Bad Girls (Granada TV prison serial)
Season 2 Episode 13: Oh What a Night!Former London General Metrobus/MCW M176 (BYX176V), by then owned by Actionbus, appears on route 35 as prison inmate Nikki makes a break for freedom for the night:
Like all the best plot devices, the ticket from Nikki's excursion only appears 15 episodes later, when it's discovered during a search of a cell:
Balamory (BBC children's TV series)
Features a cgi and real life yellow LDV Convoy school minibus operated by (fictional) McCredie's Transport with the (fake) registration BALAMOR1.
Episode: Horsepower
Miss Hoolie sings a musical number partly set aboard an opentop AEC Routemaster of Mac Tours.
The 2003 Christmas special has teacher Miss Hoolie and school bus driver Edie McCredie catching a large snow 'bus' across the snowfields of Iceland.
Ballykissangel (BBC serial)
Corgi modelled a white 1973 Leyland Leopard/Marshall from this serial set in Ireland. Now preserved by the Telford Bus Group, and ex Barton of Maynooth, County Kildare, 73KE18 was acquired from Ulsterbus but originated with Midland Red (then registered JHA216L). These captures come from the first episode, 'Trying to Connect You'. The bus is also well seen in Episode 4, 'Fallen Angel' (thanks Ian Hardie)
Banana Splits (Hanna Barbera children's series)
Alan Sinclair thinks the opening credits have the four Splits hanging off a San Francisco streetcar - I can't remember for sure but I think he's right someone please confirm!. The show included a segment called 'Hold the Bus', but I don't think it actually included any buses....Bargain Hunt (BBC game show)
A 2003 show (filmed December 2002) in this series has star David Dickenson travelling on Lincolnshire Vintage Vehicle Society's preserved Bolton Corporation all-Leyland Titan TD1 54 (WH1553) in the introduction to a recent 'Bargain Hunt' - Scot Fergie spotted this: "He does the intro and interviews the two guest teams at the rear bench seats of the lower saloon, in what looked like a downpour outside. There's shots through the drivers cab - with the puny windscreen wiper trying bravely to clear the water from the drivers screen. The 'pick-ups' filmed earlier or later of the vehicle approaching and departing from the camera seem to take place in dry weather. (obviously before the interiors then!).Nice footage of the bus even though it only appears for the first two minutes."
"The edition of this game show broadcast on Thursday 25 November 2004 featured two teams of Dublin bus drivers who drive city tour buses in the city. Some open top Alexander (Belfast) Olympians were featured in the opening part of the programme. Since no fleet or registration plates were visible the exact number is unknown but I think two buses featured." (thanks Chris Hough)
BBC News - 'Human Shield'
I don't intend to make a habit of listing buses seen in news reports, but this one is interesting: Anne Annells (hello Mum!) notes a report on a group of people travelling to Baghdad in early 2003 in order to act as 'human shields' in the event of a second Gulf War on forward entrance AEC Routemaster RMA65 (NMY665E), one of three vehicles that set out.In September 2006 a brief feature on The Baim Collection (a large collection of shorts made by the late Harold Baim) had some wonderful views of Blackpool, from the film 'Playground Spectacular':
The Buses on Screen website now has more screen captures from the Baim Collection at The Baim Collection page 1 and The Baim Collection page 2
BBC Olympic coverage 2008
BBC coverage of the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics included the (in)famous eight minutes prefiguring the London 2012 Games. A crude cartoon of a London bus becomes a reasonable representation of a Dennis Trident with Alexander body.......
BBC Points West (BBC regional magazine programme)
Featured a heritage service 'The Cotswold Lion' on 19 July 2000, with 338EDV, a 1960 Bristol SUL4A/Eastern Coachworks new as Western National 624. (thanks Terry Jones)Behind the Laughter (BBC documentary)
Bob Monkhouse recalls comedians he has worked with on stage and screen. "On Monday 20 October 2003, in a segment about Dennis Goodwin it had some stock shots of central London showing RTs and RTLs apparently going round Picadilly Circus." (thanks Chris Hough)The Beiderbecke Affair (Yorkshire TV drama serial)
A sharp-eyed Chris Hough observes "One of the characters (played by Barbara Flynn) interviewed a local government official. In the window behind the character could be seen a selection of West Yorkshire PTE dual and single door Atlanteans passing along Woodhouse Lane in Leeds, which in its way was remarkable since the exterior shots for the Town Hall were filmed in Wakefield!"The Benny Hill Show (ITV comedy series)
Season 4 episode 1: Woodstick1972 edition of the long-running but politically-incorrect comic's show had three appearances by a former Royal Blue Bristol LS6G/Eastern Coachworks. OTT44 was new as Western National 2201 in 1953; by the time this was shot it was with Kenton Elms Coaches - note 'Blue' has been scratched out on the side:
Bergerac (BBC police series)
A Tantivy Motors Bedford VAS/Duple Dominant passes in the opening credits of season 1.Episode 4 Campaign for Silence
A journalist gets off a Jersey MT Ford R192/Willowbrook before being hit over the head. A second similar vehicle passes in a later scene, carrying an allover advertisement for 'Ricard'.
