TV Classic Buses on BBC Four

This Saturday night, 10th December on BBC Four sees a TV Night dedicated to the London Routemaster Bus and will include a showing of the classic BBC comedy "Sykes And A Bus" and the very first episode of London Weekend's "On The Buses" with Cicely Courtneidge playing Mum. Here is the line-up of programmes:
07.30pm PERPETUAL MOTION - A profile of the Routemaster.
08.05pm LITTLE PLATFORM, BIG STAGE - Documentary about London Bus Conductors.
09.05pm FILM: SUMMER HOLIDAY - The Pop Musical Film from the early sixties with Cliff Richard and Mickey Rooney.
10.50pm THE YOUNG ONES - Summer Holiday. Final Episode.
11.30pm ON THE BUSES - Reg Varney. Series 1 - Episode 1.
12.00am SYKES - Bus. Eric and Hattie revolutionize the Cricklewood bus route.

Which, of course, never featured any Routemasters! The buses used were Bristol Lodekkas.

Funnily enough, that was exactly what I was thinking as well.

Still, never let the truth get in the way of a good feature, as somebody must have once said.

were they now

Errrrrr, yes, they were.

I'm not at all certain on this, and I suspect I'll probably be proved wrong, but I think the very first pilot of On The Buses did indeed use Routemasters. I understand that it is this first early pilot - which I believe hasn't been shown since its first broadcast - that will be shown on BBC FOUR this weekend.

Of course, I'll likely be proved completely wrong. Then everyone can spank me. Hard.

You might be right there.

The dear old Radio Times shows it as "Series 1, Episode 1", but that may well be the way they describe the pilot.

We shall find out tomorrow.

Neither did Summer Holiday feature any Routemasters - the bus Cliff and friends used was an RT-class AEC Regent, the Routemaster's predecessor!

OK, I'll take my anorak off now.

They seem to think an RT is the same as a Routemaster. A common misinterpretation.

Must admit, I was feeling a bit like that, too, Steven.

It was just from years and years of travelling on the things, though, honest.

(Some of them DID get a bit hot when your underpants were too tight, mind!)

That On The Buses must have been the pilot.

I haven't seen such a badly-produced programme in a good long time.

Cameras shaking all over the place, and at one point there was a stage hand in-shot crawling along the floor.

OK it was 1969, but such lack of professionalism is quite shocking. That show seemed thrown together.

I thought it was pretty well put together, to be honest. Didn't notice the stagehand, but whilst I noticed some dodgy camerawork, it didn't seem hugely worse than early Python. Or, indeed, a couple of Fawlty Towers eps.

I think the film sequences/studio stuff cut together *very* well - particularly cutting between the outside and inside of the depot. Black and white hides a multitude of sins when cutting between film and VT.