A Cabbie Abroad, Cambodia, BBC Two, review: 'a genuinely affectionate travelogue'
Coming from different worlds was no barrier to the taxi drivers united by human warmth and enterpreneurial spirit, says Michael Hogan
Mason McQueen in Cambodia Photo: BBC
Have meter, will travel. London taxi driver Mason McQueen went to Mumbai last
year on Toughest Place to Be a Taxi Driver. Beeb bigwigs clearly enjoyed the
ride because they’ve now given this chirpy East End sparrer his own
three-parter. A Cabbie Abroad (BBC Two) sees him drive a cab in three
very different cities. Over the next fortnight, he’ll head to tropical Fiji
and frozen Canada but McQueen’s adventure began in Phnom Penh, where he got
to grips with a rickety tuk tuk on the terrifyingly chaotic streets of the
Cambodian capital.
His host was local driver Polo Doot, who scrapes a living in one of the city’s
poorest slums and was a charming chap, even when McQueen was crashing his
beloved vehicle. Not once did Doot employ the phrases “South of the Mekong
at this time of night?” or “I tell you what’s wrong with this country:
foreigners.” Well, that would have been rude to his guest. He did make
McQueen eat a deep-fried tarantula, though. Well, I suppose it’s no weirder
than jellied eels.
There was genuine affection between the Cambodian and the Cockney, taxi
drivers from different worlds but united by human warmth and enterpreneurial
spirit. An emotional scene found the pair visiting Tuol Sleng Genocide
Museum, on the site of a Khmer Rouge killing field. McQueen was bewildered
by what he saw and rightly so. The slaughter of 20,000 people is indeed
senseless.
Unpromising on paper, this likeable little travelogue – pitched somewhere
between a Michael Palin journey and a Top Gear stunt – was ultimately
uplifting. McQueen and Doot both deserved a generous tip.
