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Holiday On The Buses

We don’t like Star trek much. Next Generation is alright but the rest is not much cop, we feel. We do, however, like Star Trek films and here is where we can make the hitherto overlooked connection between Star Trek and On The Buses, which we never much liked on the telly either. But the films are a different matter. On the face of it, it falls squarely into the greatest sitcom/feature transfer trap of them all and, like the bloody awful Are You Being Served? film, relocates the entire shebang to a holiday location. But unlike that aforementioned offence to nature there is at least a reasonably cogent explanation for this and in any case, the holiday camp they make for befits the situation far better than some fictional Spanish resort with a comedy name. Everyone is present and correct, from Blakey to Olive, and the entire adventure is such a time capsule of ‘70s holiday life in Britain that it should be housed in the British Museum and shown to tourists and school children. By force if necessary.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Lee James Turnock

    May 22, 2010 at 12:28 pm

    If you look closely at the DJ’s booth during the scenes in Pontin’s Nightclub, you’ll notice Focus’s ‘Focus 3’ album on prominent display. And we all know Arthur Mullard wasn’t the nicest of people ‘in real life’ (if his daughter’s claims are anything to go by), but remember him this way, please.
    “‘Ere! ‘E’s a bleeding fairy!”

  2. Richard Davies

    December 9, 2010 at 10:01 pm

    The “secret chalet DIY” scenes are fun.

    For fans for fights involving kitchen equipment Stan being ruffed up my the chef is something to look out for.

  3. Glenn Aylett

    September 23, 2021 at 6:34 pm

    It starred Michael Bronson Sheard as the depot manager, who puts on quite a convincing Lahndan accent. Also the scene where Stan wrecks Sheard’s car and a bus when distracted by an attractive young woman is the funniest thing in Holiday On The Buses, although the exploding toilet is classic On The Buses bawdy humour. Not quite as good as the first two films, but a decent send off for the series, which ended both on television and at the flicks, in 1973. No doubt snobbish critics were delighted, but at its height in 1971, OTB had 23 million viewers and the first film was the most successful of 1971 at the box office.

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