Very sad news this evening that Reg Varney has died, he was in his 90s. There are very few people left from the golden age of british comedy in the 60s and 70s. Leonard Rossiter, Ronnie Barker, Morecambe and wise, Steptoe and Son are all no longer with us.

Yes, I was pleased just a few weeks ago to hear that he was still with us and to see him featured in a tribute to On The Buses. Now very sad that he has died, but he lived to a good age of 92.

R.I.P.

The only two left from "On the buses" are Anna Karen (Olive) and Stephen Lewis (Blakey). The best thing about this show was the characters. It seems that even people as young as say 25 are aware of Blakey and Olive despite been far too young to have seen the series. I think that the films were much better than the series because the bigger budget allows them to film outdoor scenes at holiday camps and so forth.

The characters were good but the scripts were utterly appalling. Most of the storylines revolved around Varney and Bob Grant chasing skirt and domestic strife involving Olive getting stuck on the loo seat and Arthur retorting "YOU STUPID FAT UGLY COW"! In the days when political correctness was unheard of.

I'm Not A Celebrity wrote:
The characters were good but the scripts were utterly appalling. Most of the storylines revolved around Varney and Bob Grant chasing skirt and domestic strife involving Olive getting stuck on the loo seat and Arthur retorting "YOU STUPID FAT UGLY COW"! In the days when political correctness was unheard of.

Yes, being PC has kind of ruined todays sitcoms. Anythng with Robert Lindsay or Nicholas Lyndhurst for example.

Angel wrote:
I'm Not A Celebrity wrote:
The characters were good but the scripts were utterly appalling. Most of the storylines revolved around Varney and Bob Grant chasing skirt and domestic strife involving Olive getting stuck on the loo seat and Arthur retorting "YOU STUPID FAT UGLY COW"! In the days when political correctness was unheard of.

Yes, being PC has kind of ruined todays sitcoms. Anythng with Robert Lindsay or Nicholas Lyndhurst for example.
Did "PC" restrain Ricky Gervais from being sexist, anti-Semitic and homophobic?

"PC" is one of those knee-jerk phrases that replace thinking or rational argument.

Completely agree with your point about PC, zooloo, but not so sure about the Gervais comparison. There is clear irony in his material which is totally missing from On The Buses scripts. Different times, though.

Modern comedians do use the Irony uhmbrella as an excuse to be offensoive, sexist, racist etc. Modern comedies are much more offensive than those in the 70's. There was never any swearing or extreme innenuedo or sick scenarios like in Little Britain, ridiculing disabled people. Because they are young and left wing, its all of course irony!!!
I was only a small child when "On the buses" was on our, screens and I mainly remember the films which were much better. They appealed to childrem because most of the laughs were based on silly pranks like giving the women drivers laxative pills so they would stop their buses every 5 mins. You could watch them as a family which definetly isn't true of little britain, Russell brand et al

Anthony wrote:
Completely agree with your point about PC, zooloo, but not so sure about the Gervais comparison. There is clear irony in his material which is totally missing from On The Buses scripts. Different times, though.
You are quite right they are very different circumstances, I see that's not clear from my post.

The point that I could have made better is the idea of some sort of "PC thought police" is nonsense, which obviously you noticed anyway.

I would add that I consider it is a change for the better.

I appreciate what you are saying but Arthur always referred to Olive 'You great stupid lump' or similar - the words "silly cow" were considered unaccpetable at the time & OTB wasn't that kind of show. It wasn't until Eastenders arrived in the latter half of the 80's that the phrase 'silly cow' became common on our screens - and even then caused sacks of mail to Points of View in uproar

you are right..I loved them all so much. There is one from a slightly earlier age whose films I loved and I still love to see them now..Sir Norman Wisdom !

Did you know in Albania he's a huge star ! When Albania was Europe's only Communist China ally the only western films they allowed in where Norman Wisdom's because he was always the little worker battling with big bad bosses !

zooloo wrote:
Angel wrote:
I'm Not A Celebrity wrote:
The characters were good but the scripts were utterly appalling. Most of the storylines revolved around Varney and Bob Grant chasing skirt and domestic strife involving Olive getting stuck on the loo seat and Arthur retorting "YOU STUPID FAT UGLY COW"! In the days when political correctness was unheard of.

Yes, being PC has kind of ruined todays sitcoms. Anythng with Robert Lindsay or Nicholas Lyndhurst for example.
Did "PC" restrain Ricky Gervais from being sexist, anti-Semitic and homophobic?

"PC" is one of those knee-jerk phrases that replace thinking or rational argument.

Was talking about sitcoms Zoo! Love Ricky for his comments. One of the best out there.

I thinking of his two sit-coms; The Office and Extras

I thought The Office was terribly clever and original and good but I couldn't watch it as it made me wince.

Extras, on the other hand, I adored.

zooloo wrote:
I thinking of his two sit-coms; The Office and Extras

We all laughed at him though. Not with him.

Ricky Gervais is one of those people who leave me completely cold. Nothing against him personally , but I find him totally unfunny.

To each their own.

Seem to remember the script consisted of Butler saying 'Cor, look a load of THAT!' and Harper replying, 'Getowovit, you wouldn't know what to do with yerself'
What I found amusing was that his on the buses colleague Harper was God's gift to women and was not exactly attractive and had awful teeth - heard a rumour that Mike Myers based Austin Powers smile on his

Whos Harper? Do you mean Jack, butlers mate with the big nose and dodgy teeth. The show was a bit unrealistic with ugly looking blokes in their forties kopping off with young dolly birds, but hey I guess that was part of it's appeal. This was long before the days of the internet, dvd, or even video so a glimpse of a bit of leg would be quite a thrill.

You'd be surprised how many "ugly looking blokes" even well over 40 can pull attractive young women. It's not always about looks or money.

Maybe you should take more time to look around you.