The BP petrol station on the Formby bypass was in a film with Norman Wisdom in 1969....

Q: This photo was taken whilst filming in Formby in 1969 but, where was it and what film were they filming? Someone very famous is in the car...

A: This was the BP petrol station on the Formby by-pass in 1969. They were filming 'What's Good for the Goose' starring Norman Wisdom, Sally Geeson and Sarah Atkinson.

It is Norman Wisdom in the car.

Norman played a banker who is attending a conference and on the way he picks up two hitch-hikers (as seen in the photo below) and finds himself confronting the 'Swinging Sixties'. Some of the scenes were filmed in Formby, at the BP Petrol Station where Norman fills his car with petrol and the adjoining roundabout, where the two hitch-hikers get their lift. There was also a rude version of the film where nude scenes were filmed on the beach.

You can see the old BP petrol station on the Formby bypass in the background - top left.

The garage was run by Formby man Freddie Allen whose daughter Gaynor is a school nurse at Range High School in Formby. Gaynor said: "My dad used to deliver petrol to anyone at any time in those days, I used to help out serving the petrol in my white boiler suit and I thought I was the Bee's Knees. My dad later bought the Shell petrol station further up the bypass by Ince Blundell Pub and we lived in the cottage which is still there now."