On the Buses (film)

On the Buses
Theatrical release poster
Directed byHarry Booth
Written byRonald Chesney
Ronald Wolfe
Produced byRonald Chesney
Ronald Wolfe
StarringReg Varney
Doris Hare
Anna Karen
Bob Grant
Stephen Lewis
Michael Robbins
CinematographyMark McDonald
Edited byArchie Ludski
Music byMax Harris
Production
companies
Distributed byMGM-EMI Film Distributors
Release date
  • 1 August 1971 (1971-08-01) (UK)[1]
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£90,000[2][3][4]
Box office£2,500,000[5]

On the Buses is a 1971 British comedy film directed by Harry Booth and starring Reg Varney, Doris Hare, Michael Robbins, Anna Karen, Stephen Lewis and Bob Grant.[6] It was the first spin-off film from the TV sitcom On the Buses and was followed by two further films, Mutiny on the Buses (1972) and Holiday on the Buses (1973). The film was produced by Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe for Hammer Films.[7]

The films are set within a slightly different canon from the TV series: Stan and Jack work for a different bus company (Town & District instead of Luxton & District), and the three films form a loose story arc where Arthur and Olive become parents (despite their apparently sexless marriage).

  1. ^ "On The Buses". Art & Hue. 2021. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  2. ^ Alexander Walker, National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties, Harrap, 1985 p 114
  3. ^ Can film-makers Carry On? Bell, Brian. The Observer (1901– 2003) [London (UK)] 11 Aug 1974: 11.
  4. ^ Moody, Paul (2018). EMI Films and the Limits of British Cinema. Palgrave MacMillan. p. 96.
  5. ^ Marcus Hearn & Alan Barnes, The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films, Titan Books, 2007 p 149
  6. ^ "On the Buses". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  7. ^ On the Buses at IMDb