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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2024
In 1997, UK television audiences were introduced to Maureen Rees, a Welsh cleaner who became the star of a BBC docusoap called Driving School (BBC1, 1997). Following a group of learner drivers attempting to pass their driving test, Driving School was part of the boom in popular factual entertainment in the 1990s. One of a number of TV shows taking a documentary approach to everyday subjects, Maureen became a household name for her wincing lack of driving ability. Watched by 12 million viewers, Driving School was an early form of reality television, blending fly-on-the-bonnet filming with the soap opera storyline ‘will Maureen ever pass?’ Narrated by Quentin Wilson, the original co-host of Top Gear and subsequent creator of Britain's Worst Driver, Driving School would frequently veer into situation comedy. This was notable in scenes where Maureen's car would hit curbs and drift into fast lanes and a dashboard camera would provide reaction shots of Maureen's husband, Dave, sitting terrified in the passenger seat. Affectionally dubbed ‘the driver from L’, Maureen briefly became a national celebrity, releasing a cover version of the Madness song ‘Driving in My Car’ and fronting a government campaign to increase road awareness. In style and content, Driving School made clear the television mileage to be gained from filming inside cars, including the social relationships of driving and passengering that occur in the front seats.
Three years after Maureen and Dave became fixtures of British television, BBC2 would broadcast a mockumentary about a different couple, Marion and Geoff (BBC2, 2000–3). Experimental in form, this innovative comedy series assumed the style of a video diary and was filmed entirely within the confines of a car. The series featured a naively enthusiastic taxi driver called Keith Barret (played by Rob Brydon) coming to terms with separation from his wife Marion and his two young children, or ‘little smashers’. The first series comprised ten episodes, nine minutes in length, each presented as a monologue to a camera mounted on Keith's dashboard. As a study in comedy pathos, Keith's optimistic faith in other people belies his own isolation as he drives from London to Cardiff in failed attempts to see his children, parking wistfully outside the home of Marion and her new lover Geoff.
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