Category - Movies & TV

Well, although the programme is definitely entertaining, you’ve got to come to the conclusion that it is totally unrealistic and highly staged. Two shows in and a pattern is developing in Channel 5’s Dangerous Drivers’ School.

First of all, you have “Steph”. Her father is a driving instructor (yes, you read that right – and she’s appearing on TV being “trained” by AA instructors). If he can’t fix her serious attitude problem, what chance does a third party have in a single session? And it comes as no surprise to see that she fancies herself like all get out, and her dream car is an Audi that can do 0-60mph in just over 4 seconds. She’s typical Audi material, and chav through and through. Big surprise that the single session “fixed” her.

Like Lewis last week, Harry is a complete tosser. He is filmed driving at speed for long distances eating McDonalds without his hands on the steering wheel, and using the phone (at the same time as all that). Even on his first session with the instructor, he is eating crisps and taking his hands off the wheel (just for the record, I would have stopped that before it happened – no one is getting food grease on MY steering wheel!).

Pat is the regulation realistic (almost) one – though someone who can’t drive properly and wants to appear on TV about it is obviously going to be carrying just that little bit of extra baggage.

With the way Harry the Prat was driving (and “Steph”, come to that), Channel 5 should have informed the police instead of trying to cash in on something that puts the lives of others at such great risk. It’s an absolute joke that Channel 5 should aid and abet such criminal behaviour – and since they can’t be, then the whole thing has just got to be a put on show.

Increasingly, the programme is looking like a stage for people who didn’t get on Big Brother. If anyone does drive like that in real life they deserve to have their licences revoked because of past behaviour.

If anyone is genuinely like Pat, all they have to do is call an instructor and get some refresher lessons. No need to join Equity to do it.

Channel 5’s new series, Dangerous Drivers’ School, is attracting a lot of traffic. Even local rags are using it to get publicity – like The Citizen.

It reports that John Thompson from Oswaldtwistle (it’s near Accrington in Lancashire) is to appear on the show. Let me just correct The Citizen for a moment – Thompson has ALREADY appeared on the show, it just hasn’t been aired yet. If he’s learnt anything, he should be demonstrating it now.

Thompson, who is 35, is described as “speed-loving” with a need to “grow up”. It was his wife’s idea – not his – that he appear on the show.

Thompson boasts:

It was the wife’s decision really. I was speeding quite a lot – on the motorway, I would go up to 90 or 110mph…

…I’m a courier driver and I had gotten into some bad habits…

Mmmmm. You don’t need to appear on a TV show to miraculously learn the law. The article quotes the AA instructor who was involved, but it doesn’t say anything about Thompson having changed his attitude.

It’s ironic really that that last blog story was about some idiot trying to complete a 70-mile journey in less than an hour, and this one involves a courier driver who has to get things from one place to another as quickly as possible (I see courier vans most of the day so I know exactly what goes on).

Worth reading the comments at the end of the report, too. Seems like a few people out there have the true measure of it.

NOTE: This post is from 2011. A new series began in 2013.

Well, I watched the first episode and it was reasonably interesting. You can watch the programme on Channel 5’s website (presumably for a limited time, so get it while it’s hot!)

It was touching to see Sarah get over her fear of motorways, and great to see the other woman gain confidence. But Lewis was typical of the problem on the roads today as far as many young male drivers is concerned. Still, at least he will have the comfort of knowing that he appeared on TV and initially came across as a prat – and left it looking an even bigger one.

The same might be said of a few other people. You see, his instructor said on the show that she couldn’t believe he had a licence after seeing him drive for the first time. It was obvious what she meant. But not to some people. Here’s a typical – and wholly expected – comment:

Does this imply that the ADI did not check his licence before starting the session?

The rest of the series looks interesting. Next episode looks like featuring a racerboy who eats, drinks, and uses his mobile phone at the same time whilst driving at speed without touching the wheel with his hands, and with his girlfriend in the car. Lewis the prat didn’t seem to mind driving hands-free, either.

