The Hotel Inspector Unseen
Driving Mum and Dad Mad
(2008) 1 x 60' Factual Entertainment

60 minute pilot following seventeen year old learner drivers Verity Abrahams and Joe Pritchard. They have three weeks to prepare for their driving test and if successful they’ll walk away with a car. The challenge - being taught by their parents in the family car. Every teenager rows with their mum and dad but could this be a recipe for disaster?

Driving Mum and Dad Mad follows learner drivers Verity and Joe as they step into their parents car, where amid a maelstrom of grinding gearboxes, bunny hops and near misses all their unspoken gripes rise to the surface. In this volatile environment arguments are intensified and about much more than the task in hand.

Joe is gay and has aspirations to be something more than an apprentice hairdresser in Plymouth. His dad is a heavily tattooed biker and they both admit that the only time they spend together is when they watch TV. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t take long before the conflict kicks in, but if they want to win they both know they’re going to have to put their differences aside and work together as a team.

Verity wants to drive so she can spend equal amounts of time visiting her divorced parents. Within a couple of days Verity is stuck in the middle of two separated parents whose conflicting instruction results in her driving into, among other things, a hedge and another car.

Three weeks later Verity and Joe prepare to sit their DVLA driving test knowing that just one perfect second hand car, taxed and insured for one year is up for grabs for the best driver who passes the test. But this is about more than just a car and there is far more to prove than simple driving skills… Fasten your seat belts – this is Driving Mum and Dad Mad.

First TX date:
Tuesday 2nd Sept 2008 at 8pm
on BBC THREE
Quotes
“Watching teenagers Verity and Joe compete to pass their tests and win a Corsa in just three weeks by veering into hedges and throwing strops was very funny, but it was the bittersweet conflicts between parent-teachers and pupil-kids which made it so watchable.” Observer

“Stroppy teenagers and drive-instructor parents make for a top reality TV mix.”
The London Paper
Executive Producers
Mark Scantlebury & Joe Houlihan