Driving School

Doesn't anybody remember this documentary? It was hilarious! In fact, most of it doesn't even stick in my mind but I remember Maureen Rees as the mad welsh woman always arguing with her husband and nearly decapitating everyone else on the road. Plus, she failed her driving test about 8 times! It really was a good watch. Watch out for a repeat on TV.

It's largely forgotten now but this series marked a change in TV documentaries. It was conceived as a simple documentary about the trials and tribulations of teaching people to drive but as the footage came in it became apparent that the stars of the show were the learners not the instructors. Maureen Reese rapidly became the pupil that everyone tuned in to see, somehow the wheel in her hands liberated her mouth and the dialogue between her and her long suffering husband soon became the water-cooler topic. Her reckless overtaking became a most requested clip in a pre-YouTube era. Each week we wanted to see what danger she would encounter and the concept of the "docusoap" was born. What made it possible was the advent of compact video equipment so that the producers could shoot hours of material at little cost. At this time non-linear editing was just starting to gain acceptance and no doubt this had an influence on the success of the show. The concept of "shoot all and find the gems" started a trend that has influenced TV ever since. A small milestone in the story of TV