On the Buses


On the Buses is a British television sitcom that was broadcast on ITV from 1969 to 1973. It was created by Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe, who wrote most of the episodes. It spawned three spin-off feature films and a stage version. Despite the writers' previous successes with The Rag Trade and Meet the Wife with the BBC, the corporation rejected On the Buses, not seeing much comedy potential in a bus depot as a setting. The comedy partnership turned to Frank Muir, head of entertainment at London Weekend Television, who loved the idea; the show was accepted, and despite a poor critical reception became a hit with viewers.
The series is centred on the working-class life of Stan Butler and Jack Harper, who are the crew of the Number 11 bus at the Luxton and District Motor Traction Company. The action mostly takes place at the Butler home and at the bus depot. Network On Air describes the show as having a "bawdy, comic postcard humour and resolutely working-class outlook", and notes the series became "one of the most popular British comedy series of its era, if not all time."

Episodes

Cast and characters

Main characters

  • Reg Varney as Stanley "Stan" Butler – a bus driver who works for the Luxton and District Traction Company along with Jack and Blakey. He lives with his mother Mabel, sister Olive and brother-in-law Arthur. Stan frequently chats up the clippies at the bus depot and his antics often include concocting schemes to bunk off work, gain favour from women or solve predicaments caused by his family. Though he is rarely serious, has a disregard for authority and is rude to women he deems unattractive, Stan is ultimately good-natured at heart and tries to help those he cares for. While he loves his family, he frequently subjects sister Olive and brother-in-law Arthur to jokes at their expense, and is frequently irritated by his mother's traditional morals and rules. Due to his playboy attitude towards women and carefree approach to life, he is oftentimes blind or ignorant of his own issues such as his health, appearance and success. He mostly triumphs over his rival Inspector Blake, but on occasion has fallen foul of the inspector's wrath.
  • Cicely Courtneidge and Doris Hare as Mabel Butler, Stan's mother. She is a maiden in distress when it comes to money. The Butler household is forever losing money and regularly getting the electricity cut off. Mabel is frequently caught up in arguments between Arthur, Olive and Stan but manages to retain a sense of maternal order over them. She is moral, believing in the sanctity of marriage and family, as well as criticising licentious behaviour in women. Despite her strong moral compass however, she sometimes turns a blind eye to Stan's ways and near-criminal high jinks at his job.
  • Anna Karen as Olive Rudge, Stan's sister. Olive is always being criticised by her husband Arthur, even though she helps her mum with household jobs and frequently helps Stan with the decorating. Olive also held jobs in the bus depot - as a clippie in the TV series and as canteen cook in the first film - both times being unsuccessful. She is always wanting "an early night" with Arthur, much to his displeasure. Anna's real-life husband Terry Duggan appeared in a series 1 episode and in the first film as "Nobby".
  • Michael Robbins as Arthur Rudge, Stan's brother-in-law. Somewhat aloof and stuck-up, he frequently resists Olive's intimate advances. His hospital operation is a frequent source of ridicule from Stan and Jack. Although the nature of the procedure is never disclosed, it is implied to have been a vasectomy or a hernia. Arthur is always tampering with his motorbike, which usually falls apart. Arthur has a mother and a younger sister called Linda who both appeared in the episode "Boxing Day Social".
  • Bob Grant as Jack Harper, Stan's scheming, workshy conductor and best friend, who also happens to be his next-door neighbour. He and Stan are always getting into trouble and getting reprimanded by Inspector Blake. Whether it is tampering with radio controls, putting "diversion" road signs in the wrong places or going on dates with the buxom clippies, they are always getting into scrapes. Jack is also the shop steward of the bus depot, and frequently abuses his position to thwart Blakey's schemes, usually with the catchphrase "As shop steward I am here to tell you.....".
  • Stephen Lewis as Cyril "Blakey" Blake – the inspector at the bus depot. Whenever there is a "brilliant idea" at the bus depot, it is usually Blakey's. These are usually elaborate schemes to temper Stan's and Jack's frequent insubordination, or to entrap them in their misadventures in a bid to get them fired. However, Blakey's schemes typically backfire with hilarious consequences, and land him either in trouble with the general manager or in hospital. On occasion, Blakey sometimes scores a minor victory over Stan and Jack, outsmarting their attempts to deceive or bunk off work, but these are usually short-lived and the pair gain the upper hand in the end.

