Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car leaves fans stunned on flying visit to city ahead of Kings production

In the run up to the Kings Theatre’s community production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, showing from 11-16 April, the Kings provided fans with an exciting prelude, arranging for the ‘iconic’ car to visit some of cities landmarks.

The car and its owner, Nick Pointing, travelled from the Isle of Wight on Saturday and landed in Gunwharf Quays, giving shoppers the chance to take photos with the infamous set of wheels as well as some of the cast, before driving to Spinnaker Tower, the Queens Hotel, along South Parade Pier and finishing at the Hovercraft launch.

‘Its been really great today, lots of interest and lots of people coming in for their photos with Truly Scrumptious,’ said Nick.

Nick converted an old Land Rover into the magic flying car for his wife Carolyn, a huge fan of the movie, over a period of four years.

‘I’m not an engineer, but I'm patient, and I thought what a lovely project. I never thought for one minute it would come out like this, its just evolved,’ he added.

When it was finished, the couple drove 12,000 miles to Australia – via India – to raise money for the Earl Mountbatten Hospice, Multiple Sclerosis Society and the World Wildlife Fund.

Nick added: ‘We treat it as a family car, we go to Morrisons and get a pint of milk in it, and we take the grand kids out in it, it’s always on the road. It comes with a degree of responsibility, everybody’s watching you, but it always puts a smile on people’s faces, they're forever waving at you or beeping, every time you go out it’s an adventure – you never know what’s going to happen!’

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Marion Morris, her partner Jason Misters and their son and Chitty super fan, four-year-old Joshua-David, were all there to marvel at the occasion in the run up the Kings Theatre production, which they all have tickets to.

Marion, who lives with her family on Chitty Road in Southsea, was the same age as her son when she first watched the film, passing her love of it down to Joshua who has had models of the car since he was a baby.

On the life size version, the four-year-old said: ‘I love it!’

‘He said ‘I can’t believe my eyes’,’ added Marion. ‘He was desperate to touch it and the owner has been really kind and let us touch it. We can’t wait to see the show now!’

The occasion drew many more excited eyes, including those of Alex and Bonnie Bulmer, from Fareham, and their children Anna, six, and five-year-old Edward who are all also looking forward to seeing the production in April.

Bonnie said: ‘They watched the film just before Christmas, then we saw it was coming to Portsmouth! It’s one of those films you grow up watching and loving so to actually see the car!

‘It’s incredible,’ added Alex. ‘We’re going to have a wander through Southsea and see if we can see it driving along later! We’re really looking forward to [the production].’