Taxi of Mum and Dad, review: a joy from start to finish
‘Have any of your friend’s had sex?” asked pushy London mum Debbie at the outset of Taxi of Mum and Dad (Channel 4). A withering look and a shriek of “Mum, we’re only 14,” from her daughter Kasey was as reassuring a response as any parent could hope for; but who knew such an exchange could make laugh-out-loud television?
The idea was simple: fix multiple cameras in eight family runabouts for a month and record the ordinary drive-time exchanges that all parents and their teenage offspring enjoy – or endure. The result was highly entertaining, especially in chalk-and-cheese relationships such as the one between ex-cop Gail and her 19-year-old son Ben in Southport, who seemed perfectly comfortable, even to actively enjoy, a relationship based mostly on her haranguing him, and him telling her to shut up.
Fun was always to the fore. Bradford mum June’s sensible advice to 18-year-old Sarah regarding a holiday in Kavos was amusingly spurned by a daughter who always had something more extreme to suggest than her mother had imagined. The vicarious thrill Kent mother Sarah took in her 14-year-old daughter Cameron’s first romance was a gift that kept on giving.
If there was a lesson, it was that parents are well meaning but fundamentally annoying creatures. A rare example of one getting the upper hand was Guildford dad Glynn’s increasingly outrageous suggested restrictions on his daughter Maddie’s upcoming house party – winding her up nicely.
Best of all were the cringe-making moments, such as Charlotte from Market Harborough’s suggestion to her 16-year-old-son Ben that they go to a gay bar together; or worse, her offer, in front of friends, to act as surrogate mother if he ever wanted a child. “Euuurgh!” was the jointly appalled response.
Clever editing and use of music played on the car stereos added an extra entertainment layer: passenger-seat bopping, impromptu singalongs, moments of sharing, and unselfconscious laughter.
All in all, a joy from start to finish. Not least because it was a one-off. Good as Taxi of Mum and Dad was, you could see the gloss wearing thin quite quickly.
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