A minibus called Ernie restored into a dream camper van by a Norwich teacher and her husband has featured in Jimmy Doherty’s new TV show.
Wendy Davison and her husband Rupert turned their beloved big blue Mercedes bus into a travelling home from home allowing them to venture far and wide.
The beloved bus even provided the inspiration for the Bignold Primary School teacher to fulfil her lifelong dream of publishing a children’s book called Ernie’s Journey.
Now Ernie has featured on Jimmy Doherty’s Dream Builds On Wheels, which sees the Suffolk-based presenter meet people who’ve turned vans, buses and trucks into extraordinary motoring marvels.
Joined by his friend and engineer Jimmy de Ville, the show sees him getting expert knowledge before building his own dream campervan.
The two Jimmys also follow people transforming vehicles ranging from a double decker bus to an old fire engine.
Mrs Davison said: “We were extremely excited about Ernie featuring so heavily on the programme.
“There is a recent huge boom in travelling locally and in the UK on holidays since the pandemic and so many people we have met have been inspired to customise their own vans, buses and horseboxes to create a tiny home on wheels.”
Her husband said the couple had first been approached by the Quest TV programme’s makers in 2018 after a social media post about Ernie attracted a million likes.
“We did a day’s filming for a pilot programme down at Jimmy’s house in Suffolk but then the pandemic happened and we heard no more about it,” he said.
“Then I got an email in March this year saying they’d be interested in filming us for the show.”
Filming took place in March and April at Aldeburgh and Dunwich with Ernie featuring in the first episode of the eight-part programme.
“They were very impressed with Ernie, particularly the bike rack and the interior. The interior in our van is amazing so they were very interested in what we’d done,” said Mr Davison.
• The episode of Jimmy Doherty’s Dream Builds on Wheels can be seen on the catch-up services of Quest and Discovery+.
• Found out more about Ernie at #erniessurfshack on Facebook and Instagram.
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