Boon’s BSA
Martin Kirk’s pleas for rehabilitation on behalf of the A65 (June 2024 issue) reminded me that it once was a TV star in ‘Boon,’ a drama series starring Michael Elphick and Neil Morrisey that ran in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The series was created by Bill Stair and Jim Hill, and the eponymous hero, Ken Boon – a late 20th century ‘Lone Ranger’ type character – was to have a motorcycle as his primary mode of transport.
I was one of several of Bill’s friends that rode bikes, and so one night in our local, The Lion in Bristol’s Cliftonwood, Bill quizzed us as to exactly the make and model we thought Ken Boon should ride. It had to demand unconditional love from its ex-fireman owner, but at the same time be deeply flawed. It also needed to be affordable on a tight production budget.
We batted a few names about until Jon ‘Boris’ Sayers, suggested an A65. They had a terrible reputation at the time, and so we all instantly concurred. An A65 it was! Bill said he would insist the production team procured the correct machine, so we gave him the details for
BSA twin specialists Devimead, and left it at that.
I don’t recall if they ended up supplying the bike for shooting, but Ken Boon rode an A65 in seven series and 93 episodes. Thus its reputation for poor reliability, deserved or not, ironically resulted in TV stardom.
Bill, who didn’t ride a bike himself, sadly passed away far too young at the age of 52, not long before the final series was broadcast in 1992. Is the BSA still out there somewhere?
Mark Stanley, Bristol.