Claire Sweeney

An ensemble comedy-drama about plucky northern women? It's a crazy idea but it might just work.

This breezy new bit of fun set around a Women's-Only taxi company is very much in the same vein as Fat Friends and Cutting It with a dash of Carry On Cabby chucked in for good luck.

And as you'd expect, those taxis - a lovely fleet of hot-pink Citroen Berlingos - take a back seat to the even hotter relationship dramas which are the airport runs of shows like this.

In this opening episode alone we have a funeral, a broken marriage, several panic attacks and some serious flirting.

Candy Cabs' trump card is Joy Joyner with the same hair she has as Tanya in EastEnders but a decent enough accent, that only occasionally seems to get lost somewhere in the services on the way up the M6. And her new love interest is another ex-Eastender, Paul Nicholls playing a council official. As Jackie O'Sullivan, Joyner's the lynch pin of the operation, as she and her hyper-ventilating partner Elaine (Lisa Millett) decide to carry on with the business when their best friend dies just before the big launch.

The script, by Hollyoaks writers Johanne McAndrew and Elliot Hope, ticks over on a mixture of wit, sparkle and memorable one-liners while the cast also boasts Claire Sweeney, Paul Kaye - in leopard-skin speedos - Melanie Hill and Jodie "I'd Do Anything" Prenger who gets to sing the theme tune too.

The BBC has made only three episodes so far, but we reckon there's plenty more mileage to be got out of this.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 5th April 2011

Claire Sweeney interview

Claire Sweeney, one of the stars of Candy Cabs, talks to Metro about her work on a cruise ship, her failed audition for Emmerdale and her run-in with Richard Gere.

Andrew Williams, Metro, 5th April 2011

A comedy drama aimed at the working classes. Just what BBC boss Danny Cohen has been asking for. It's about a female taxi firm and you can pretty much write the rest yourself. Not as funny, loveable or clever as it should be - but that's balanced out by it being incredibly patronising. Jo Joyner reprises her northern bit from No Angels, Paul Kaye repeats every role from the last 10 years and Claire Sweeney reminds you that she's alive. Unfortunately.

TV Bite, 5th April 2011