''Truckers'' is a British drama television series first broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

on 10 October 2013. The series is about Britain through the lives of truck drivers working in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

, and was written by

William Ivory William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

Cast

Stephen Tompkinson Stephen Phillip Tompkinson (born 15 October 1965) is an English actor, known for his television roles as Marcus in '' Chancer '' (1990), Damien Day in ''Drop the Dead Donkey'' (1990–1998), Father Peter Clifford in ''Ballykissangel'' (1996–9 ...

as Malachi Davies *

Sian Breckin Sian Breckin (born 1982) is a British film, television and theatre actress. '' Donkey Punch'' directed by Olly Blackburn was Breckin's feature film debut; she starred alongside Jaime Winstone, Nichola Burley, Tom Burke and Julian Morris. Subs ...

as Wendy Newman *

John Dagleish John Dagleish ( ) is a British actor originally from Essex, known for his work in theatre. In 2008 to 2011, John Dagleish played Alf Arless in the ''Lark Rise to Candleford'' series on BBC. In 2014, he played Ray Davies as part of the original ca ...

as Martin Banks *

Jenn Murray Jenn Elizabeth Murray (born 1 April 1986) is a Northern Irish actress. In 2009, she received an IFTA Award nomination for her role in the film ''Dorothy Mills'' (2008). Her other notable roles were in ''Brooklyn'' (2015), ''Fantastic Beasts and ...

as Michelle Truss *

Harry Treadaway Harry John Newman Treadaway''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916-2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 10 September 1984) is an English actor known for his performances as Victor Frankenstein in the horror-drama series ''Penny Dr ...

as Glen Davies * Ashley Walters as Steven "Steve" Warley *

Ray Ashcroft Raymond John Ashcroft (born 28 June 1952) is an English television actor. He is best known for his roles as DS Geoff Daly in ''The Bill'' from 1996 to 2000, and Ronnie Marsden on ''Emmerdale'' from March to December 2003. He started in rep th ...

as Bob *Charlotte Atkinson as Andrea *Trevor Atkinson Action Vehicle Driver *Terry Connor Action Vehicle Driver *Miffy Smith Artic and Trailer Driver *Andrew Howells Artic and trailer Driver *Martin Meden Action Vehicle Driver *Cliff Bradley Action Vehicle Driver *All Vehicle Modifications carried out by Wayne Ridel @ Anglo American Filming.

Production

The series was announced on 11 January 2012 by

Ben Stephenson Benjamin Stephenson is a television executive, formerly controller of drama at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and currently Head of Television at Bad Robot Productions in the United States. Personal life Stephenson attended The H ...

, controller of drama commissioning at the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

at the

Broadcasting Press Guild The Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) is a British association of journalists dedicated to the topic of general media issues. History The Guild was established in 1974 as a breakaway of The Critics' Circle. Currently it groups over 100 staff and fr ...

lunch. The drama was commissioned with Danny Cohen.

Episode list

Reception

Ratings

Overnight figures showed that the first episode on 10 October 2013 was watched by 13.5% of the viewing audience for that time, with 2.88 million watching it. The second, third, fourth and fifth episodes were watched by 10.6%, 11.0%, 10.4% and 11.4% of the viewing audience respectively.

Critical reception

David Butcher of ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...

'' said the following about the first episode: "The trouble is, none of it makes a lot of sense, and the long, colourful speeches that writer William Ivory gives Tompkinson can’t save the drama from clattering oddness." Sarah Rainey, writing for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' gave it four out of five stars, called it a "bitter-sweet offering" and said: "The script offered a good mix of humour and poignancy, and there were also some unexpectedly lovely scenes of the countryside". Ellen Jones of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' said: "The laboriously regional script didn't make it any easier. The dialogue was so crammed with earthy wisdom and quaint sexual euphemisms that the actors struggled to get a breath in." and "''Truckers debt to films such as ''

Brassed Off ''Brassed Off'' is a 1996 British comedy-drama film written and directed by Mark Herman and starring Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald and Ewan McGregor. The film is about the troubles faced by a colliery brass band, following the closure of ...

'' and ''

The Full Monty ''The Full Monty'' is a 1997 British comedy film directed by Peter Cattaneo, starring Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, William Snape, Steve Huison, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Barber and Hugo Speer. The screenplay was written by Simon Beaufoy. The film is s ...

'' was made obvious".

International broadcasters

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

the series premiered on 23 April 2015 on

BBC First BBC First is an entertainment subscription television channel featuring comedy, crime, drama and film programming, originating from UK and mostly from the BBC. The channel is wholly owned and operated by BBC Studios. The channel began rolling ou ...

Home media

The DVD edition was released on 3 February 2014.

References

External links

* * * {{Radio Times, id=programme/cn8trj/truckers, title=''Truckers''
''Truckers'' Trailer
2010s British drama television series 2013 British television series debuts 2013 British television series endings BBC television dramas English-language television shows Television series by All3Media Television shows set in Nottinghamshire