A typical spiv has been described as having: A duck's arse haircut, Clark Gable moustache, rakish trilby hat, drape-shape jacket,, and loud garish tie ... which all represented a deliberate snook cocked at wartime austerity.
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Other crime films which have been quoted as part of the spiv cycle – though not always featuring a spiv character just criminal dealings – are They Made Me a Fugitive, It Always Rains on Sunday, Odd Man Out, No Way Back, The Third Man and Waterloo Road.
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The character Swinburne (played by Bruce Forsyth) in the film Bedknobs and Broomsticks – set in London during the Second World War – has a similar appearance, and offers to sell from a selection of watches which are pinned inside his coat.
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In The Kinks' rock opera Preservation: Acts 1 & 2 Ray Davies states that his character "Flash", at that point leader of the Government, had started out as a "Second Hand Car Spiv" in the song "Scum of the Earth".
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Stanley James Carroll Beck (21 February 1929 – 6 August 1973) was an English actor best remembered for his role as Private Joe Walker, the cockney spiv in the popular BBC sitcom Dad's Army.
He most commonly played spiv characters, one notable exception being the 1956 film Reach for the Sky in which he played the prosthetics expert to Douglas Bader.