Roger Moore (s_bukley/Bigstock.com)

The Aston Martin DBS that featured in the hit 1970s TV show The Persuaders! has sold at auction for over half a million pounds.

The famous car didn't take long to reach £533,000 – a world record for an Aston Martin DBS.

Perhaps no stranger to short term European cover, the main character of the show – Lord Brett Sinclair played by Roger Moore – drove the Bahama Yellow sports car across Europe on a variety of adventures.

Bonhams' yearly auction at the Aston Martin Works was the setting for the sale.

Specially modified for the show, the DBS featured a number plate bearing BS 1 (for Brett Sinclair). Alongside Roger Moore and Tony Curtis, the Aston Martin was considered by fans to be something of a supporting character in the series.

The car resembled the most recent V8 at the time, but was actually a six cylinder machine.

The producers took the high cost of the vehicle in their stride – after all, the Persuaders! was the most expensive TV show ever made in 1971 and 1972 – the years the show ran for.

While the huge auction price may seem high, at least the public had a chance to buy the machine; in the five previous sales of the car, transactions were always private and un-advertised.

The yellow dream machine didn't fetch the highest price at the annual auction: that accolade went to a DB6 Mark 2 Volante, which attracted a final bid of £757,500 – partly because only 21 were ever built by the famous British sports car brand.

Short Term European Cover