In 1996, the Modern Times strand on BBC2 produced a captivating, hour-long film about the students and teachers of the Knowledge, the rigorous test passed by London’s official cabbies before they can start picking up passengers. Streetwise, directed by Mark Phillips, described the gruelling course of map study and the motives and backstories of the participants and probed the personalities of the feared inspectors to find out what made them tick – armed only with traditional cameras and the director’s considerable imagination. Phillips was endlessly inventive, using the sound and vision mixer’s skills to achieve something that, at times, came close to poetry.
In The Knowledge: The World’s Toughest Taxi Test (Channel 4) from the Cutting Edge strand, film-maker, Hannah Lowes covers exactly the same ground, but with a lot more repetition and rather less art. Watching the two side by side (the former is available on YouTube) it’s striking to see how little things have changed. The formality of address (all candidates call their examiner “sir” or “ma’am”), the format of the interviews and the setting (despite the addition of iPads) is still the same today.
Which begs the question – why make another film about this subject? Maybe because the cabbie’s way of life is under threat by the arrival of Uber, and minicab drivers? It is mentioned briefly, but the bulk of this new film features repeated standard interview scenes in which tightly wound hopefuls sit, knees clamped together, trying to remember the way between two points on the map chosen by their examiner.
Lowes takes advantage of new technology, in the form of those less conspicuous remote-controlled cameras, to observe taut interviews without interrupting the flow of events. But her only insight seems to be that the candidates are nervous and that remembering things is hard. Tension does make good television, but only when it is used sparingly, and with an understanding that it needs to be broken occasionally. Here, it seems to be the sole purpose of the film.
What Lowes does achieve is a solidly competent hour, shot nicely and scored with the usual, effective strings of unease. As one sweaty-palmed hopeful after another sits in the chair opposite the examiner, desperately searching their neural pathways for the route from the National Portrait Gallery to the Bank of England, a map is superimposed in the air above them, indicating whether they are straying off course.
Everton, 33, has been studying for 18 months and hopes to make a better life for his family. Back in the examination room, he shuts his eyes and climbs into the cab in his head, ready to run the route given him. After a shaky start, he has passed stage one.
Firefighter Nikki is also hoping to beef up her pay packet with some cab shifts, but blanks her first route, the dryness of her mouth audible as she lip-smacks in search of moisture. The examiner helpfully advises her not to panic next time.
Only Mike, 60, can offer anything nearing profundity when he says: “You know you’re going to be fearful. But you’ve got to get through it. Not to be afraid of fear is actually a good thing to learn.” Otherwise, the casting process doesn’t seen to have turned up anyone willing to reveal something of themselves.
“The Knowledge just doesn’t teach you about London, it teaches you about yourself,” says Mr Gunning, the examiner Lowes sets up as the toughest on the team; the one they all fear. But this feels like a construct, because no one seems to be that afraid of him when questioned.
If you’re less of an insufferable TV nerd than me (not hard) and haven’t seen Streetwise, this programme probably didn’t fall quite as short. But I longed for some variation in tone or an exchange that genuinely revealed something beyond, “I’m nervous” or “I want to earn more money”.
One examiner, Mr Whitehead, fancies himself as a bit of a television personality and relishes the X-Factor-sized pause before he tells one driver, Paul, that he’s passed his final test. “Do you know what that run was?” he teases as if he’s Simon Cowell building up to the full glitter-cannon money shot. “No,” Paul shakes his head. Pause. Pause. “That was your last run, you’re done on the London Knowledge.” He smiles as all the air leaves Paul’s body and he sits, an empty bellows for a moment, before allowing himself a big grin.
It’s a documentary for a generation brought up on reality television: the style and the surface are all there, but the depth is missing.
