Holiday on the Buses

I loved these films growing up and watching this in my 30s is just a fun. Perhaps they don't make me laugh out loud but the do give a warm feeling. I think this one Is the better of the On The Buses films.

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...

On The Buses fans expect Stan, Jack and Blakey to do the business and here, as always, they are not disappointed. I can imagine that anyone coming cold to this or the other two Buses movies might be expecting more, but On the Buses isn't about convoluted stories or endless jokes. If you are a fan it's another dose of pure escapism, if you are not it must be diabolical. There's no in between. But then the same is true of Steptoe And Son, Are You Being Served?, Dad's Army and all the other spin offs. And remember, Buses got 3 spin offs, one of them being the highest grossing British film of 1971. Most of the other TV series, Steptoe apart, only survived one large screen airing, so it can't be half bad.

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.

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.