Fare Trade

With king of grouches Victor Meldrew still indelibly etched on British psyches, it's nigh on impossible to imagine Richard Wilson playing anything other than a discontented grump. Here he stars as Frank Ross, an ex-Latin teacher turned frustrated cabbie. In addition to his career nose-dive, Frank is forced to spend more time than he'd like with his cab controller ex-wife Barbara (Julia Deakin) along with the man she left him for- the owner of the cab firm that employs them both. On top of this, he also has his hopeless son Sean (Ralf Little) to contend with. Will Frank ever escape the gloom of his cab and return to the classics? A Russian oligarch, a box of human remains and a broken coffee machine all provide plenty of laughs - Wilson fans won't be disappointed.

Richard Wilson stars in John Langdon's comedy, playing Frank who used to be a Latin teacher and once was married but has now become a mini-cab driver. Even worse, he's working for his ex-wife Barbara, who's the cab controller, and her husband who owns the firm. No wonder Frank is looking for another way to earn a living. There are two reasons to think this must be a good script. First, Wilson doesn't do rubbish. Second, John Langdon is an accomplished writer who worked for Punch and was on the team of The News Quiz when it was still worth listening to.