On the Buses

A real good old fashion bus movie. Much better than that bus movie speed

A truly classic piece of totally un-pc British sit-com. Men approaching 50 'pulling the birds' (Especially Jack!) A genius comedy creation in 'Blakey' and summed up with the much missed Michael Robins' pained smile. Check out the TV series before watching any of the films as they do not do the programme justice.

This British comedy realistically portrays the lower-middle class existence. We have Stan, the bus driver, who is approaching middle-age, but still lives at home and helps support his Mum. Living in the same household is Stan's sister, Olive, and her husband, Arthur. Everybody lives together and pools their resources due to economic conditions. The home is a row house, and nothing fancy. This is much more realistic than many comedies of today, where minimum wage earners live in large Manhattan apartments, which only Bill Gates could afford to rent or own.

This is definitely one of my favourite television series of all time. There is not one person in the cast who doesn't belong. Each character brings a unique talent and comedic style which makes this series one of the greatest. Who can ever forget poor, homely Olive and all the ridicule she must endure from her layabout husband, Arthur, and brother, Stan. And then there's Inspector Blake, who must endure his bus driver, Stan, and conductor, Jack(Stan's best friend), who call Blake everything from Dracula to Hitler. Of course, Blake's contempt for his workers doesn't make their life any easier either. I must say that I love British comedies and truly feel that this one is one of the best. I see that videos of the three "On the Buses" movies are available now, as are many of the episodes and I strongly recommend them if you want an evening of wit and entertainment. A rare treat indeed.

On The Buses was the creation of the writing duo Ronald Wolfe & Ronald Chesney. It was rejected by the BBC, but it's extraordinary success on ITV makes the former's decision rather foolish. Indeed some found it vulgar in that Reg Varney's Stan Butler was chasing after young clippie's young enough to be his daughters, and it was cheeply made but this didn't deter audiences from loving it. It ran for four years from 1969 to 1973. A testament to the enormous populartity of the series is that three big-screen spin-offs were produced by Hammer. They were On The Buses (1971), Mutiny On The Buses (1972)and Holiday On The Buses (1973). They all retained the regular TV cast and the first of the films became the most popular British film of 1971. Made for only £97,000, it's takings even outgrossed the James Bond film of that year, Diamonds Are Forever.

The situation comedy revolved around the home life of bus driver Stan Butler (Reg Varney)who lived with is overly devoted mother (played by Cicely Courtneige in the first series, but replaced by Doris Hare at the start of the second series and remained thereafter), his none-to-bright sister Olive (Anna Karen) and his idle brother-in-law Arthur (Michael Robbins). The situation comedy also focused on his friendship with his lechurous conductor Jack (Bob Grant) and their uneasy relationship with their petty and miserable Inspector Blake (Stephen Lewis), known to them as Blakey. Then there was the womanising antics of both Stan and Jack, quite often it would go all wrong for Stan because his family never approved of the girls he brought home.

Michael Robbins left the series just prior to the last series, the writers came up with the scenario that Arthur finally walked out on Olive, and that they were looking to divorce. Reg Varney would soon leave with the hope of becoming a star of films in specials, but this turned out to be unsuccessful and little was heard of him after that. In the story Stan went to work in a bus factory in the Midlands, and Inspector Blakey became the main attraction as he moved in to the Butler household as a lodger. Towards the end, Ronald Wolfe & Ronald Chesney gave up their position as the series' house writers, and later scripts were supplied by cast members Bob Grant and Stephen Lewis as well as people like George Layton.

On The Buses is my favourite sitcom because it's one of the very few which have made me laugh. I also like the way it portrayed the working class background and the characters, especially Arthur (Michael Robbins) were marvelous, I will never forget them!

The misdemeanors and antics of driver Stan, and conductor Jack, who try to get away with blue murder, all under the watchful gaze of Inspector Blake.

I purposely avoided this show for one reason, its reputation, I don't think I know anyone who has a good word to say about it. It is of course typical 70's British humour, and of course you're expected to believe that Reg Varney and Bob Grant were sex symbols, but my honest opinion, is that this show was a riot.

When it hit its stride, it was comedy gold, brilliant and very, very funny, the highlight I thought was the outstanding Foggy night, such an original episode, it's brilliant, up there with the best.

Slapstick, innuendo, double entendres, it's humour that's as far away from what's deemed funny in this day and age, but there are many laughs throughout this series.

It does dip quite badly towards the end, I'm not sure it was ever the same when Michael Robbins left, it definitely lost some of its shine when Varney left, but the remaining cast did their best.

The movies are definitely worth your time as well.

Gone, but not forgotten.

8/10.