Car S.O.S season 12 sees Tim Shaw and Fuzz Townshend working their magic on more motors this spring.
Ahead of the show's return, we spoke with hosts Tim Shaw and Fuzz Townshend about the new series, and we learned about some of the new owners they'll be helping, the cars they've renovated, and the celebrity guests due to appear.
The pair explained that they know how much of an impact having a celebrity involved in the big reveal at the end of the episode. One of the stars set to appear is Sir David Jason, who reprises the role of Del Boy in season 12 as Adam (one of the deserving owners) is a huge fan of the comedy icon.
"David Jason was absolutely brilliant and as sharp as a razor", Tim said. "For him to do another Del Boy scene with me was the highlight of my life, for me. Having been brought up watching Only Fools and Horses, to ever have dreamt, in my wildest dreams, that I'd be appearing on camera with Sir David Jason doing a Del Boy scene. I had absolutely no idea. And that was off the cuff, that just happened there and then, that was because I explained to his wife, Gill, who the car was for and the story.
"People, whether you're a celebrity or not, we all have hearts, and you explain the story of some of these people, and they're like, 'You know what? Yeah, let me do that. I'd like to do that, because it's a nice thing to do for a regular person. The people we have on our show, I worship, I adore", Tim added.
Del Boy's not the only star who appears in the new series, though: Tim's managed to bring Gordon Ramsay on board to help make the reveal of a renovated Honda CR-X to its deserving owner (also called Tim!) into a memory that'll last a lifetime. (Gordon Ramsay appears in the fifth episode of the series, airing on April 5).
"Tim, the guy we did the CR-X for, is a huge fan of Gordon Ramsay", Shaw said. "Tim had some major intestinal problems; we're lucky he's still with us. At the end of the episode, I did the interview with him, Fuzz and I had given the car back, and the whole family are absolutely buzzing. Then, we play him a video of Gordon, talking about him, talking about his car, inviting him out for a meal in one of his restaurants.
"You just want to see the look on these people's faces when you do something like that. Yes, it's about the car, but you're creating a memory, which they'll be seeing in their mind forever. That's what this is about, the whole package, it's not just about the car, the car is 20%", the presenter added.
Fuzz also had his own thoughts about the memory-making aspect of the show. "There are people from the very early series of Car S.O.S who still come up to me and say, 'It was great that you did my dad's car or my mum's car and stuff like that, 'they're no longer with us but we've still got the car', or 'it just meant so much to them and it meant so much to the family'.
"It's something that they get to keep whether they keep the car or not, it doesn't matter about that. It's just one of those lovely, lovely moments in time, really. It's not like having a lottery win, because this is something that is initiated by the family and friends. We are just a conduit that allows the car process to happen. This is very much about people saying, 'Yeah, I care about you enough to make this thing happen."
Car S.O.S season 12 airs in the UK on National Geographic at 8 pm from Thursday, March 7.
