Pushers - Press Pack

20 June 2025

Introduction

Written by Rosie Jones and Peter Fellows, first look images have been released for Pushers (previously announced as Disability Benefits) which is coming to Channel 4 next month. Produced by Merman Television and 2LE Media, Pushers is based on an award-winning Comedy Blap and stars Rosie Jones in her first ever sitcom. 

Having had her state benefits cut to shreds after being made redundant, a young woman with very little left to lose begins to build an illegal drugs empire. But Emily (Rosie Jones) isn’t your average street-dealing dope peddler – she’s sharp, funny, biting, highly educated – and on top of all that, she has cerebral palsy. People have underestimated Emily her entire life. If they’re not patronising her for completing the most menial of tasks, they’re pretending she’s not there. What better disguise could there be for criminal activity than to be entirely written off by the same broken system which exists to protect the law?

 

Cast & Crew Credits

Rosie Jones – Emily
Ryan McParland – Ewen
Rhiannon Clements – Jo
Trevor Dwyer-Lynch – Minibus Masir
Jon Furlong – Sean
Liz Hume Dawson – Everett
Lynn Hunter – Pat
Libby Mai – Hope
Ruben Reuter – Harry
Clive Russell – Craig
Cassie Bradley – Leo
Francis Magee – Lennie
Sean Cernow – Mikey

 

Head of Production, Merman – Amanda Wasey
Managing Director, Merman – Rebecca Parkinson
Executive Producer, Merman – Clelia Mountford
Executive Producer, Merman – Michael Livingstone
Executive Producer, 2LE Media – Tom Thostrup
Executive Producer, Director – Peter Fellows
Producer – Charlie Laurie

 

Interview with Rosie Jones – Writer, creator and actor

This is your first sitcom! How does it feel to have created a comedy series?
Oh my god, it’s a dream come true. I feel like from the moment that I decided that I wanted to be a stand-up comedian, having your own sitcom is the pinnacle. I grew up on the greats like dinnerladies and The Royle Family so to get to the stage where I have my own sitcom, even though it’s been seven years in the making, I just can’t believe it. It’s a dream come true!

Tell us about Pushers and what was your vision for the series?
Pushers is about a woman who loses her disability benefits. So, to start earning money she starts dealing drugs and due to her disability, she can go under the radar. The police don’t assume a little old disabled lady would be shifting so much cocaine! Firstly, I wanted to make a really fun sitcom, where you play about and just enjoy yourself. On top of that, I think we wanted to say something about society right now and not only how hard it is to be disabled in this country but also how underestimated disabled people are. Also to be able to show a disabled person who isn’t nice and who isn’t perfect and literally does illegal things. She isn’t the lovely disabled lady that people think she is. 

Secondly, to create a sitcom where the characters are predominantly disabled was so important to me because I get so frustrated when I watch a TV show and they have one disabled character in it. You kind of know they have created it just to say it’s a disabled character and they will save the disabled storylines for that one character. That isn’t an accurate representation of the world. Being disabled is not a personality type. There are disabled people everywhere in the world. By having plenty of disabled characters, you not only accurately represent the world right now but opens you up to telling more stories beyond their disability and I really hope that even if you watch the beginning three or four minutes of Pushers, you can immediately forget that the majority of characters are disabled. You are just watching bloody good characters telling bloody funny stories.

This was based on a Channel 4 comedy blap called Disability Benefits before becoming a full series in Pushers. When was that filmed?
Ooh, honestly ask me anything post Covid and I have no idea! I think it was 2021. Doing the Blap was amazing because not only did it form our characters and see if our idea had legs, which it did, it also allowed us to write Ryan and Lynn who play Ewen and Pat and forming that bond with the actors who are incredible. When it came to writing the series, it was easy to write as we knew who the characters were and who we were writing for. I’m really grateful to Channel 4 for giving us the opportunity to do a Blap as it allowed us the time to work out what it was and when we were going into the series, it was better.

We have seen you act before in Call The Midwife, Silent Witness and Casualty. How does this differ to the drama acting you have done before?
Massively different. Firstly, I find a sitcom more enjoyable because its comedy, it’s my home, I live to make people laugh. I love Call The Midwife and drama but there’s nothing quite like making people laugh. Beyond that, it was an added challenge because I’ve never been the main character in a show before, I’ve never been number one on the call sheet! Although that was great in some respects, because I’m a narcissist and I love to be the lead and in control, being the main character and being the writer really adds on a lot of work because you set the temperature of the whole show. If your number one is happy, your show is happy. 

I was acutely aware that I wanted this to be a set where everyone felt welcome, everyone wanted to come to work and everyone was having fun doing their job because I fundamentally believe if you enjoy what you do, the outcome will be much better. Being a main character in a sitcom was entirely different to anything I have done before but I really enjoyed it. We had an access coordinator on set which should be happening on every set and every workplace from now on. I was adamant that we needed one of them on my show. Dan Edge, who we had, was an amazing guy who was able to speak to every single member of cast and crew and ensured everyone was listened to, cared for and their needs were met. There was a breakout room in every set we were on to make sure if anyone had sensory overload, they had a space they could go to. It makes everyone go to their job with more joy. For me it’s a no brainer. 

Was there a standout scene for you whilst filming?
The ones that gave me the most joy were probably the cocaine explosions. It wasn’t real cocaine, it was flour! The budget didn’t go on cocaine! Even though it was incredibly messy at the time, I love physical humour and the chaos that went with it. From an acting point of view, later on in the series, I do a particularly dramatic scene with my dad, played by the amazing Clive Russell and Pat played by Lynn Hunter, and I haven’t had a huge amount of experience of acting so to have the opportunity to act with two icons of mine was an oh my god moment! How is this my job? It was amazing. And I have to add, for legal reasons, I have NEVER dealt cocaine!!

Why should people tune into Pushers?
It’s a show like no other. No other sitcom has had a predominantly disabled cast but beyond that, it’s a funny romp. Tune into Pushers if you want to laugh your heart out and its silly, working class, northern comedy. Tune in!

If you could describe Pushers in three words, what would they be?
Silly, chaotic and fun.