Maureen Rees (born 25 February 1942)[2] is a British television personality from Cardiff, Wales, who was Britain's first reality-television star.
[3] She became prominent in the late 1990s after her appearances in two series of the BBC One docuseries Driving School,[4] which received 12 million viewers.
Prior to the series, the Reeses had spent hundreds of pounds (quantified by Rees as 80% of her income)[5] on lessons and four failed practical tests.
[5] Born on Milton Street in the Roath area of Cardiff, the first child of Beatrice and Thomas (d. 1992), Reese attended Court Road and Ninian Park schools.
It reached #49 in the UK Singles Chart;[10] the music video featured Rees driving Betsy, her powder-blue 1990[1] Lada Riva estate (although it was filmed sitting on a flatbed trailer to give the illusion that she was driving alone) and fronted a government awareness campaign to increase road awareness.
[2] A local garage gave Rees an R-registration alpine green Lada Samara, which she named Rocky, for passing her manual driving test.