From A to B

Tying in with a BBC 2 series, this is a comedy of manners about car ownership in Britain, and consists primarily of Martin Parr's off-beat photographs. It explores the fantasies, aspirations and self-image of single women, who feel in some way empowered by their cars. It also examines the life and times of the company-car driver, indulging in rituals such as the hanging of the suit jacket in the back of the car. Other aspects include the physical landscape - including roadside architecture as seen in the nineties, road markings and road signs, motorway service stations, NCP car parks and billboard car advertising; the journeys - featuring commuting, shopping, teenage cruising, business trips, joyriding, collecting and delivering children and family and holiday excursions; leisure activities - car boot sales, back-seat sex, safari parks, flat-pack shopping at IKEA, car stereos, children's songs and car games and killing time in traffic jams; driving manners and etiquette - incompetent, impatient and aggressive driving, filthy cars, Vodaphone usage, family rows, map-reading, back-seat driving, nosepicking and farting!; the quest for the right car through "Exchange and Mart", car auctions, "Top Gear", TV advertising and car salerooms; the lifestages - kids in booster seats, infant car conoisseurs, teenage and first-car users, thirty-somethings, divorcees, men in mid-life crisis and the elderly.
Nick Barker is the producer and writer of the BBC tv series and books "From A to B" and "Signs of the Times".