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While watching certain Australian television shows during the 1970s and 1980s, I sometimes noticed a very peculiar looking car in some background shots. Whether the programme was Skippy – which I will admit to enjoying, Prisoner: Cell Block H (which I won’t) or the early BBC screening of Neighbours (ditto), there might be a vehicle resembling a love-child of a Wolseley 1500 and a Ford Anglia 105E.

Many readers will have already recognised this fine vehicle as the Series II Austin Lancer or Morris Major, a product of BMC-Australia’s Zetland plant. The Series I debuted in early 1958 and were essentially a more Spartan version of the Wolseley. The Austin bore a “fencer-mask” interpretation of the 1500’s grille while the Morris’s frontal treatment faintly resembled the Oxford III.   

BMC’s publicity announced, “The Morris Minor now has a big brother - the Morris Major, a four door, four seater, 1 1/2 litre family saloon’. Modern Motor liked their road manners but complained abut the cramped seating while the scribe from Wheels enthused about their tuning potential. The Lancer/Major outsold all of BMC’s previous Australian Austin and Morris products, including the Minor.

The Corporation updated the duo in October 1959 as the Series II, with a rear axle better suited to local road conditions plus elongated front and rear panels and those faintly incongruous tail fins. The wheelbase was lengthened, in part to improve the handling on loose surfaces, and there was also a front bench seat, which looked faintly out of place in such a compact machine.

Wheels stated the Major Series II was a ‘vast improvement on the previous model’ as well as ‘the most Australian car ever to come off a production line. The locally found content is 98 per cent. Eventually this will rise to 100 per cent’. Equally importantly the Morris was a ‘highly satisfactory car and it is certainly an awful lot of auto for a shade less than £1,000.’

By 1962 the Lancer was discontinued, following the merger of BMC’s Australian Morris and Austin outlets, but the Major was revised as the “Elite”. Power was from the 1,622cc A60/Oxford VI engine, the suspension was modified, and there was a more elaborate radiator grille. At £940 it was £13 cheaper than a VW Beetle – a central selling point - and the specification now included a heater, windscreen washers and a cigarette lighter.

In fact the Elite represented excellent value for money to the motorist who needed a compact four-seater. It’s styling remained slightly awkward, but the Morris was a highly enjoyable “second car” to a family whose main transport was a six-cylinder Austin Freeway’. Production ended in 1964 with the introduction of the locally-built ADO16.

The Lancer and the Major undoubtedly served their purpose but what BMC-Australia lacked at that time was a strong contender to the Holden, Falcon and Valiant. However, this would not transpire until 1973 with the introduction of the Leyland P76. And today, the sight of pink Elite is, just about, the reason for enduring Prisoner: Cell Block H.