Walker Craig - On The Buses: The Complete Story

Title Page

ON THE BUSES

THE COMPLETE STORY

by

CRAIG WALKER

Publisher Information

First published in 2009 by Apex Publishing Ltd

PO Box 7086

Clacton on Sea

Essex CO15 5WN

www.apexpublishing.co.uk

Digital Edition converted and distributed in 2011 by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

Copyright 2009 by Craig Walker

The author has asserted his moral rights

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that no part of this book is to be reproduced, in any shape or form. Or by way of trade, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser, without prior permission of the copyright holder.

Production Manager: Chris Cowlin

Cover Design: Siobhan Smith

Photograph: Kindly supplied by ITV

Publishers Note:

The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Apex Publishing Ltd

Copyright:

Every attempt has been made to contact the relevant copyright holders, Apex Publishing Ltd would be grateful if the appropriate people contact us on:

01255 428 500 or

Acknowledgements

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the co-creators and co writers of On The Buses, Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney for their-permission to write this book and then for writing such a marvellous foreword that truly compliments the book. Likewise, without clearance from Granada Media this book would not have been possible and I would also like to thank them for supplying the two images that appear on the book cover.

Filming locations required a lot of research and visits before confirmation. I would like to offer my thanks to film and television historian Rob Hickey whose invaluable local knowledge of Borehamwood enabled the finding of a number of previously unknown filming locations seen in the films. Thanks also goes out to members of my forum at www.onthebusesforum.org who were a great help unearthing new filming locations from the television series.

I would also like to acknowledge the invaluable following websites of www.imdb.com, www.ftvdb.bfi.org.uk, www.wikipedia.org and www.comedy.org.uk as each were a valuable source of information. I would also like to pay homage and thanks to Steves pioneering website The Official On The Buses Fan Club at www.onthebusesfanclub.com which was not only a great help but Steve has also offered great support to the project. Another great source of information was the tribute site at www.t0ester.co.uk/otb/otbindex which is a must see site for all On The Buses fans.

Big thanks to experienced author Kevin Snelgrove for his very helpful advice and encouragement in what is my first attempt at writing a book. Also a big help throughout this exciting project was my sister Michelle so a big special thanks for all the support and help in acting as an agent.

Thanks must also go to Linda Regan, Ursula Mohan and Hal Dyer for their kind words about this book. Last and certainly not least the man to thank for this book making it into print is Chris Cowlin and all at Apex Publishing Ltd for taking this project on and having faith in the book you are about to read.

Foreword

It is very gratifying to be asked to write the foreword to a book on a subject we know very well the TV sitcom series On The Buses and which contains a mine of information, some of which we were not familiar with and are now very grateful to learn about. The details that Craig Walker has unearthed are both fascinating and staggering: a cornucopia of facts covering every episode and every aspect of the series and, well, just about everything a fan would ever want to know, including the making of the three On The Buses feature films that followed.

As we write, On The Buses has just celebrated its 40th birthday, and it is still as hale and hearty as ever. But let us go back to 1969, the year it was born. Having earlier written two successful TV series, The Rag Trade and Meet the Wife, it was time, we hoped, for another hit show. We had been working for some time on an idea about a bus driver and his life both at work and at home. Only just a short time before, London Weekend Television had started operating, and, although they opened in a blaze of glory and high hopes, their first year was pretty much a disaster. So now they were desperately looking for some new shows, For us, it couldnt have been better timing or a more promising opportunity.

At this time, Frank Muir was Head of London Weekend Televisions Light Entertainment Department. We knew Frank from way back, when, with his then writing partner, Denis Norden, he wrote extremely successful radio and TV sitcoms. We got in touch with him, made an appointment, and headed for LWT. We remember it well. It was five oclock on a Friday afternoon. We handed him the format, which he skimmed through with his practised eye. Did we see the semblance of a smile? He then dashed off to have a quick word with Cyril Bennett, the Programme Controller. At roughly twenty past five we were offered a contract pretty surprising really, as only the previous week this same format had been rejected by the BBC.

The title we had decided on was On The Buses, which we felt said everything. We had given the show a great deal of thought over a prolonged period of time, and we knew that if most of the cast were featured in uniform they would be immediately identifiable. There would be two different setups: life at the bus garage and in the home. We figured that these two situations would give a platform for the many conflicts arising in both camps.

So, with the idea approved by London Weekend Television, we wrote the first script and several storylines. Things went well up to that point, but we then had to go through the agonising game of chance called casting.

We knew, both by instinct and by his past performances, that Reg Varney would be perfect as the bus driver. By a stroke of luck, Stuart Allen, Producer/Director of most of the series and really great at casting, led us to Stephen Lewis, who was chosen as the Inspector. He had been working in a production at Stratford East called Mrs Wilsons Diary, and in that same show was Bob Grant, who was invited to play the part of Jack, the Conductor.

We did not have to look too far for an ideal actress to fill the role of Stans mum the first and immediate choice was Doris Hare. Alas, she was out of the country with her husband, a Professor of Medicine, who was attending a seminar. So Cicely Courtneidge was booked for the first series on the understanding that, if the show was successful and continued, she would be replaced by Doris. And that is how it turned out.

The part of Olive was much more difficult. There are not many actresses who would have been willing to take on the role of Stans sister a plain, dumpy, somewhat thick and most unattractive lady. And then we thought of Anna Karen, whom we had cast in an earlier sitcom in which she had played a similarly unattractive role, and which she had done magnificently. And it certainly wasnt typecasting; in reality she is a most attractive lady, and it needed a great deal of work on the part of the makeup department before she began to look as she appeared in the show. Michael Robbins, who played the part of Olives husband, Arthur, was just perfect for the part too.

So we had our main cast, and it was now up to the viewers, once the show was transmitted, to declare it a hit or a miss!

Well, the show was reckoned by a lot of people to be crude and vulgar very working-class. But this was the kind of show we wrote and we seemed to be quite good at it. Very predictably, it was panned by the critics and the reviews were pretty awful but the viewing figures were huge numbers grew to 16 million and On The Buses very soon climbed to the top of the ratings. As far as the public were concerned, it was a series not to be missed.