On the Buses films

[jamrah74]

All 3 of The On the buses films are being shown back to back today at 3.50PM on ITV3

[batman]

I watched Holiday on the Buses yesterday at work .... I quite enjoyed it.

[Rick C]

From the original newspapers of the day, here's a posting to take you back

[Rick C]

....and here's another one. I also have a "Mutiny on the Buses" somewhere (colour one i think) but that will take a few days to find.

[Chris Fluffy]

Unfortunately, ITV have been treating these movies in a very casual manner. I didn't watch yesterday's repeat but I noticed that when ITV3 last repeated Mutiny On The Buses, they made a number of small cuts around the ad breaks. I say small but one was around 10 seconds long. When ITV1 later showed the same movie, they made different small cuts around the ad breaks. Two immediate examples spring to mind.



When Blakey's told Butler has won the safari park job, ITV3 showed Blakey's "D'oh!" reaction but ITV1 cut away beforehand, killing the joke.



When Stan actually starts the bus up in the depot to go on the Safari job, ITV3 cut away from Blakey. ITV1 ran the scene on, showing the bus pulling away and all the staff in the bus station cheering and wishing him well has he leaves (this was the 10 second cut).



So, while it's good to see the films, I do wish ITV would take the trouble to show the full versions just once.

[Sgt Sunshine]

....and here's another one. I also have a "Mutiny on the Buses" somewhere (colour one i think) but that will take a few days to find.

Thanks for that newspaper cutting Rick......Its good to see that list of old cinemas at the bottom......I wonder how many are left.

The Plymouth ABC still exists and is still a cinema, lets see if others can report on the rest



Cheers

Sgt S

[DB7]

On the Buses: just like a Ken Loach film

It's set in a London of rusting Hillman Minxes and bare lightbulbs, but On the Buses was a huge hit in its time, and the fanclub is still going strong
Andrew Roberts

A 1965 Routemaster bus pulls up somewhere in the London suburb of Borehamwood; the passengers pile out and cluster around a nearby manhole cover, and point their cameras at it – for this is no ordinary manhole cover. It has gone down in movie history as the actual drain cover in which On the Buses' Olive Rudge got her bottom stuck. And the amateur photographers are part of a group of 100 or so punters who had paid £35 a head to attend an event called On the Buses Rides Again: a fan-club weekend to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the appearance of the On the Buses spin-off film.

It may seem bizarre now, but On the Buses was the most successful British film of 1971, outgrossing allcomers, including Diamonds Are Forever. Its popularity prompted two sequels, the first of which, Mutiny on the Buses, featured that encounter between actor Anna Karen and the manhole.

The first TV spin-off movie appeared in Britain in 1955, with Hammer's adaptation of the sci-fi series The Quatermass Experiment, and between 1968 and 1980 no fewer than 30 BBC and ITV sitcoms were adapted for the big screen. For those who never saw it, On the Buses was a staple of the long-defunct ITV company London Weekend Television, garnering huge viewing figures during its 1969-1973 run. It revolved around 35-year-old bus driver Stan Butler (played by Reg Varney, who was by then well into his 50s), who still lived at home with his demanding mother, his frustrated sister Olive and his ghastly brother-in-law Arthur; its best-known catchphrase issued from the Hitler-moustached Inspector "Blakey" Blake: "I hate you, Butler."

When the On the Buses movie entered production at Elstree Studios in early 1971, many of the staples of postwar British comedy – St Trinian's, Norman Wisdom, the Boulting Brothers, the Dirk Bogarde Doctor series – had already run their course. Moreover, the Hollywood concerns that had backed so many UK-based productions during the 1960s had all closed their doors. But the box office success of the 1969 film of Till Death Us Do Part alerted canny producers to the potential of comedy films with a familiar cast seen in colour on a big screen – most Britons had a black-and-white TV set well into the 70s. Unlike studio-bound TV shows, a film also gave added scope for location shooting – Varney even got a bus driver's licence so he could add more authenticity to the scenes shot at Wood Green bus garage.

