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always thought grant was gay eg the new uniforms episode speaks for itself,he committed suicide .Bigoldowl wrote:

> I remember going to see it in the cinema when it first came out
> (1973). The cimema was packed out, with cues literally round
> the block.
>
> I heard that it was a bit "risky" - because there was some
> "nudity" in it. There was a brief boob flashing scene at the
> beginning when the busty bird runs across the bus station and
> they both fall out. As a 13 year old at the time this
> represented the height of erotica.
>
> Reg Varney is still with us at 89. Stephen Lewis (Blakely) is
> still alive. Bob Grant passed away in 2004. I recall reading
> something about him which claimed that despite the fact he
> played "a rampant hetrosexual character" in private he was a
> closet gay.
>
>

I didn't expect all these replies..thanx a lot.

A few points/thoughts...

Reg Varney still with us at 90 is wonderful. I read somewhere he does a Sunday morning show on BBC Radio Devon or something..obviously pre-recorded and with a producer doing most of the work. And at 57, he was way too old to be a 'jack-the-lad'...but still great comedy.

Like Please Sir and the Fenn Street Gang, LWT hit gold with early comedies and then dirt...what was on the ball in 1968/69 looks dated now and probably did in 1980.

While I enjoyed all the On The Buses films, including Holiday..., I have to agree that Reg Varney was a bit too old to be acting like a 'shag-about-town' and what was a 57-year old still doing living at home anyway?

Actually the actress who played his mother was only 11 years older than him.

A huge cult like following way back then. In the days when there was only three TV channels "On the Buses" was a gimmie when up against "Songs with Praise" and some 1940's movie on BBC 2. Despite it being over 30 years old the last time I saw it a couple of years back I still found it reasonably amusing , although very dated and obviously politically incorrect. If you love political incorrectness this is the stuff for you! Let's just add it all up???

The flirting and groping of mini skirted female staff, (who for what ever reason were labelled as 'clippy's), the endless helpings of cholesterol laden food in the form of chips, eggs, bacon, meat pies and sausages in the canteen. Smoking cigarettes, no female bus drivers, a West Indian employee called 'Chalky' .( I cringe when you think that people were still laughing at the gag "I hope your head get's better" to an Indian employee wearing a turban). Lastly, Butlers? tormentor Inspector Blakey who they insulted all the time, whose image was obviously based on Adolf Hitler with his moustache. I tell you it does not get any better than this.

It's hard to imagine today a comedy series being made about bus conductors in general let alone two homely looking middle aged men flirting with young women. In addition the average age of the cast in this series was probably 45 you would never get that nowadays! Yet it has to be said that there have been a number of comedy duffers that have long since come and gone that in no way can stand up to this one.

Memorable episodes, well; Stans? new uniform getting ruined, getting radios for the buses that interfered with the airlines, Stan getting drunk on his home brew and Jack and Stan trying to impress the birds with their snazzy new uniforms claiming they were airline pilots. It's a credit to the writers that it is still watchable today!
Oh, Bob Grant who played Jack WAS a closet gay and a manic depressive who gassed himself in his car a few years ago. Seems he was tormented ala Harry H Corbett in that he was RADA trained and by all accounts, a decent Rep Theatre thespian and all he was ever remembered for was a poxy TV show that highlighted his bad teeth and haystack hair.

Absolutely Ace, it's not as bad as it's portrayed. Indeed, if it was that bad they still woldn't be showing it. In these days of over-eager political correctness a lot of those 70's comedies are portryed in a bad light as if the hand-wringers put them on an historical par with slavery and colonisation!

On The Buses is a "Guilty Pleasure" that's for sure. I like the scenes on the roads, fascinating to see the motors and the comparitively empty roads...

In a certain sense, On The Buses isn't bad at all.

The political incorrectness is a sheer delight and the stories are fairly interesting in that they give an insight into, or a reminder of, life in Britain at that time.

It just isn't in the least bit funny, that's all.

Keith Rasputin wrote:

............It's amazing that deeply unfunny, sexist, racist
> shite like this has survived.............

> The other comedy survivor has of course been all the 'Some
> Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em' crap, which I saw again on peak time TV
> not so long ago. That crap makes me squirm, destroy it all now
> I say.....


Perhaps it is worth pointing out that not all words ending in ist refer de facto to bad things, despite legislative attempts at mind-control in recent decades.

As to the televisual blasphemy that is Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, I agree wholeheartedly.

Sadly, my wife watches it.

The series has become obviously archaic for all the reasons mentioned, yet it was cheap, cheerful and made with a vigour that told you the makers certainly knew what their audience wanted, and knew how to give it to them. An ability in limited supply these days.

Actually, I'm not too familiar with the films, but there was a cracking joke in one I was half watching a while back. The somewhat less than fragrant Olive had been told she needed to be at the depot at six in the morning to make tea for the drivers.
"Six o'clock! Barely worth me going to bed."
Husband, the marvellous Arthur: "How right you are..."