It is said that for more than half the world's population, the first car they ever saw was a Land Rover Defender. It mirrors many of our national traits, stiff upper-lipped and slightly eccentric. The car has remained relatively unchanged for nearly seven decades and has spawned an industry that includes dozens of publications, car shows, clubs, associations and even model car collectors who dedicate their lives to the Land Rover.

To understand this national love affair, Ben has travelled the length of the British Isles in an old Series 1 Land Rover, spending time with Defender enthusiast Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the Royal Marines and the Dartmoor search-and-rescue teams. His journey continues via the Bristol dockyard where thousands of Defenders are dispatched around the world and onto the Western Isles of Scotland and Islay, the island used as a testing ground by Spencer Wilks in 1947 to put several of the early Series Land Rover prototypes through their paces.

After 67 ye