Scripts

P = Presenter; JS = Justin Saunders; W1 = Woman 1, etc.; RS = Rebecca Saunders

P: Tonight on The Money Program. Are you fed up of traveling to work on packed commuter trains? Are you tired of being sat in endless traffic queues? Well, now there’s an alternative. More and more people are choosing to live abroad and commute to their jobs in Britain like this. It’s cheap houses in Europe and budget flights that are changing the way we live. We’re following some of the lucky people who’ve moved across the channel but still earn their living here. They’re Britain’s dream commuters. It’s the end of the working week and Justin Saunders is heading home.

JS: Bye everybody. See you next week then.

W1: See ya.

P: He runs an online map company near Reading.

JS: I get fed up with the traffic. There’s (There’re) just so many cars on the road. It … it’s been a tiring, tiring week, ah … but I’m, I’m glad to be going home.

P: But his home is a little further away than most. Justin’s part of Britain’s new breed of Euro commuters.

W2: Boarding starts at six o’clock and the gate number will be on the screens in Departures.

P: He flies from Gatwick to his house in southwest France. And Justin’s not alone. He’s one of a group of commuters who take the same flight to Toulouse every week.

P: There’s a hotel operator, an IT worker, a charity manager, and a BT consultant. Only this week they’ve got one more: me. It’s straight off. No time for shopping with these guys.

P: So why did you decide to make this move in the first place?

JS: Er, we basically decided to move to France for the better quality of life. We thought … we looked on the Internet, uh, we saw properties available much cheaper than in Britain. We were fed up with the commuting and the traffic.

P: But what’s the cost of the commute?

JS: When I book the flights early enough, I’m paying something like 38 pounds return.

P: Justin’s life is in a village in southwest France, an hour’s drive from Toulouse Airport and over 700 miles from his Hampshire office.

JS: Honey.

RS: Daddy’s home.

JS: Where’s Georgie?

RS: She’s asleep.

JS: She’s asleep.

RS: So, how was the flight?

JS: Oh, not too bad. Nice to be back home, though.

P: It’s morning in the French village of Albas, beside the River Lot, and Justin Saunders seems pretty happy.

RS: That’s the house down there. With the terrace. With the …

P: The one just here with the river view.

RS: The river view, yeah.

JS: We’re still pinching ourselves. Is this really real?

P: Yeah.

JS: We’ve just transformed our lifestyle.

P: Well, wouldn’t you commute by plane for this?