Candy Cabs

The road to success is pitted with potholes for the bosses of all-female taxi firm Candy Cabs.

In this new three part series, 'the Candies' must deal with their own chaotic private lives if they are to survive in business, plus opposition from rival companies in the seaside resort of South Hadley. Led by Jackie and Elaine (EastEnders' Jo Joyner and comedy star Lisa Millett) it's not long before personal obstacles interfere with their professional dreams.

A poor showing at the launch party leaves the girls worried then they discover that their drivers need to pass 'the Knowledge' to keep working. Can Candy Cabs survive the bumpy ride? A superb cast includes Denis Lawson, Claire Sweeney and Ricky Whittle.

Prepare to stop up your ears and cover your eyes because Candy Cabs is LOUD, shrieking its presence with gaudy pink cabs, sets and characters. It's one of those pallid, female-populated, female-directed "comedy dramas", all blowsy, bosomy and Northern, where men are hopeless and women are noisily sensible, but a bit scatty when it comes to fellas. It's like Real People magazine brought to life. I hated every single second, but I'm sure for someone out there spending an hour with a group of women who set up a women-only cab company and get involved with unsuitable men won't feel like being trapped in a lurid, pink plastic hell.

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.

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.

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.

Comedy-drama Candy Cabs takes an altogether different approach to the subject of class by relying on the default portrayal of Britain's proles as a wacky, tacky, loveable bunch of feisty fruitcakes.

Wearing its bittersweet Northern credentials like a pair of oversized glittery epaulettes, it concerns a group of female underdogs opening a novelty cab firm in the face of the recession.

When this army of stereotypes isn't bantering cheekily, they're bickering loudly and berating their hapless menfolk, in a bland and predictable production that's basically the televisual equivalent of a middle-aged divorcée enjoying a "naughty" box of chocolates in a bubble bath.

This new series is probably aimed at fans of Cutting It. It's a comedy drama, it's set in the North-West, and the key characters are working-class women who run a small business: in this case a female-only taxi firm. On first impressions it's very soap-like: long-suffering women, hopeless men, and lines like, "I'm not living, just existing" and "We 'ad plans, me and you."

Candy Cabs: Playing the lead with Jo Joyner

When the scripts for Candy Cabs landed on my doormat - well, pinged in my inbox - I read them in one go, laughed, cried, read them again to make sure I wasn't dreaming, then said out loud to myself - I have to play this part!

Candy Cabs: BBC Comedy Drama

Jo Joyner, Lisa Millett and Paul Nicholls star in Candy Cabs, a three-part BBC comedy about an all-female cab firm and due to start on Tuesday 5 April 2011.

Video: Candy Cabs stars love Lymm

The cast of new BBC comedy drama Candy Cabs sure had a sweet time when they filmed the show in leafy Lymm in Cheshire.