watching Hell Drivers 1957 , if you love the RAF Irvin you’ll love its nearly in every scene

[busdrivermike]

It shows how to wear an Irvin like a boss , Looks to have been an electric irvin, other vintage
Jackets as well but Irvin basically deserves screen credit

 

[jeremiah]

Great movie indeed.
what format are you watching?
Back in 2003, I found a region 2 copy in London. I reformatted one of my players to watch just this. Throughout the years I had been able to find it streaming online via amazon but it’s no longer available. Would love to watch again.
a few times I even found it on YouTube but that too is hard to find these days and I no longer have a region 2 player.

Scratch that. Just went to amazon and now it’s back on the menu.

 

[busdrivermike]

I recorded it last night on a classic movie channel, but it’s on a site called the daily motion in 2 parts
Just google hell drives full movie it should show up. It’s Considered a safe site.
‘I’ve worked with dudes like those in the show, some just as bad to deal with.

 

[asiamiles]

It was released on Blu-ray by Network - an upgrade on their DVD - but appears to be out-of-print (or at least out-of stock at amazon.uk), though I'm sure a search online will throw up a copy.

 

[Micawber]

I was born and grew up during the period represented in the film and in an area of England that sits on large belts of sand and gravel where extraction, processing and transport by tipper trucks was just the same as shown in the film. The gravel pits were our childhood playground - long before health and safety and over protective parents changed the nature of childhood. Those same extraction workings provided employment for some when they entered adulthood. Therefore some of the scenes shown in the film are very familiar as is the general tone of some of the characters. Some of the local pubs would be full of guys like that at weekends, there were the occasional fights but nine times out of ten it once the differences were settled they would be back boozing together the following night or lunchtime. Many of the guys involved were ex military, the war years were still fresh and rationing of certain things had only just ended. Booze at weekends was a way of coping with hard jobs and certain aspects of their service.

Large quantities of WW2 military surplus gear was available everywhere, cheap and hard wearing but oily, muddy donkey jackets and bib and braces denims were the norm. Although winters were colder back then Irvins are bulky to work in and hard manual labour while wearing one will soon work up an uncomfortable sweat, driving in a basic tipper cab with little or no heating is a different matter. I doubt anyone gave a thought about what they looked like, look at them the wrong way could result in a knarly fist to the chin. Yep, I grew up among some drivers like that, some were my friends, all have now gone.

Edited to add a few photos gleaned from the 'net of some of the slightly later larger Foden, Albion & Bedford tippers that ran around our way.