Attlee’s projected image was of a man who was both modest but also opposed to the ruling elite, spurning the grandeur of a chauffeur. It was both enlightened, modest, and very modern. His quiet message of reform was heard, and he subsequently delivered one of Labour’s largest election victories. The Attlee’s repeated their road trip during the 1950 election, travelling the length and breadth of the county to rally Labour support in their Hillman 14, a middle-class car owned by the sorts of voters Attlee was seeking to convince.

David visits Haynes Motor Museum near Yeovil to learn more about the Attlee family's motor cars and to explore how Clement Attlee’s choice of cars showed he was a man of the people and quintessentially British built.

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald
Series Researcher: Martin Spychal
Readings by Will Huggins

A Zinc Audio production for BBC Radio 4 Show less