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Pushers has the warning, online: “This programme is not suitable for younger viewers”, or anyone who likes comedy, really.
For some reason, the executives at Channel 4 find Rosie Jones funny. I understand she suffers from cerebral palsy, but that doesn’t give her an automatic pass to the front line of comedic value.
Like Ms Jones, since her character, Emily Dawkins, is disabled (her term), this entire sitcom has been based around that fact, with Emily having a job involving going round checking the quality of accessible toilets.
On that point, given that she admitted to an assessor that she “doesn’t shit herself“, her benefits have been cut. Then, we see her struggling to find a free cubicle in the ladies’ toilet, the rest of the opener fitting in as many f-words in as possible into the 24 minutes.
So, that’s the level of base humour we’re on, along with unfunny attempts at wordplay humour, such as:
- Ewen: “Welcome to the inner rectum”
Emily: (correcting) “Sanctum”.
Complaining about the lack of general accessibility for disabled people would be fine if it was a documentary and not an apparent comedy.
Beyond that, Pushers pretends that you can get out of any criminal proceedings by being disabled. As such, Emily finds the answer to her fiduciary problems to be dealing drugs, along with even more f-words as events continue.
Additionally, this awful poster reminds me of the one from Eaten By Lions, which similarly put me off because – as well as the fact I don’t like people just staring at me – almost every single one looks like they’ve got constipation that just won’t shift!
Pushers begins tonight on Channel 4 at 10pm, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
All episodes are online now at All 4.
Cert: 
Running time: 24 minutes per episode (6 episodes)
Release date: June 19th 2025
Channel: Channel 4
Format: 2.00:1
Director: Peter Fellows
Producers: Charlie Laurie, Michael Livingstone, Clelia Mountford, Tom Thostrup
Writers: Peter Fellows, Rosie Jones
Cast:
Emily: Rosie Jones
Mikey: Sean Cernow
Jo: Rhiannon Clements
Minibus Masir: Trevor Dwyer-Lynch
Sean: Jon Furlong
Everett: Liz Hume Dawson
Pat: Lynn Hunter
Hope: Libby Mai
Ewen: Ryan McParland
Harry: Ruber Reuter
Kango: Carl Rice
Craig: Clive Russell
Dave: Peter Slater
Janine: Rosalyn Wright
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.