Episode 5 See You in Moscow
This episode of the Channel Islands-based detective series begins in London, with several passing London Transport AEC Routemasters and a glimpse of a Leyland Leopard/Willowbrook 003 bodied coach in National Express white passing a Plaxton Supreme-bodied coach. Also seen is a Leyland Leopard/Duple Dominant II of National Travel with a London Transport roundel on the back.
A woman arrives in St Helier on the Sealing ferry from Portsmouth. At the harbour Tantivy Motors 33 (J64338), a Duple Dominant-bodied Bedford VAS, pulls away, while a yellow/white Bedford SB/Duple Bella Vega is parked. Another Duple Dominant Bedford VAS pulls away in the yellow/white livery what's the operator?. Jim Bergerac arrives and parks his car next to a Bedford SB/Duple Vista in cream/maroon livery, fleet number 88. Meantime the woman is taken to the bus station in St Helier, with many Jersey MT Fords parked. Some are Willowbrook-bodied, some Duple Dominant bus. She gets on JMT 20, a Ford R192/Willowbrook, on service 9A to Greve de Lecq. The bus drops her at a telephone box.
Episode 34: Return of the Ice Maiden
Improbable jewel thief Philippa Vale (played by Liza Goddard), improbably disguised as a (male) hippy, travels on a Jersey MT Ford R1015/Wadham Stringer on service 14 to St Brelades Bay.
Episode 53: The Sin of Forgiveness
A VW LT airport courtesy bus J41131 is hijacked.
Betty's Bus (documentary)
Documentary about a journey on former Western Scottish Leyland Titan PD3/Alexander D1535 (MSD399) from London to Hong Kong. "I had a photo of it reduced to a skeleton in a depot in Hong Kong." (thanks Dave Farrier) Malcolm Rennie adds "I think it was actually called BETTY’S JOURNEY. I saw it on The Discovery Channel again in winter 1997/1998. It was a two parter but as I only saw the second part I have no idea why the 6 lads who filmed it all on camcorder were doing it. The bus was indeed MSD 99. In the part I saw they went from India to Hong Kong via Nepal, India (again), Singapore, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. There is a sequence where they 'ground' the rear platform as they try to board a ferry and in India there are shots of tractor and trailer articulated double deckers with open rear platforms." As I've been unable to get a definitive name for this, I'll leave it 'as is' until I can confirm it one way or the other.The Big Breakfast (Channel 4 breakfast show)
Opening credits (2001) feature a former London Transport Leyland Titan of Blue Triangle any more information?The Bill (Thames police soap opera)
Has had various London buses in the background of the initial title sequence."If I recall there was a Dockland Clipper red/white liveried LS class Leyland-National for many years; this was replaced by a Routemaster (unknown) and later a Stagecoach London Leyland Titan which featured in two versions of the titles, one in daylight and one (for stories set at night) in the dark (same bus it looked like!)" (thanks John Upton)
Viewing the opening credits reveals said Docklands Clipper Leyland-National in the 1980s credits, also an AEC Routemaster and a second unidentified bus in the 1990s credits.
