''Don't Forget the Driver'' is a 2019

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

comedy series, co-created and co-written by

Tim Crouch Tim Crouch (born 18 March 1964) is a British experimental theatre maker, actor, writer and director. His plays include ''My Arm'', ''An Oak Tree'', ''ENGLAND'', and ''The Author''. These take various forms, but all reject theatrical conventions ...

and

Toby Jones Toby Edward Heslewood Jones''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 7 September 1966) is an English actor. He is known for his extensive character actor roles on stage and screen. From 1989 ...

, in which Jones also stars alongside

Erin Kellyman Erin Mae Kellyman (born 17 October 1998) is a British actress. On television, she gained prominence through the Channel 4 sitcom '' Raised by Wolves'' (2015–2016) and the BBC series '' Les Misérables'' (2018), '' Don't Forget the Driver'' (20 ...

. A second series was commissioned by the BBC for broadcast in 2020, but was delayed and later cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The show is produced by Sister Pictures and distributed by BBC Studios.

Plot

Set in

Bognor Regis Bognor Regis (), also known as Bognor, is a town and seaside resort in West Sussex on the south coast of England, south-west of London, west of Brighton, south-east of Chichester and east of Portsmouth. Other nearby towns include Littleham ...

, Jones plays Pete Green, a depressed single father who works as a coach driver and discovers an asylum seeker after taking a coach party across the Channel.

Cast

as Pete Green *

as Kayla Green * Luwam Teklizgi as Rita * Danny Kirrane as Squeaky Dave * Joni Ayton-Kent as Bradley * Dino Kelly as Lech *

Marcia Warren Marcia Warren (born 26 November 1943) is an English stage, film and television actress. On stage, she appeared in '' Blithe Spirit'' as Madame Arcati and '' The Sea'' (2008) at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. In 2022 and 2023, she starred as Que ...

as Joy *

Claire Rushbrook Claire Louise Rushbrook (born 25 August 1971) is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Roxanne in the film '' Secrets & Lies'' (1996), and for playing Linda Earl-Bouchtat (Rae's Mum) in ''My Mad Fat Diary'' (2013–2015). Other ...

as Fran *

Jo Hartley Jo Hartley (born ) is an English actress. She is known for her roles in the films '' Dead Man's Shoes'' (2004), ''This Is England'' (2006), ''The Young Victoria'' (2009), '' Torvill & Dean'' (2018), '' Slaughterhouse Rulez'' (2018), '' Eddie th ...

as Mel *

Bharti Patel Bharti Patel is an English actress, known for portraying the role of midwife Ruhma Carter on the BBC soap opera ''Doctors''. For her portrayal of Ruhma, she was nominated for numerous awards at the National Television Awards, British Soap Awar ...

as Manju

Episodes

Production

For the role, Jones took Coach Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) lessons and failed his test twice, once for driving too fast and once for going too slowly. In January 2020, ''Don't Forget the Driver'' was renewed for a second series of six episodes. However this was cancelled by the BBC due to the

Covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

a decision Jones described as “heartbreaking”.

Broadcast

The six-part series began airing in the UK on BBC Two at 10pm on 9 April 2019 and continued weekly. The series performed well in the 10pm slot attracting over 2.2 millions viewers. The series was made available in its entirety on iPlayer on 9 April.

Reception

The show won the 2019 Venice TV Award for Best Comedy.

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{IMDb title, 8359654 2019 British television series debuts 2019 British television series endings 2010s British comedy television series British English-language television shows Television productions cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic Television shows set in Sussex