The perfect fusion of bus spotting and film trivia.....
Buses on Screen - TV shows Am-Az
The Amazing Race (CBS reality show)
Episode 2
"Competition with people having to travel from Sao Paulo´s coach station to Foz do Iguacu by coach. Visible are 2 units of Pluma (both were broken down by the road), one of Cometa, one of Brasileira." (thanks Carlos Wallberg)
And Mother Makes Three (Thames TV sitcom)
Ex London Country Guy Special/Eastern Coachworks GS26 (MXX326) featured in the opening scenes. "It was owned by Teddington School PTA at the time and therefore close to Thames TV's Teddington Lock Studios. GS26 is now being re-restored in Kent." (thanks Glen Bubb)
And Mother Makes Three
The Eamonn Andrews Show (BBC variety show)
"Opening credits show BEA AEC Regal IV deck and a half coaches at Heathrow." (thanks Bob Wingrove)
And The Beat Goes On (Channel 4 drama serial)
Set in Liverpool, one episode included a bus station scene. "This was filmed at MTL's Edge Lane works and featured Liverpool Corporation buses from the Mersey & Calder B.P.G. (now Merseyside Transport Trust) collection, plus Ribble Atlantean 1686, NRN 586 from the Ribble Vehicle Preservation Group collection along with at least one (possibly more) Leyland PS1 from the fleet of Maypole Coaches of Burscough." (thanks Ian Simpson) 1686 is a Metro-Cammell bodied Leyland Atlantean PDR1/1. any more information?
Angels (BBC hospital soap opera)
Helen Brunton at Planet Helen recalls how when this 50 minute drama was changed to a 25 minute format, it also changed location from Battersea in London to Birmingham. Although most location shooting was in Birmingham, the hospital scenes were actually at Walgrave Hospital in Coventry. The ring road surrounding the site was used for cast arrivals and departures. Arrivals or departures by bus were filmed here using West Midlands Travel buses displaying "City" as their destination board; it referred to Coventry city centre but doubled for Birmingham.
Alan Watkins comments: "The final episode of the TV nurses drama, Angels, involved a scene supposedly of a National Express coach arriving at Victoria and offloading one of the heroines as she started a new career with her boyfriend.
The BBC wanted to film it on a Bank Holiday Monday in Victoria, although they were filming the other scenes in and around Coventry. I was then PRO at National Express (having recently left Midland Red's subsidiaries). I arranged for several standby National Express coaches to be used, which were driven round and round Nuneaton garage. A corner was converted into a frighteningly accurate representation of the then-Victoria Coach Station (dirty tea machine, handful of benches, loads or rubbish, a dirty old newspaper in pieces etc) and on my insistence they even provided about 30 extras.
I have only seen it the once: does that scene still exist, and if so does anyone know where I can get a copy? - I ask because my wife and our then baby-in-arms son (now a strapping adult) appear in it."
Animaniacs (Warner cartoon series)
Has an episode with Slappy Squirrel which features a 'Speed' spoof with a cartoon Sandra Bullock at the wheel.
Anna Lee (Carnival/LWT private eye series)
An engaging performance by Imogen Stubbs as Anna Lee failed to rescue this London-set show, which ran to just six episodes.
Episode 1: Headcase
Sunny London streets are filled with MCW Metrobuses, AEC Routemasters and Wright-bodied Dennis Darts:
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In one sequence Anna drives past a Van Hool-bodied Volvo B10M of Clarkes of London:
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The Apprentice (British and US versions) has its own page - CLICK HERE

