On the Buses

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.

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.

Back in the early seventies, when I was a very small child, CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) ran On The Buses on Sundays in the late evening. During holidays (Christmas, the summer) I would be allowed to stay up and watch. I loved the show, even though most of the jokes went right over my head; there was, despite the jibes, a sense of family and community, and a complete lack of airs and graces (this was no Masterpiece Theatre presentation).

There was something warm and fuzzy about the show; it captured the ramshackle coziness of mid-twentieth century English working class life so often depicted on television, in the movies and literature (maybe more a folksy ideal than actual reality). And for Anglophiles, shows like On The Buses provided THE lexicon - Gordon Bennet, a good cuppa, blimey, a bit of how's your father. Many British comedies followed in Buses' footsteps - most notably Are You Being Served and Only Fools and Horses- and were better produced, better acted, and longer lived, but this was one of the first great iconic English working class comedies.

Before the arrival of VCRs I would often wish for another viewing of On The Buses, but it never came - first, there were waves of British TV programs washing up on North American shores, and so there was no looking back, then the flood of VHS, then DVD, releases made an actual TV run unnecessary. However, a specialty channel in Canada began televising the show again, and I was pleased to see that the magic is still there.

Go on, put the kettle on, and let's have a butcher's.

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!

Looking for this show to come back around such fun love british comedy , whole family was a riot.