1 9 9 8 – 2 0 0 3 (UK)
16 x 50 minute episodes
This BBC comedy series by John Sullivan (creator of Only Fools and Horses) starred Robert Daws as Sam Mountjoy, the harassed boss of a down-at-heel Camden-based minicab firm called Cresta Cabs.
Keith Allen was terrific as his partner Dexter, who was trying to recover from a nervous breakdown. The state of Dexter’s nerves was not improved by his Barbie-clone wife, Tina (Barbara Durkin of I’m Alan Partridge fame), who, as Sam so kindly put it, was captain of Stupid United.
Sam couldn’t handle the new radio communications equipment – or anything else – without the help of his right-hand woman, Reen (Pippa Guard).
The motley crew of drivers included Nigerian driver Henry (Jude Akuwudike), who kept getting lost, Phil (Philip Glenister), who’d rather be a rock star, and cabbie-cum-postman, Baz (David Ross), who haunted his local dating agency.
Also in the cast were John Thomson (from The Fast Show) and Helen Grace (familiar to Brookside fans as the incestuous Georgia Simpson).
The one-hour pilot originally aired in 1997, with the series debuting on Thursday 8 January 1998.
Sam Mountjoy
Robert Daws
Dexter
Keith Allen
Baz
David Ross
Barry
John Thomson
Tina
Barbara Durkin
Rajiv
Phaldut Sharma
Phil
Philip Glenister
Reen
Pippa Guard
Marlon
Ricci Harnett
André
Terence Maynard
Henry
Jude Akuwudike
Chrissie
Helen Grace
Cambridge
Chris Larkin
Marilyn
Joan Hodges
Episodes
Even Quasimodo Pulled | I Used to Be a Superb Rugby Player | Socks with Little Tennis Players on Them | There Are No Minicabs in Heaven | Some Get the Magic, Some Get the Tragic | The Day the Music Died || Welcome to Responsibilityville | Every Victim Wishes He’d Kept His Clothes On | Sometimes It’s Hard to Be a Man | Ask the 1975 Millwall Defence | I’m Not a Little Baby and Daddy Hasn’t Gone to Japan | Too Much Wine, Too Many Stars | Love Rules the Heart, Money Takes the Soul || Play It Again, Sam | Thank God It Wasn’t Boat Race Day | Freedom’s Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose