... was working as an apprentice mechanic at TVR's factory in Bispham, Blackpool, when a client with contacts in the music industry heard him singing while he worked. He suggested that Alfie should go for an audition at the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Alfie acted on this advice ... and the rest is history.
Wikipedia tells us that Alfie "enjoyed entertaining his colleagues by singing opera arias while he polished the cars", and that following the success of his audition he "gave up polishing cars to embark on a singing career".
The transition from car polisher to opera singer does sound more dramatic than from apprentice mechanic. No doubt polishing the cars is one of the jobs that an apprentice mechanic is expected to perform, but it surely does Alfie (not to mention his fellow apprentices) a disservice to describe him as a "car polisher".
TVR's Bispham factory closed in 2006, and was demolished in 2016. Also in 2016, First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones announced that TVR was to build a new factory in Ebbw Vale. In September 2017 the company revealed its new model, named the Griffith – a revival of a previous company name. Production was due to start in late 2018, with delivery in 2019.
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