ON THE BUSES OFFICIAL FAN CLUB

Stuart Allen Producer/Director

ON THE BUSES
HOLIDAY ON THE BUSES WEEKENDER 2023
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Stuart Allen RIP
Passed away peacefully at home on
19th January 2019 
A lovely guy and great supporter of the fan club, he will be missed. 
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Dear Steve ,

I thought I could not let this day pass without dropping you a line. First to thank you and all those people like you who still after 40 years enjoy On the Buses. I never in my wildest dreams imagined when I made this first programme that people would still be watching and enjoying these programmes 40 years on ! 

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I have found the original ticket for the first recording the budget did not run to a fancy ticket then.  The first transmission were slated by the press.  The Daily Telegraph said “ The jokes about buses were of the most tired and obvious kind. Cicely Courtneidge looked oddly out of place as a working mum. If Reg Varney’s bus is to attract more passengers it will have to move faster through less glum and feeble situations”
The Daily Mirror said “ Varney would have to be a comic genious to get laughs from this vacuous script” and a lot more very un flattering things! The Sunday Telegraph said “ I fear that dear old Cicely Courtneidge has got a wrong posting”So you see that we got off to a very shaky start and were very lucky indeed that Frank Muir and  LWT’s head of programmes did not pull the programme after the first series.Best wishes  Stuart

Ann and I had a very nice lunch with Rose and Ronnie Wolfe reminiscing about old times when we were up in London just before Christmas. I was of course very sad when I heard of the death of Reg Varney . I worked with many wonderful artistes during my time as a television director but he was one of the greatest. I cherish so very many happy memories of him. Kindest regards Stuart Allen

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Recently my wife and I acquired a small flat in Wembley Park to be near our daughter Sophie who is the head teacher of a  Primary school. The flat is nat far from the old LWT TV studios where I made all the early series of On the Buses, before the move to the purpose built South Bank Television Centre. It is very nostalgic for me when I pass by them. Now called the Fountain Studios they still are the home of successful TV programmes like the X Factor. This year is the 40th anniversary of the recording there of the first programme. I know that because our youngest son Ben was born in February in the early hours of the day of the  recording of the second episode .
I remember how pleased and embarrassed I was when I received a round of applause from our studio audience after Cicerly Courtnidge went forward and told them after the recording, while we waited for the clear from the video recording department. Sometime later another
script called for a picture of Stan as baby naked lying on a rug. Reg Varney
did not have one of himself at that age so Ben came in useful as his double.
I whipped him out of his cot and took the attached picture of him to use in
the show.
The studios in Wembley were ideally suited for the making of the programme.
The dock doors were high enough and the floors strong enough to support the
weight of a double-decker bus. So they were able to be driven into and
around the studios. For instant in the episode a Foggy Night I filled a
studio with smoke and Reg drove through the gloom to the only bit of scenery
a bus shelter .After the move to the LWT studios on the South Bank the bus
was reduced to a plywood single storey mock up with fibreglass wheels on a
trolley! Only on the exterior location filming was a real bus able to be
used. It wasn’t quite the same. People often ask me why the bus was green.
The answer is simply that when I approached London Transport, who’s depot in
Stonebridge Park was just down the road, for the loan of a bus or two they
refused on the grounds that it would spoil their image if the public thought
they had such lazy layabouts as Jack and Stan in their employ! Fortunately I
was able to persuade The Eastern National ,whose depot was in Wood Green and
not nearly so convenient ,to lend their green ones and the LUXTON and
DISTRICT TRACTION COMPANY was born. After the series became a success a
director of the company told me that before On the Buses they had difficulty
in recruiting drivers and conductors, but afterwards they were swamped with
applications!  Of course when the Buses films came to be made the popularity
of the programme was such that the film producers had no difficulty in using
iconic red buses, anyway if London Transport wouldn’t lend them they could
afford to buy them!

Best wishes to you and everybody in the fan club.  STUART ALLEN