On the Buses

Enjoyable, even if it is undeniably sexist.

I remember discovering the television series of 'On the Buses' when I was younger, via my grandparents, and loving it - admittedly at an age of not fully understanding the humour et al. I do remember watching this just about. It's amusing, nothing laugh-out-loud worthy but it's suitably entertaining.

Reg Varney, Bob Grant and Stephen Lewis are a very good trio. Lewis' Blakey is arguably the good guy, despite being portrayed as the antagonist - especially in this plot, given he's the supporter of women bus drivers. I gotta say, Grant's Jack is incredibly creepy. The things you don't notice as a kid, eh?

It does have charm, helped by it giving a nice exterior snapshot of 1960s/70s England and the buses of the time. The film, and series, is always most enjoyable - at least to me - when they are out on the road with the buses.

Obviously misogynistic and all rather dumb, but there are things it does reasonably well.

This spin-off from the popular ITV sitcom was the most popular British film of 1971, it's takings even outgrossing Diamonds Are Forever, the James Bond film of that year. Take my word for it, the critics tore it to pieces and they still do now when it's shown on television.

I don't think it's overly funny but I still love it. Okay so it's sexist, but like the Carry On films, even though it's not hilarious it still possesses a certain charm that these overblown American comedies cannot hope to achieve.

All the series regulars are here. Reg Varney, Doris Hare, Anna Karen,Bob Grant and Stephen Lewis. While they were all charming, Michael Robbins stands out for me because his comic timing was impeccable. For example, he would sit there reading the paper and suddenly he would look up and utter something amusing.

Despite almost universal condemnation these days as one of Hammer's worst, this film adaptation of a popular TV comedy was the most successful film of the year at the British box office. I watched it with some trepidation, knowing it to be resented by the majority of Hammer fans, but to my relief I found it a witty, knowing and altogether nostalgic '70s comedy.

Like the best of the genre, ON THE BUSES provides a time capsule of working class life in the 1970s. The humour feels natural rather than forced, the characters feel true to life and the situations feel realistic. Yes, there's a preoccupation with sex and the film itself is crushingly misogynistic by modern standards, but the same can be said about comparable '70s movies of the era like CARRY ON LOVING or CARRY ON GIRLS.

As ever, my favourite character in the whole thing is Stephen Lewis's dogged inspector, but it's the dependable Reg Varney who holds the whole thing together as the lead. The storyline, which encapsulates a battle of the sexes, works well and there's a definite predominance of successful over unsuccessful gags. If you're a fan of British comedy in the 1970s then this is a must.

When Inspector Blake's (Stephen Lewis) decision to hire women bus drivers threatens Stan (Reg Varney) and Jack's (Bob Grant) over-time windfalls and lay-about ways, the boys take time off from seducing clippies, afternoon delights, and dealing with Stan's dysfunctional family (including an enormously pregnant Olive) to ensure that the ladies don't last. As I always liked the characters in the original show, I decided to give the film version a butchers. Not surprisingly, the plot is thin, the gags painfully predictable (has there ever been a sidecar in a comedy that stays attached to the motorcycle?) and there's lots of cleavage and frilly knickers on display. Stan has a certain short charm but seeing his mate Jack as a highly accomplished lothario is a bit of a challenge (in the TV series, even Blakey got in a few wisecracks about Jack's prominent choppers). Stan's hapless sister Olive (Anna Karen) and her miserable husband Arthur (Michael Robbins) are hilarious (to this day I can't hear the name 'Arthur' without hearing Olive's plaintive voice), as is the much put-upon Inspector Blake, whose mustache-muffled snickering whenever he thinks he has Stan and Jack on the ropes still cracks me up. Needless to say, as a tamely raunchy British 'sex comedy' from the early 70s, the show has something to offend everyone in our more righteous (judgemental?) era, so if you're adverse to displays of toxic (but silly) masculinity, stereotypical (but silly) femininity, and sexist (but silly) 'woman-driver' jokes, I'd suggest that you skip this relic.

Watching this for the first time since I saw it and its mother series as a kid, I was struck not by its supposed naffness, nor by its vulgar humour but by its sheer authenticity. Surely the true face of the British Working class has never been so accurately portrayed. Here are people in all their sweaty, ugly, sexed-up un-glory. Everything has to be a vulgar laugh, sensitivity is outlawed, sex is a constant obsession and everyone is potentially the butt of a joke. Authority is mocked but never really challenged and money is continuously short. If, in years to come, people want to understand what it was like to be working class in Britain in the early 1970s, they could do no worse than catch this film!