Good for you, James. You've achieved a hell of a lot for one still so young.
On The Buses Page 8
It's like hearing on Songs of Praise that Aled Jones is playing God!
Quote: beaky @ 1st July 2016, 12:11 AM BSTGood for you, James. You've achieved a hell of a lot for one still so young.
Thank you.
I found on YouTube a colourised version of the 1st episode. I believe its original broadcast was in black and white, due to the ITV technican's strike in 1969? Anyway here it is. I think they did a great job colourising although the bus is purple and not green. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TazT5U3dKgs
Oooh. What a great find, thanks!
One would've thought there'd be much better tools now for feeding in photographs and other colour excerpts for a more accurate recreation of the colour palette though.
How did they get away with having red buses for the Films when they were 'forced' to use green buses for the TV series so as not to upset London Transport? I'm guessing it's because ITV were more servile than the Film Company. ?
It looked much better with London red buses although the insularity of sitcoms probably meant the colour didn't matter as much. On the big screen the visuals are much more important and it had to be red. I'm another who much prefers the films, as the subject of transport suits open location shooting more than an enclosed set and the broadening out of the sitcom suited it much more than it did Dad's Army, for example.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 18th October 2020, 9:50 PMHow did they get away with having red buses for the Films when they were 'forced' to use green buses for the TV series so as not to upset London Transport? I'm guessing it's because ITV were more servile than the Film Company. ?
It looked much better with London red buses.
Once On The Buses got around to the films, I'm guessing London Transport saw the success of On The Buses and gave them permission, to use their buses/branding, Unlike at the start of OTB series where they didn't allow them to use their buses or branding as they didn't know whether OTB would be a success or not and London Transport thought OTB might be damaging to their reputation I'm guessing
In the book The Making Of On The Buses, written by Tex Fisher and published by Deck Chair Publishing in 2011, it is explained that moving to the big screen "prompted a change of heart" with London Transport (LT) and, for the first time, gave their consent for use of some of their facilities. They allowed the use of their skidpan at Chiswick but still turned down the request to use their buses. Although the buses in the film were red, they were actually purchased by production company, Hammer, and not loaned by LT. Hammer production manager, Christopher Neame, is quoted as saying "LT just didn't want to do it. They let us use the skidpan and they even did a feature on the film for their staff magazine. But they didn't let us use their buses".
The red Bristol KSW5G buses used in the film were instead bought by Hammer and then sold on - only to be bought back for use in the second film.
The writers/producers, Ronald Wolfe & Ronald Chesney, are further quoted as saying "London Transport had always declined in the past with the series, and we used Eastern National buses instead, but now that they could see that the show was successful, they wanted to get in on the action, so we had red buses instead of green. Red suited the show more I feel".
One Thing I noticed today. The actress who played Inspector Blake's Niece in The Inspector's Niece and Going Steady also appeared in Vacancy for Inspector as Christine. She had blonde hair in that episode.
We've a lovely new article about the series here:
https://www.comedy.co.uk/features/comedy-rewind/on-the-buses/
If you've not seen it before and/or are not sure what it's all about, this read is for you.