It’s hard to believe, looking at the policemen mugging for the camera in 1960 (left), that the Wolsey 690 was the classic squad car of its day The age of the beautiful police vehicle is well truly dead. Keeping its memory alive, however, is “Drive the City”, a photographic exhibition of the City of London’s police-force vehicles, from which this picture is taken. Begged, borrowed and (well, almost) stolen from retired officers and archives, the 24 pictures chart the development of the force’s fleet of vehicles from the first motorised ambulances of 1907 (their bewhiskered drivers caricatures of what a policeman should look like, far right) to the BMW 600cc of 1980. Eddie Pack (right), the City’s first police motorcyclist, takes to the road in 1949 on a Triumph 500cc Twin Speed, protected by nothing more than a fire-extinguisher (the Thermos-like object sitting beside the back wheel). Incredibly, he got the job because he was the only officer to own full-length boots. A must for motor fans, period uniform enthusiasts and social historians.

Stalls Gallery, Level 1, Barbican Centre, EC2, 2-30 March (open from 5.30pm only on 15 and 24 March); free. Audience participation was not greatly encouraged when the dancing girls took the stage at the Windmill Theatre in Soho. But it will be next week, when Big Country opens on the site of the lamented Windmill, making history, the management claims, as the first major Country and Western Saloon Bar Night Club to open outside America. “Big Country is modelled on some immensely successful venues found all over the United States,” says Oscar Owide, the proprietor.

“We have capacity for 400 people who will be able to dine on ribs and burgers and dance to middle-of-the-road country music.” It doesn’t sound too promising, but his confidence may be well-founded, because as well as the attractions of live music and the Western-style interior there will be half-hour slots of tracks by Garth Brooks, Vince Hill and Dwight Yoakam – during which novices will be taught to dance the Texas Two-Step, the Tennessee Twister and the Dazzy Duks. In no time at all they’ll be holding their own in the line dance, dazzling in the Tush Push and duding through the Boot Scootin’ Boogie It’s a goer, no question. Big Country, 17-19 Gt Windmill St, W1 (071-439 3558) opens tonight, 5.30pm- 3.30am daily (happy hour 5.30-7.30pm); free before 11pm, £10 after. “The past,” runs the line, “is a foreign country. They do things differently there.” Fifty years ago, one of the things they did was murder six million Jews. Today, to comprehend the reality of that nightmare, we can only look to our imagination to evoke the horror and helplessness of those overcome by the Final Solution.