This Is Your Life: Maureen Rees

Maureen REES (1942-)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Maureen Rees, cleaner, was surprised by Michael Aspel at a central London car wash, having been led to believe she was being filmed for a documentary.

Maureen, who was born and raised in the Roath area of Cardiff, had various jobs after leaving school at 15, including being a lift attendant at Vernon's Pools and working on a factory production line rolling Hamlet cigars. Following a cancer diagnosis in 1987, from which she fully recovered, she decided to set up her own business as a private cleaner.

To achieve her ambition, she needed to learn how to drive. But failing her test several times and spending almost £5000 on lessons brought her to the attention of the producers of a new television docuseries, Driving School. Maureen's determination to pass her test caught the imagination of the viewing public, and she quickly became Britain's first reality television star and a household name through her appearances in the show.

"You swines!"

programme details...

Edition No: 976
Subject No: 951
Broadcast date: Mon 15 Sep 1997
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Tue 26 Aug 1997
Venue: unknown
Series: 38
Edition: 3
Code name: Drive

on the guest list...

Beatrice - mother
Tony - brother
Sheila - sister-in-law
Dave - husband
Mandy - daughter
Hailey - daughter
Leighton - son
Denise - daughter-in-law
Malcolm Morgan
Angela Edward
Bob Thomas
members of the Silver Dollars skittles team
Jim James
Linda Clark
Paul Farrell
Quentin Willson
Warren - grandson
Casey - granddaughter
Marilyn Evans
Caldicot Male Voice Choir
Stirling Moss
Rolf Harris
Insp Mike Walsh

production team...

Researchers: Jean Davison, Clare Thompson
Writer: Ian Brown
Directors: John Gorman, Steve Docherty
Associate Producer: Liz Rawlings
Executive Producer: John Longley
Series Producer: Jack Crawshaw
Producer: Sue Green

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Jack of all Trades

from domestic cleaner to teacher

Rolf Harris

Stirling Moss

Screenshots of Maureen Rees This Is Your Life

The Independent 26 August 1997

Learner from Hell sees her life flash before her eyes

Maureen Rees, the woman whose televised driving lessons captivated the nation, saw her life flash before her eyes yesterday.

But it was not because of another close shave in her beloved Lada, called Betsy. Instead, her new-found celebrity status had earned the attention of Michael Aspel, the host of the television programme This Is Your Life, and the big red book in which he tells the life stories of his hapless victims.

Mrs Rees, 55, from Grangetown, Cardiff, and her husband, David, were driving in west London and stopped at a car-wash.

Mr Aspel intervened as they were heading for the exit. "Oh no, oh my God, you swines," was Mrs Rees's reaction to the news that she was being whisked to a TV studio for another dose of media attention. A BBC spokesman said: "She was gobsmacked. She didn't want to drive to the studios - she left that to David."

Mrs Rees, a cleaner and grandmother, became an overnight star when the BBC documentary The Driving School showed her desperate attempts to pass her test.

Dubbed the "learner driver from Hell," her adventures gripped viewers and sent the series to number four in the television ratings charts, with a weekly audience of more than 12 million.

The programme showed her flirting with death and disaster - including nearly running over her husband. The nation divided over whether Mr Rees was a saint for tolerating her appalling driving or an unfair bully for the way he hectored her, at times grabbing the steering wheel from her hands.

She eventually passed her test at the seventh try, after spending £5,000 on lessons.

Like Eddie the Eagle and his ill-fated skiing exploits, Mrs Rees's grand display of ineptitude has proved a launch pad to national fame.

The car maker Lada was so delighted with the publicity generated by her efforts in her old car that they presented her with a new model. And she has been snapped up to be a television presenter herself for a new daytime show, the Really Useful Show, in which she will be learning car maintenance.

Yet Mrs Rees maintains a down-to-earth attitude to this turn in events. "I am just a regular housewife with a face like the back of a bus. I'm just an ordinary housewife but I've got personality and that's what people want to see."

Series 38 subjects