Dick and Des (and Steve) bounced their way across various big and hot deserts on Panther and Norton singles, recording it on video as they went...

"An Epic Journey about Friendship, Survival
and the Fulfilment of Long Term Goals"

The Last Hurrah is the DVD story of Des Molloy and Dick Huurdeman's trip from Beijing in China to Arnhem in the Netherlands on board two classic British singles, a 1965 Panther and a 1954 Norton.

With Des' son Steve tagging along to work the camera and provide back up riding, the trio follow the old Silk routes across China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Italy and Germany, a distance of around 10,000 miles.

"A plan was hatched for one last tilt at the world before it all becomes too accessible"

The tag line for the film is "one last tilt at the world before it all becomes too accessible" but the sight of a support truck in the early scenes had me worried that this film was more "one last trip before we get too old". In fact the support truck is left behind at the Mongolian border and the three bounce off across the desert on their own for what must have felt like the real start of the adventure.

The film is a tribute to the rugged reliability of the bikes, the dogged determination of Des and Dick (and Steve) and the simplicity and quality of modern video cameras. And therein lies the biggest problem. Producing hours of video of old bikes rattling across stunning landscapes isn't enough to make a compelling film, and it would have benefited greatly from some more scene setting at the start and a little more cinematic structure. Who are these two old blokes? Why are they riding from China to Holland? How did they prepare their bikes? What do their families think of the venture?

Instead we're dropped into what feels like the middle of the action and it takes a while to engage with Des and Dick (and Steve). The film *is* engaging, however, and every jolting bump to Des' injured posterior brings a wince and we feel for Dick when… No, I'm not going to give away the story.

The one other element lacking is any real information about the bikes; Dick's Norton in particular is a long way from standard. And when they break down we're rarely told what went wrong or how it was fixed. There's an accompanying book (also available through Panther Publishing) and perhaps that provides more background to what was, after all, an epic journey.

On its own the DVD is still a touching and inspiring story, and well worth a watch.

Martin G

******

The ISBN number for the book is 09547912-5-8 and for the DVD is 09547912-7-4. Both are published by =Panther Publishing. The 60 minute DVD on its own is £11.69, the book on its own is £10.95, and the two together are a bargain £21.52 including VAT.

Buy The Last Hurrah!: From Beijing to Arnhem 2005 (Paperback and DVD set) from Amazon.co.uk

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