    Recurring characters

  • Michael Sheard as the general manager of the bus depot who is seen frequently throughout the seventh and final series. He often argues with Blakey about something that the latter has done. He was also the judge at the gardening competition in the episode "Gardening Time". Sheard also played the general manager in the Holiday On The Buses film.
  • Madeleine Mills and Sandra Miller as the inspector's niece. She was played twice by Mills and twice by Miller. In her first two appearances, she and Stan are in a relationship; in the second they are engaged, but split up after a tea party at Stan's house. In her third appearance she married Bill, a bus driver at the depot. She also appeared in the episode "The New Nurse".
  • Sandra Bryant as Sandra, a clippie at the bus depot. Her character is seen frequently throughout the seventh and final series. In the first episode of the seventh series, she goes on a date with Stan to the cinema, until Olive comes along too, she also appears in Holiday On The Buses.
  • Terry Duggan and Norman Mitchell as Nobby – one of the bus depot's mechanics.. He often assists Stan and Jack in their typical schemes and misadventures. In real-life Duggan was married to Anna Karen.

    Series production

A total of 74 episodes of On the Buses were broadcast over seven series. Three spin-off films were also released.
All episodes and films of On The Buses were set in the fictional town of Luxton.
At the beginning of the seventh series Arthur, who is not seen, has left Olive and they are divorced. Olive again gets a job as a clippie on the buses as they are short of money. Stan takes a job in the north of England in a car factory in the "Goodbye Stan" episode, and the inspector takes Stan's old room as a lodger.
In addition, two five-minute Christmas specials were made by LWT as part of an All Star Comedy Carnival in 1969 and 1972, ITV's answer to the BBC's Christmas Night with the Stars programme. The 1969 edition has been lost, but the 1972 edition – featuring a goose that the cast are chasing for Christmas dinner – exists in the Thames Television archive, which is now owned by FremantleMedia.
Reg Varney undertook a PCV driving test in order to be filmed driving the bus for the exterior scenes. Stephen Lewis also performed some of his own stunt work, such as Blakey hanging off a low bridge after the bus he was on almost collides with it, and in the first film when he is trapped on Stan's bus whilst carrying out high speed skid training.
The earlier series were recorded at London Weekend Television's original studios in Wembley. In late 1972, LWT relocated to new studios on the South Bank of the River Thames; here the outside doors to the main and secondary studios were too small to accommodate the double-decker buses used in the series. Therefore, single decker buses were used and a plywood mock-up of an upper deck was lowered from a lighting rig.
Filmed external shots were part of the series. LWT arranged with the now defunct Eastern National Omnibus Company to use its buses at Wood Green bus garage in North London. They were shown as belonging to Luxton and District. Luxton is supposed to be in Essex, and actual Essex towns including Southend-on-Sea, Basildon, Braintree and Tilbury are all mentioned. One of the bus route termini was "Cemetery Gates", for which LWT used the entrance to Lavender Hill Cemetery. A different Lavender Hill in Battersea also features in the last episode of the last series, featuring the town hall.
The fourth series was affected by the ITV Colour Strike, with seven of the 13 episodes being made in black and white.
Characters from On The Buses appeared in two other series. A spin-off, Don't Drink the Water, ran for 13 episodes, featuring Blake retiring to Spain with his sister Dorothy. Anna Karen reprised her role as Olive in LWT's revival of The Rag Trade, which ran for two series in 1977–78.

Theme music

The theme music for the series, entitled "Happy Harry", was written by Tony Russell.

Featured buses

The red Town & District buses were Bristol KSWs with Eastern Coach Works bodies. These were former Eastern National. Stan's and Jack's "regular" bus appeared to be VNO 857.
The green Luxton & District buses were Bristol Lodekkas with bodywork by Eastern Coach Works of Lowestoft. In reality these were Eastern National buses, although as mentioned earlier, the later interior depot shots were in fact 'dummy' buses. Some 'dummy' buses were real single-deck buses with a wooden frame on top, such as in the Series 3 episode "Radio Control", when the bus has crashed into the bridge. The most commonly used bus in the series was AVW 399F. In later episodes the ENB symbol appears next to Luxton & District.
Stan's usual buses, AVW 399F and AEV 811F, are both still extant; one is in Lille, France, the other in Los Angeles, California.
In the first episode of series 6, former London Transport bus Leyland Titan PD2 RTL1557 is featured and burnt out.