The Doctor's Bessie

Doctor Who's Bessie on display in the 'On Screen Cars' display. The car is yellow. Two Daleks and K9 the robot dog are displayed next to the car.

Key facts

Year

1954
Country

Great Britain
Loaned by

Private Owner

The Third Doctor (played by Jon Pertwee) was exiled to Earth by the Timelords. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, commanding officer of UNIT, issued the Doctor with an Edwardian touring car for his personal transport. The Doctor made a number of modifications including a remote control, an anti-theft forcefield and a minimum inertia hyperdrive.

Bessie’s first appearance was in Doctor Who and the Silurians in 1970 and appeared regularly with the Third Doctor. It also made single appearances in Fourth, Seventh, Eighth and Eleventh Doctor stories.

In reality, Bessie is an Edwardian Tourer, based on a 1954 Ford Popular chassis, produced by Dorset based kit car manufacturer Siva Engineering, who marketed both Edwardian style four-seat Tourer and two-seat Roadster models in the late 1960s and early 1970s.