Driving can be stressful at the best of times, but at the worst of times, it can be an absolute nightmare. We’ve got first-hand accounts from drivers who came to a grinding halt. From road users who failed to put their brain into gear to extraordinary obstructions. Tempers are at boiling point and there are matters of life and death in this 90-minute special narrated by Jamie Theakston.
A lorry driver can’t believe his eyes when the vehicle in front of him, transporting bales of hay, catches fire causing a tailback of mega-proportions. A chauffeur sees his life flash before his eyes when a careless driver attempts a U-turn on a dual carriageway, smashing into him and forcing the entire road to close. And there’s mayday on the highway when a driver in a jam finds himself in the midst of a real-life action movie.
Other stories include the family who have no option but to sleep in their car after enduring an excruciating 18-hour delay at Dover Port. Police have to be called when a sleepy backstreet in Dunfermline turns into the ‘Wild West’ as two stubborn drivers face-off over whose right of way it is, causing traffic chaos. And a heavily-pregnant mother-to-be finds herself stuck in Christmas shopping traffic, only to go into labour at the roadside while shocked onlookers drive past.
Contributors include motoring supremo Quentin Willson, president of the AA Edmund King OBE and journalist Lucrezia Millarini.
Rating 541,000 (peaking at 720,000) and a 3.5% share. The top show on Channel 5 the day it aired, up against the Rugby World Cup and Strictly beating BBC2 and Ch4.