Don't Forget the Driver

Writers share the need for drama in good comedy

Back to Life (Credit: BBC)

Comedy, the late, great Tony Hancock would often tell his dinner guests, was simply “frustration, misery, boredom, worry – all the things people suffer from”.

This may go some way to explaining the success of a crop of deceptively simple, single-camera comedy-dramas that have all but replaced our more traditional idea of the sitcom in the television schedules.

From acting to writing: Toby Jones talks Don't Forget the Driver

Barry Green (Toby Jones) in Don't Forget the Driver (Credit: BBC Two)

You wait years for a TV comedy centred on the disruption caused by the sudden arrival of a foreign migrant in a settled world and, suddenly, two come along at once.

This spring, Channel 4 has showcased Home, Rufus Jones’s well-­received show in which his uptight character, Peter, and partner return from holiday to find a Syrian man called Sami (Youssef Kerkour) living in the boot of the family car.