Arena's London Transport Trilogy continues this week with an exploration of the soul of the London Cabbie, part of BBC Four's Cab Night
Robert Elms presents this specially commissioned documentary, which is the centrepiece of an evening of comedy, drama and news archive.
Unsurpassed in the world's taxi pecking order, London cabbies carry a photographic memory of the city's layout following years on the notoriously gruelling Knowledge. They drive the most iconic cab in the world, yet they are also among the most maligned characters on our city's streets.
By eavesdropping on the cabman's shelter in Russell Square and exploring the stories of five extraordinary cabbies, whose experience spans 70 years, tonight's programme reveals the soul of the London cab driver.
The drivers featured include Roy Perkins, 91, who took his first fare in 1938 and served as a London cabbie through the war; Len Fox (pictured, first fare 1974) who, after 20 years on the job, found himself in a group therapy session recounting his hatred for the nine million Londoners he served; and Harry Harris (first fare 1988) who after a cashed-up, champagne-fuelled Eighties driving his cab, went travelling round the world - only to return to a major recession in London.
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