Nowadays, of course, the likes of On the Buses are often cited as evidence by cultural historians that, with the exceptions of Get Carter and the deranged magnificence that was Psychomania, 1971 marked the absolute nadir of British cinema. This was the period when Hammer was making films revolving around lesbian vampires living in Chobham, the Carry Ons were entering their protracted death throes, and the sitcom spinoffs were the only thing keeping studios alive.

In retrospect, On the Buses is as bleak as any offering from Ken Loach, with its London of rusting Hillman Minxes, bare light bulbs and kitchens reeking of congealed fat. But it sold vast numbers of cinema seats – unlike its near contemporary, Carry On at Your Convenience. The only entry in the Carry On series with a contemporary blue-collar work setting, At Your Convenience made the fatal error of siding with the management – unlike On the Buses, where Inspector Blakey merely exists to be splashed by Reg Varney's bus passing through a convenient puddle.

The attendees at On the Buses Rides Again, many of them born long after the TV series had been decomissioned, seemed to have a grand time, despite mild gripes that Karen (who played the bespectacled, suet-faced Olive) was unable to attend, and some grumbles that the washing line on which "Turnaround Betty", a young lady with a quite unaccountable passion for middle-aged bus company employees, used to hang her pants was no longer in existence. After 40 years, maybe that was just as well.

[wadey]

I 'ate you Butler !

It's almost a social documentary now, love it when they discuss prices and whathaveyou

[Bernardo]

Good piece of social history. That's it. When I saw it in the 70's it was a pretty dire attempt to imitatate the Carry-Ons I.M. (not H) O.

[Dadwasinflame]

For those that know their Locations where, where the Depot was is now Tescos

[goldenmeadow]

the movie spin offs were
On the Buses (1971)
Mutiny on the Buses 1972 . .
Holiday on the Buses (1973).

Not bad for a TV series to clock up 3 movie spinoffs... probably a lot to do with
the popularity of Reg Varney.... and his side kick...Bob Grant.
The movies have become kind of a social history now.

Watching Holiday on the Buses reminded me of how every guy back then on a night out...
wore a suit, or at least a smart sports jacket of some kind.
Today we live in the casual age..... hoodies... g--- help us !
I was in M and S the other day, the men's section was all casual
not a suit or sports jacket in the joint !

[wadey]

and don't forget to wear a tie when working on the car or motorbike

[cumberbatches_woman]

i love the On The Buses films, and ive seen them countless times, but i never get bored with them, as a matter of fact im watching the On The Buses series at the moment, hillarious

[Timmy_Lea]

All 3 of The On the buses films are being shown back to back today at 3.50PM on ITV3

Fantastic! Can't wait to sit down & watch 'em. . .wait a minute 25/05/09!!!!!

[cumberbatches_woman]

aww Timmy

[faginsgirl]

For those that know their Locations where, where the Depot was is now Tescos

Get away!

[Johned]

One of the great moments of British Cinema for me was when the old lady is getting off the bus driven by Reg Varney who has mistakenly got onto the newly built M1 motorway and could not deviate from it for a goodly number of miles - she says in a daze "I only wanted to go to Tescos!"

[Mark O]

One of the great moments of British Cinema for me was when the old lady is getting off the bus driven by Reg Varney who has mistakenly got onto the newly built M1 motorway and could not deviate from it for a goodly number of miles - she says in a daze "I only wanted to go to Tescos!"

Lol, makes me laugh as well that scene, Blakey replies 'you'll find they're still open' to a weary Hilda Barry, my fave scenes in the first film are the ones outside the Launderette, has me almost in hysterics "ergh.....he's a knicker snatcher"!

[bassman]

The Launderette scenes are some of my favourites too, Im sure the location of the high street in OTB is the same as in the confessions of a window cleaner film.

[Mark O]

The Launderette scenes are some of my favourites too, Im sure the location of the high street in OTB is the same as in the confessions of a window cleaner film.

Absolutely, Shenley road is the 'high street' of Borehamwood, it's not changed that much, Leeming road in the north of the town was where the Launderette scenes were, Gateshead road heading towards Cowley hill was where Blakey was 'splashed'.

In the Confessions films, 63 Salisbury road in Barnet was where the family home was, my parents lived in the basement flat there in the early 1950's.