Maureen Rees (born 25 February 1942) is a British television personality from

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, who was Britain's first

reality-television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

star. She became prominent in the late 1990s after her appearances in two series of the

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, ...

docuseries Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

Driving School ''Driving School'' is a docusoap that was broadcast on BBC1 in the summer of 1997, which followed a group of learner drivers around Bristol and South Wales. The series was made on a reduced budget but shown in primetime, it created one of the ...

'', which received 12 million viewers."What Happened To Maureen From Driving School?"
– ''

Yahoo! News Yahoo! News is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo!. The site was created by a Yahoo! software engineer named Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such as the Associate ...

'', 20 September 2016"Learner from Hell sees her life flash before her eyes"
– ''

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 publish ...

'', 26 August 1997 The series followed several individuals, located in either

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

or South Wales, during their driving lessons through to the undertaking of their

driving exam A driving test (also known as a driving exam, driver's test, or road test) is a procedure designed to test a person's ability to drive a motor vehicle. It exists in various forms worldwide, and is often a requirement to obtain a driver's lic ...

. Prior to the series, the Reeses had spent hundreds of pounds (quantified by Rees as 80% of her income) on lessons and four failed practical tests. During the series, Rees twice more failed to pass the test, as well as the driving theory exam. During series, she received the nickname the ''driver from L''."In search of Mo from Driving School: The learner driver from L we all fell in love with"
–

Wales Online Media Wales Ltd. is a publishing company based in Cardiff, Wales. As of 2009 it was owned by Reach plc (formerly known as the Trinity Mirror Group). It was previously known as the Western Mail & Echo Ltd. History The ''Western Mail'' was fo ...

, 23 December 2018 Rees eventually passed on 6 June 1997,"Me and my car; Maureen Rees" – '' Daily Record'', 24 October 1998 at the seventh attempt, in the last episode in an automatic, though after the series finished she also passed a test in manual-transmission vehicle.

Early life

Born on Milton Street in the

Roath Roath ( cy, Y Rhath) is a district and community to the north-east of the city centre of Cardiff, capital of Wales. There is no community council for the area which is mostly covered by the Plasnewydd electoral ward, and stretches from Adamsdo ...

area of

, the first child of Beatrice and Thomas (d. 1992), Reese attended Court Road and Ninian Park schools. A brother, Tony, followed. Aged 11, Rees began attending Grange Council School for Girls.

Other television appearances

After her notoriety, Rees presented the short-lived ''Really Useful Show'', in which she learned car maintenance. She also appeared as herself in the sitcom '' Barbara'', as well as travelling to the U.S. to be interviewed on ''

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that first aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009. It resumed production on March 1, 2010 and ended on February 6, 2014. The fourth incarnation of the ...

''. In 2001, she appeared as a chapel woman in the

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

film '' Very Annie Mary'', which was set in Wales. She appeared in an episode of the British radio show '' Confessions'', hosted by

Simon Mayo Simon Andrew Hicks Mayo (born 21 September 1958) is an English radio presenter and author who worked for BBC Radio from 1982 until 2022. Mayo has presented across three BBC stations for extended periods. From 1986 to 2001 he worked for Radio ...

. In 2004, she appeared in the Channel 5 series '' Back to Reality'', a show featuring former stars of reality TV. She reached the final day, finishing as runner-up to

Princess Diana Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

's former lover

James Hewitt James Lifford Hewitt (born 30 April 1958) is a British former cavalry officer in the British Army. He came to public attention in the mid-1990s after he disclosed an affair with Diana, Princess of Wales, while she was still married to then-Pri ...

Music single

Following her brief stint with fame, Rees released a single: a cover of Madness' "

Driving in My Car "Driving in My Car" is a song by Madness. It was released as a stand-alone single on 24 July 1982 and spent eight weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number four. It reached number 20 on the Australian Singles Chart. The B-side to the ...

". It reached #49 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

; the

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

featured Rees driving ''Betsy'', her powder-blue 1990

Lada Riva The Lada / VAZ-2105, 2104 and 2107, collectively marketed as Lada Riva for right-hand drive models (in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand), the Lada Nova in Germany, and by multiple other names and markets, are a series of compact sed ...

estate (although it was filmed sitting on a

flatbed trailer A semi-trailer is a trailer without a front axle. In the United States, the term is also used to refer to the combination of a truck and a semi-trailer; a tractor-trailer. A large proportion of a semi-trailer's weight is supported by a tracto ...

to give the illusion that she was driving alone) and fronted a government awareness campaign to increase road awareness.

Personal life

Rees married David on 5 June 1965 at St Dyfrig and St Sampson's Church in Grangetown, Cardiff. The newlywed couple lived with Maureen's parents for two years, to save money for their own house. Maureen worked with her mother as a cleaner at the

precision engineering Precision engineering is a subdiscipline of electrical engineering, software engineering, electronics engineering, mechanical engineering, and optical engineering concerned with designing machines, fixtures, and other structures that have exce ...

firm Alfred Cook. David also featured in ''Driving School'', balancing his role at the local bus garage (where his father-in-law formerly worked) with giving his wife occasional driving lessons, in their Lada, which mostly did not go well. Examples include Rees' moving into the overtaking lane of a dual carriageway into the path of a car already in the lane, and accidentally running over her husband's foot. The couple have three children: Mandy, Hailey and Leighton."This Is Your Life - Maureen Rees"
–

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, 6 June 2020 A local garage gave Rees an R-registration alpine green

Lada Samara The VAZ-2108, known as the Lada Samara in much of Western Europe (codenamed and later officially badged as the Lada Sputnik in its native Russia), is a series of small family cars produced by Soviet/Russian vehicle manufacturer AvtoVAZ under the ...

, which she named ''

Rocky ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burge ...

'', for passing her manual driving test. Rees was the subject of an episode of '' This is Your Life'' after her appearance in ''Driving School''. In 2001, Rees underwent hip-replacement surgery, which kept her off the road for seven months. She took refresher driving lessons again because she had "gone rusty"."Mo has lessons for 'rusty' driving skills; 'DRIVER FROM HELL': Maureen Rees has been off road for months following operation"] – ''Western Mail'', 29 January 2002 Rees is a

cancer survivor A cancer survivor is a person with cancer of any type who is still living. Whether a person becomes a survivor at the time of diagnosis or after completing treatment, whether people who are actively dying are considered survivors, and whether ...

; she decided to learn to drive after overcoming cancer of the womb, which was discovered in 1987. She also needed a car because she decided to start her own cleaning company.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rees, Maureen Living people 1942 births Welsh television personalities People from Grangetown, Cardiff Survivors of diseases and disorders