Ford's publicity machine ensured their cars appeared on TV, looking cool, often being driven by a fictional Flying Squad.
For a teenager of the late seventies whose Dad may well have owned a similar car, the Cortina was almost as much of a hero as the actors who drove it through piles of cardboard boxes. The matt black details of the 2.0S stood out like dabs on marble, and the Cortina's driver always got to shout 'you're nicked' into the ear of some ex-cons escaping a blag in a Jag. Villains knew that if they saw a 2.0S they could only do one thing: "SHUT IT!"