The Show:
On The Buses is one of the most famous British sitcoms to grace television, as well as one of the most successful, running for seven series (between 1969-1973) and spawning three feature length films. Made obvious from the title, On The Buses is about a group of bus company workers whose main objectives are to get through the day doing the bare minimum amount of work and ogle at as many women as possible. It stars some of Britain's best talent from the time, including Reg Varney (The Best Pair Of Legs In The Business) as the main character Stan Butler, Bob Grant (Til Death Do Us Part, The Jugg Brothers) as 'clippie' Jack Harper and their arch nemesis inspector, Cyril 'Blakey' Blake (played by Stephen Lewis - Last Of The Summer Wine, Oh Doctor Beeching!). Stan must contend with Blakey on a day to day basis as well as put up with living with his mum (Doris Hare - Nuns On The Run, Coronation Street), sister Olive (Anna Karen - Revolver, Roland Rat: The Series) and his brother in law Arthur Rudge (Michael Robbins - The Pink Panther Strikes Again, No Sex Please We're British). Included in the second series are all six episodes in black and white (the show didn't go colour until the later series) which I will now give brief details about:
Family Flu - Unfortunately for Stan, everyone else in the household (mum, Olive and Arthur) have all caught the flu meaning Stan must do all the cooking and cleaning as well as look after them in general. Not only that, he must fit in his shifts at the bus depot aswell. Thankfully for Stan, the rest of the family go to visit their Aunt Maud. Stan, however, also gets the flu when they are gone. Originally aired 31st May 1969.
The Used Combination - Stan comes home from work to find mum, Olive and Arthur in the shed with a clapped out old motorcycle and sidecar, in a desperate need of repair. Luckily for them, Stan can get the parts from work, but can he sneak them out the depot past Inspector Blakey? Originally aired 7th June 1969.
Self Defence - Due to the massive amount of assaults on the bus staff, the management decide to teach them all self defence. Who could possibly be better than Judo master Blakey? Hilarious episode and easily my favourite of the series. Originally aired 14th June 1969.
Aunt Maud - The Aunt that the poorly family went to visit in the first episode of the series repays the favour: by visiting them and upsetting the home life. Aunt Maud's little dog has grown into a huge one and is making a mess of Stan's house, let alone annoying and upsetting him beyond belief. Originally aired 21st June 1969.
Late Again - Stan finds his life becoming increasingly difficult due to his early starts at the bus depot and staying out late at night with his new girlfriend, Doreen (played by Kate Williams). How long will he be able to keep doing it before he becomes too tired? Originally aired 28th June 1969.
Bon Voyage - In the penultimate episode to the second series, Stan and Jack are going on holiday. But before they go they want a tan. Unfortunately for them, they have their uniforms stolen at the Cemetary Terminal where they skive work to get a tan and must think of a way to explain this to their inspector, Blakey. Originally aired 5th July 1969.
The DVD:
Video:
Network have provided us with the OAR of 4:3. The picture is a bit better than that of the first series with minimal grain and much better lightness in the outside scenes. All in all the picture is adequate. Network, as usual, have failed to provide English subtitles.
Audio:
The original English track in Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual Mono is provided here, and it's pretty good. The dialogue is clear and the music levels consistent. However, there are a couple of audio dropouts during episode 2. A 2.0 Stereo track would've been more sufficient, but a 5.1 track would be unnessesary and rather pointless, as there aren't that many instances for it to be used.
Extras:
None.