Are We There Yet? (BBC documentary) has its own page - CLICK HERE

Ashes to Ashes (BBC police/time travel series)
Episode 2.4:
Follow-up to the brilliant 'Life on Mars' has a slightly unconvincing evocation of London's Victoria Coach Station in the 1980s. Three Plaxton-bodied coaches from Kenzies of Shepreth in Cambridgeshire are seen representing vehicles from the National Bus Company, and there is much use of the National Bus double N logo.
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Definitely identifiable is CVE12V - Martin Stubbings advises; " As a result of discussions with fellow enthusiasts in the Anglia Bus Forum and checking photographs of current Kenzies vehicles to match livery styles I believe the three coaches to be XVE8T, CVE12V and LEW16W." The first two mentioned are Volvo B58/Plaxton from 1979 and 1980; the third is a Volvo B10M/Plaxton from 1981.
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Episode 3.3
Set on Election Night, 9 June 1983, and includes television footage of two party political 'battle buses'. Labour leader Michael Foot is seen aboard a Greater Manchester Leyland Atlantean opentopper:
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....and Liberal Democrat leader David Steel's bus is seen on a television:
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As the School Bus Turns (Nickelodeon children's series)
Nickelodeon mini-soap opera set on a school bus.
Attic Archives (BBC Scotland/Wildview documentary series)
"Presented by John Huntley, it was basically old home cine films (cheap daytime TV?) I think this was a BBC production sometime about 1989; two were recorded and these were:
'A Day to Remember' which showed a Dundee tram and a Bristol Tramways & Carriage Company Bristol G type (Brislington body??)"
'Home Front' showed more Bristol buses: G types and a Leyland Titan TD"
(thanks Bob Wingrove)
Auf Wiedersehen Pet (BBC drama serial)
"In the first series of "Auf Wiedersehen,Pet", set in Germany, there is a scene in which Oz boards an articulated bus to head for the ferry after being sacked from the site. He is subsequently reinstated,and Dennis and Barry pursue the bus on Barry's motorbike and manage to shout at Oz to disembark." (thanks Alan Sinclair)
The third incarnation of this popular serial, set partly in the North East of England and partly in Arizona, features (in the English scenes in episodes 2 and 3) a pair of Ford coaches of Kings of Middlesbrough. RXG810H is an R192/Plaxton Elite (Steve notes "quite smart for a 32 year old motor!"); 7204DD (originally UUX366S) is a later R1114/Plaxton Supreme. (also thanks Graeme Selway)
Episode 3 also has a yellow school bus in Arizona. Gary Mitchelhill observes: "In the opening credits of some of the episodes Wayne is driving his BMW somewhere in Derbyshire and there is a Plaxton Bodied Barton coach in the background.
Before Dennis drops Ally Fraser off at Newcastle Airport in 'Return of the Seven Part One', there is a shot of Tyne and Wear PTE Atlantean 176 AVK176V leaving on the service X77 to Central Station. It is in an advert livery for Pattenson Ford. There is also at shot of the Metro Crossing the Ouseburn Viaduct with several PTE Buses in the background, including a Scania Metropolitan. Also there is a closer view of a Metropolitan in a later episode."
Australia Uncovered (Sky One documentary series)
One show features an elderly light blue Leyland bus used as an RV, license plate WZL808
The Autism Puzzle (BBC documentary)
This thoughtprovoking programme features a brief 1970s clip of a grey/maroon Bedford VAS/Duple Vista 25 of Herrings:
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Autopsy: Emergency Room AKA Gunter's ER (Channel 4 documentary series)
Roger Thiedeman comments: "German anatomist/showman Gunther von Hagens invented the 'plastination' method of preserving human cadavers. He has appeared on several TV series, on which he dissects corpses, with the aid of pre-plastinated bodies and/or components thereof, to demonstrate the human anatomy and its workings, fatal illnesses, injuries, etc.
The professor's latest TV series, now on DVD, is titled 'Gunther's ER'. It demonstrates potentially fatal injuries or accidental events (like choking on foreign objects) and how they are treated in hospital's emergency departments (rooms) so as to try saving lives in a hurry. The DVD has three main episodes, plus a bonus feature titled 'The Gunther von Hagens Body Appeal'. The latter depicts the professor and a group of British medical students on the campaign trail in London and Eastbourne in an open-top double-decker bus, recruiting people old and young to donate their bodies to medical science - upon their eventual demise, of course! - because there is evidently an acute shortage of cadavers for medical education in British universities and teaching hospitals."

The screencaps (thank you Roger) show former London Transport DMS1304 (MLH304L, a Daimler Fleetline/MCW seen here converted to opentop) on tour:
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Seen in London are Alexander-bodied Dennis Tridents:
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Also glimpsed are a London Transport AEC Routemaster, a Big Bus Company MCW Metrobus and a Neoplan Skyliner of Stagecoach Oxford:
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....and we pass a City Sightseeing Leyland Olympian/Alexander:
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The Avengers (ABC action series)
Episode: Death at Bargain Prices
Has a stock shot of RT family buses in London in the first couple of minutes. One is definitely an RT.

Episode: How to Succeed....at Murder
A London Transport AEC Regent III RT3315 reg LYR534 appeared on service 358 to Borehamwood.
Courtesy of the quite wonderful Mrs Peel, We're Needed website by Piers Johnson and Natasha Vogelmann, here's a screenshot (thanks Piers!):
How To Succeed....at Murder


Episode: False Witness
A London Transport Leyland Titan PD2 RTL1557 (OLD666) used as a mobile office driving around London - this device was later re-used in the film. Photograph at the Avengers Forever website.
Courtesy of Terry at the Agent 69 website, here are some screen captures (click for larger versions!):
False Witness False Witness
False Witness False Witness


Episode: Killer
Has an appearance by 616BYP, a bus full of dummies!
Killer
Mike Lloyd explains "the little bus is a Commer HX441 with bodywork by Owen, and is certainly owned by or ex Molins Machine Company of Deptford and Saunderton, Buckinghamshire. Molins ran a network of staff bus routes, but they were fully PSV-licensed, so presumably the lucky staff had to pay for the privilege. Most of their buses were Bedford SBs but there were three or possibly more of these little Commers. All the fleet had bodies by Owen, better known as a builder of gown vans. The basic design was externally identical to the Mulliner metal-framed bus body of about 1957, shortened for the Commers of course. The livery was cream, later yellow, and internally although buses, the trim level was nearer to that of a coach with much moquette on side panels, etc. As far as I know, none survive today."
Killer Killer
Killer Killer

(screen captures by Terry)

Episode: The Girl from Auntie
Kevin McGowan notes "There's a nice opening shot of the West London Air Terminal, with 4 BEA and 1 Green Line RF in view."
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