Cherished but really quite dire British
sitcom from the
1960s /
1970s. The main characters were:
Stan, a
bus driver, played by
Reg Varney
Jack, his 'clippy' (
bus conductor)
Inspector Blake ('
Blakey'), their arch-
nemesis Inspector at the
bus station
Olive, Stan's drab sister
Arthur, her workshy husband
and
Stan's mum.
Stan and Jack were very successful with
miniskirted young ladies, especially considering they were both a) old, b) ugly, and c) outspokenly
lecherous.
Three feature films were somehow made from the series -
On the Buses,
Mutiny on the Buses and
Holiday on the Buses. These are well worth seeing solely as historical documents.
Despite the fact that most of the jokes are
sexist in the extreme, the characters are bona-fide classics: Jack's braying laugh, Olive's glasses and Blakey's strangled groans of anguish have a well-deserved place in the sitcom hall of fame.