On The Buses

[The Saint]

Anyone here a fan of On The Buses?

Here is the cast on Wogan, it is from 1990

The Saint

[Bomber]

I quite liked the films. They always seemed to be on when I was a kid.
I never really saw the series. Bit before my time.

[Gene Hunt]

Loved the films and some of the series. A bit shouty at times but funny.

Gene.

[Arthur Pringle]

Definitely in my top 10 of tv shows. The humour is basic, the writing not in the same league as Dad's Army & others, but the performances ( with the exception of Anna Karen who had a thankless role ) are superb. As Stephen Lewis says in the Wogan clip it was 'ideally cast', like the Carry On's it's all about the experience & character that the actors bring to it & On The Buses had a top notch cast that worked perfectly together ( apart from series 1 where the miscast Cecily Courtneidge played Mum ).

People do tend to prefer the films which surprises me, usually the film spin offs are weaker than the series. I do like the films but much prefer the series. As for Blakey's spin off series set in Spain, 'Don't Drink The Water', a very poor relation, I've got the dvds & I've not watched most episodes. Reg Varney's other stuff doesn't do much for me either, though 'The Best Pair Of Legs In The Business', a tv play & later a film featuring Varney as a holiday camp artiste, is very good. Btw, the film version features our old friend Tim Cook, he plays one of 2 young lads visiting the camp looking for birds, he plays a naive & timid Welshman. It's Jarvis Cocker's favourite film apparently

[Cartman]

I liked it too. Remember watching it at the time when it was first shown and, a few years ago it was repeated on ITV 2 or 3. A mate who was a few years older than me worked on the buses at about that time and he said it wasn't a million miles away from what the job was like then. A bit of trivia is that when the series started, the producers approached London Transport for filming who weren't interested so they instead went to Eastern National

Of the films, I thought the first one was the best

[Deleted]

Yeah guess I watch it regular when ever it's on itv4, always thought the films were better, but they were some very funny episodes too!
I like the episode called 'Stan's room', it's hilarious! where Stan is having women trouble so eventually rents a room at Blakey''s house, and he's trying to sneak her upstairs whilst blakey's asleep! But the floor boards keep creaking and Blakey Susses him out!
That utube clip seamed surreal! Hard to imagine whilst watching it that all the cast on the show are now gone! When that was filmed it was only 20 years since the series had been aired' obviously they still kinda looked a bit older then! But a guess in my head 1990 doesn't seem like it was all that long ago in a way!? What seemed more strange even the host of the show, Wogan is now sadly no longer with us!

[Sam Tyler]

Out of that clip it is only Anna Karen that is still with us. Hard to think that she is now 79 years old, she would have been 53 in that clip.

The thing that struck me while watching the clip was of how well spoken they all were in comparison to their characters, the most surprising being Bob Grant.

Great comedy but as Gene said it could be a bit shouty at times.

Sam

[Deleted]

Argh my mistake' thanks Sam!
Yeah makes ya realise just how quick time' really does go by!

GC

[Arthur Pringle]

There's also the 'This Is Your Life' for Reg Varney & Doris Hare on yt. Bob Grant's affected voice sounds comical, I expect he sounded very different in private, poor man, very sad what became of him.
Funny to see that Sly Stallone was also on that edition.

[John Steed]

I quite like the series and the films; my favourite out of the films is "Holiday on the buses." I think that Doris Hare was far better as Stan's mom and read that she was intended to play the part from day one but already had commitments and couldn't take on filming for some time, hence why she appeared from series 2 onwards.

Steed