STV show Ayrshire man's new documentary on Linwood car plant

Paul Coulter's hour-long film tells of the rise and fall of the plant, where many Ayrshire residents worked in the 1960s and 70s building the Hillman Imp, Avenger, Hunter and Sunbeam.

Paul, a life-long classic car fan, learned to drive in his hometown of Ardrossan in 1995 in his Hillman Imp.

He said: "I’m sure a lot of people will remember my Imps driving around Ardrossan in the 1990s.

"I used to drive it to school and it also parked in Glasgow Street outside the shop I had a part time job in as a teenager. 

"Last year, the car was on display at the V&A Dundee as I was the People's Ambassador for Tartan exhibition."

After graduating from university, Paul went on to collect Imps and restore them as a hobby from his garage in Seamill.

Former police officer Myra Patterson appears in the documentary (Image: Paul Coulter) He also wrote the book Our Hillman Imp, 50 years of Scotland's Car published in 2013 and a  five-star theatrical play called Linwood No More.

Featuring Trainspotting and Restless Natives star the late Vincent Freill, the show toured Scotland in 2014 from The Traverse in Edinburgh to The Tron in Glasgow, including a performance at Ayrshire’s own Harbour Arts Centre in Irvine.

Through Paul's property company Squarestone, he acquired the remains of the Linwood Plant in 2015 and restored them before selling out in 2021. 

Paul said: “The Linwood factory was created by British car manufacturer The Rootes Groupe to build a direct competitor to the Mini, the Hillman Imp.

"With government pressure and grants, a new plant was built nearby in Linwood, creating thousands of jobs for local people.

"For various reasons the Imp was only produced for 13 years and the factory closed after several buy-outs in 1981 only 18 years after opening.

"That left thousands out of work, with a huge knock-on effect for the west of Scotland."

He added: "I believe popular culture gets the Linwood story wrong on many levels with the workers and strikes often blamed for the closure.

"This new documentary seeks to get to the bottom of the story by speaking with workers who were actually there at the time from the shop floor to the board room.

"We also interview former Ayrshire policewoman Myra Patterson, who worked the Linwood beat at the height of production and the strike-prone era to understand what it was really like. 

"In addition, we team up with Autocar, the world's oldest car magazine, to design a Hillman Imp for 2024, to see what could have been had the Imp enjoyed the same success as its rival the Mini.”

The programme, produced by award-winning Sgeul Media, Glasgow, is now available to stream free of charge on STV Player.