Holiday on the Buses

Busmen Stan Butler, Jack Carter and Inspector Blake, a.k.a 'Blakey', (played by Reg Varney, Bob Grant and Stephen Lewis) are sacked from the bus company after writing off two buses and damaging the boss's car. They find work at a Welsh holiday camp and when Stan's family, Mum, Arthur and Olive (played by Doris Hare, Anna Karen and Michael Robbins) and their young son, Little Arthur, arrive for a holiday, chaos ensues...

Third and final spin-off from the popular ITV sitcom On The Buses. By now producing comedies based on popular TV shows was more profitable for Hammer than the traditional horror films they were renowned for. As another imdb user pointed out, you either love these films or you hate them. I personally love them, partly because I'm a fan of the series, having collected a number of episodes on video (and later DVD) and because the charm is still there. This is thanks largely to all the series regulars being present and the guest players, including Queenie Watts, Arthur Mullard and Wilfred Brambell ensure that there are some laughs to be had from the usual old jokes and comedy routines.

I Know this is not a popular view ..but this movie is near-excellent! ...The very funniest of British 70s Comedy with a superb cast ofsubtle-nuance actors ...One of the funniest movies you will ever see in your Life!!! ....forget pompous garbage and just enjoy....a lot of people say this is the weakest in the series .. Its not ...its the Best of them all ...enjoy and have a Laugh !

Holiday... marks the epitome of early/mid 70s low brow humour. The British industry was in a dire state and the majority of films churned out were things like this. Anyway, the film is excellent. Stan and Jack, the world's oldest swinging batchelors, somehow pull every young bird around which gives hope to us lesser mortals because if they can (especially Jack) then we all can. There's plenty of innuendo, wearing of flares and cravets on view and it all amounts to a classic film. If only things were like that now...

If you were growing up in Britain in the 1970s or early 80s, then Holiday On The Buses will provide you with a very potent hit of nostalgia that will doubtless get you talking about "the good old days". It's nobody's idea of sophisticated, and the arthouse crowd should avoid it like the plague, but if you approach it with an open mind you'll probably have a good time.

It's all very predictable, of course, but it fits in nicely with a sub-genre of British comedy best described as "everything goes wrong" where it sits alongside Fawlty Towers and Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. There are plenty of minor stars on display soon, such as Grange Hill's Mr Bronson, regular Benny Hill sidekick Henry McGee, Joan from Love Thy Neighbour and the inimitable Arthur Mullard.

It's not quite Carry On, but it passes the time painlessly.

Sacked for writing off two buses, Jack and Stan land a job driving at a holiday camp, there's one snag, Blakey's got a new job too.

The TV series was definitely coming to an abrupt end, with both Varney and Robbins leaving, so this final film feels like the last hurrah for the whole cast.

I quite like the plot, and it's nice that they managed to devise something to put everyone together for one last time.

If you're a fan of 70's British humour, you'll probably enjoy this, I love the series, and there's enough content here to laugh at. It's bawdy, it's raucous, it's wonderfully over the top, but it's still funny.

It is insane to think that Jack and Stan would pull the number of gorgeous girls that they did, talk about hard to swallow.

Sitcoms didn't have a good track record of translating well to the big screen, Are you being served and rising damp were poor, I can only think of Steptoe and son that worked, and on The Buses.

Credit to them for providing original content, and not just rehashing old material, there are plenty of well known comedy faces to recognise too, look out for Wilfrid Brambell, Queenie Watts and Arthur Mullard.

Can you imagine going on holiday, to Pontins, getting off the coach, and being met by Blakey, stood there dressed as an undertaker's assistant.

Good fun, 7/10.