TV show sees Essex life through eyes of a cabbie

12 April 2012

It features shouting, drinking, tears, arrests and rather a lot of amorous behaviour.

A new Channel 4 documentary is to reveal what life in Essex is really like - from a cabbie's view. First Cut: Welcome to Romford follows A1 Taxis, its drivers and customers.

For eight months director Simon Smith, 26, spent Friday and Saturday nights filming. "I'm from Romford and I really like the people," he said. "In recent times Essex has been made a caricature, with everyone wanting to be celebrities. I wanted to show people being normal."

The programme employs split screen footage, with one camera on the driver and another on the passengers. Soon after they were installed, a customer was arrested after a row erupted between police and a drunken passenger caught playing with traffic cones.

"We've got hundreds of stories, it would be great to make a series," said Smith.

The cameras follow passengers who find a man in the road and take him to hospital; a couple using the cab as a wedding car; and a couple who have met for the first time after chatting on the internet.

A1 Taxis manager Julie Thomspon said: "We had no problems getting customers to go on. Every night is eventful." Welcome to Romford is on next Friday at 7.30pm.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in