Surprisingly, the morning after, there are actually some sensible comments being put up on the forums. You still get the one or two complete tossers (absolutely no better than Lewis, but in their own field) who insist on trying to find fault with either the female ADI who was featured, or the driving school involved – but these people usually have a track record of this sort of thing (i.e. franchise-haters, cheap-lesson haters, not even qualified ADIs, and so on).

Episode 2 reviewed here.

This is a very, very old article.

Well, it’s about individuals with poor driving skills taking lessons to bring them up to scratch – but the people who find this blog looking for info about the show won’t be interested in that sort of minor detail. It involves driving instructors, and that’s enough.

Starting on Wednesday, 19th October, the Channel 5 series is called Dangerous Drivers’ School, and on its web page it says that “three experienced driving instructors buckle up with a collection of dangerous drivers”.

In the first episode, a pretty boy club promoter is the subject under scrutiny… or is he?

What Channel 5’s site doesn’t say is that the instructors involved in delivering the training are all from the AA, and this automatically puts them at a huge disadvantage as far as any other ADI watching the show is concerned. But it would have been the same wherever the instructors were from – any large national driving school, or independent is grist for the “professional” ADI’s mill.

You see, it is one of the requirements of being a “professional” driving instructor that you find fault with all other instructors – especially if they’re from a national driving school, even one of the reputable ones. Of course, it is also a requirement of being a “professional” ADI that you firmly believe and proselytize the belief that there are no reputable national schools out there. A third “professional” requirement is that you make badly worded, confusing innuendoes (masquerading as wit) whenever an opportunity like this arises. This occasion is no exception:

…Yep………………..I shall advise all my friends to go to the AA for free and not use my expert services for which they would have to pay…

…How can independants [sic] thrive when the big companies have a hold of the market…>

…I wonder how many non AA instructors will ask for a free lesson from the experts..!

…I am sure that AA instructors would be glad and happy to help these poor souls…

And this is before the first episode is aired. Ironically, some of those comments are from people who either used a franchise to get them to where they are today, or who are still with one (albeit, not the AA).

The AA has some more information on its own website. It apparently runs a course designed for inexperienced drivers (not learners) – this course has been available for several years (I remember that it caused a stir among the unwashed masses when it was launched), and is not new. Nowadays, it appears to be free through the AA Charitable Trust according to that website (I’m not sure what restrictions might apply, though).

But you see, any driving school out there could offer something similar if it wanted to. In fact, with so many of them offering stupid lesson prices and slitting their own throats into the bargain, you sometimes wonder why they don’t anyway. Admittedly, Channel 5 isn’t likely to be sniffing around trying to make expensive TV shows involving “Binkie’s School of Motoring” in the Scottish Highlands (I made that up). So names like the AA, BSM, and so on are automatically at an advantage.

But forfeiting any advantage from the corporate name is the free choice an ADI makes when he or she decides to go independent. You can’t go solo and take the name with you, no matter how nice it would be to do so.

Certainly, knowing how other ADIs think, you wouldn’t catch me appearing on TV doing my job (not that Channel 5 or anyone else would want me to, of course). It would be the equivalent of leaping out of a World War I trench in broad daylight on your own, wearing fluorescent green clothes, and making a lot of noise as you rushed the enemy line. Bloody stupid!

And I can’t wait to see how this develops once the show is aired and those who haven’t yet realised it’s the AA involved suddenly wise up.

As for the show, I’ll watch it – but I’m always sceptical about these things. Why? Well, if I were a crap driver, would I really want to be on TV telling everyone about it? Would I – in the process – think it wise to admit to breaking the law or endangering others?

On the other hand, if I were a complete prat with an ego problem, anxious to be on TV, would I ignore all that and leap at the chance? The answer is quite clear on that one.

That’s why I’m sceptical. The programme is quite possibly more about the complex personal issues of the people appearing, not about getting better at driving.

EDIT 22/3/2012: I understand that a new series is in the pipeline – sounds like it will be shown later this year.