"A recent [2003] episode featured the hijacking of MCW Metrobus J37CUW by armed youths. The bus was on route 83 to 'Canley Town Hall'." (thanks Stephen Osman) Dean Sullivan of Sullivan Buses posted on the London Bus newsgroup:
"Some of you may have noticed the clip at the end of last night's episode of 'The Bill' featuring a London bus. To save any guess work it was our Metrobus M842 [OJD842Y]. Tonight's episode will feature M842 in more detail as youths take control of the bus. To protect our name the logos were covered up and the registration plates changed [to a probably fake 'J37 CUW'] for some shots. Most of the filming was done over a week in an industrial estate near Bow. The shots with a young lad driving were taken on a low loader. I might not agree with the story line, but as the film company say 'It's only Drama'" Other Sullivan Buses buses to have appeared in 'The Bill' as chronicled in Buses Magazine, August 2007 are:
DN2 (DN02SUL)and DN4 (CN02SUL) Dennis Dart/Caetano
DN5 (DN03SUL) Transbus Dart/Caetano
VPL172 (I guess this is a reference to VPL174, X157JOP, a Volvo B7TL/Plaxton President) T889 and T914 (A889,914SYE) Leyland Titans
Birds of a Feather (BBC sitcom)
In an episode in which the main characters visit HM Prison Albany on the Isle of Wight, they travel there on Leyland Tiger/Plaxton Paramount A200RUR in the livery of Atlas Coaches.Birds of Prey (Warner fantasy series)
Episode: 3: Prey for the HunterThis Batman spinoff briefly features a cream and green GM Old Look in New Gotham - actually filmed in Los Angeles.
Bits and Bobs (BBC children's series)
One programme in this series for preschool children has children looking through binoculars. They're in Edinburgh,and they see a number of Lothian Transport doubledeckers at a distance.The Blackstuff (BBC drama)
Influential 1980 Alan Bleasdale-written one-off play that spawned a 1982 series. Although the central characters are from Liverpool, no Merseyside buses are seen. There is a glimpse of a passing Bristol VRTSL3/Eastern Coachworks. Although it's in standard National Bus Company red, the fleetname isn't clear.
Bliss (ITV drama series)
The central character's daughter gets off a Cambus Optare MetroRider at a railway station somewhere in Cambridgeshire.Blue Murder (Granada crime miniseries)
Starring Caroline Quentin and set in the North West: features shots of Oldham bus station with sightings of an Optare Solo and a Wright bodied saloon both of them in First Group's Barbie livery. (thanks Chris Hough)Blue Peter (BBC childrens' show)
The 2001 Blue Peter Appeal 'Wheel Help' for charity featured footage of brand new Optare Alero PX51EHV operating in Cumbria in 'Fell Runner' livery. (thanks Denise Annells). Also pictured was a yellow LDV minibus K667CLS.In the early 1970s, presenter John Noakes took a London Transport DMS class Daimler Fleetline on the skidpan at Chiswick Works (thanks Alan Sinclair)
"In the 1960s the team visited Ceylon/Sri Lanka and a piece in the programme was devoted to all the old London buses operating there." (thanks Maurice Bateman)
Scot Fergie has a guide to childrens TV programmes and archive details, which includes an entry 'London bus into studio' for the Blue Peter show for 30 March 1972. Alex Cross confirms it as an AEC Routemaster, but after all these years is unable to recall which model!
One of the team's summer foreign trips took them to Hong Kong, where they were filmed washing some of the trams. Particularly featured was a tram carrying an allover advert for the Boeing 747-400. There was also brief footage of the workshops.
In a 1972 feature, presenter Lesley Judd trains as a London Transport conductress at Battersea garage. The bus used is a Routemaster. can anyone identify?
"Starting point was the former LT garage at Crystal Palace, with Peter Purves showing us how to be a conductor and John Noakes and dog Shep as passengers. An RM for our personal use, with the garage's show driver who wore a bow tie with his uniform."
Presenter Janet Ellis made a trip to Liverpool in 1984 to look over preparations to open the Beatles Museum. This report included a trip on a suitably liveried Bedford VAL/Plaxton:
Blues and Twos (Carlton documentary series)
Various buses and coaches have been seen in episodes of this series following the UK emergency services as follows:Series One,1994:
999-Stay on the Line:
Stevensons of Uttoxeter Mercedes minibus
Tango 476:
Wear Buses MCW Metrobus
Solo One:
London Routemasters & Metrobuses, London Country Volvo Citybuses, Grey Green Olympians & Kentish Bus Olympian.
Series Two, 1995:
East-AM 123:
Various vehicles in Belfast including Ulsterbus/Citybus vehicles.
3-5 On Scene:
Unidentified Leyland National, white Iveco minibus involved in an RTA.
Taking Bricks:
Two Yorkshire Rider double deckers
Series Three, 1996:
196... Emergency Message:
MTL Leyland Titans and Volvo B10B
Level Two:
MTL double deckers, unidentified red Leyland Titan, CMT Buses Leyland National and others.
Series Four, 1997:
One Under:
Kentish Bus RML Routemaster, London Pride open-top Metrobus, various London Metrobuses & Titans
TWOC:
Stagecoach Hull Volvo B10M/Plaxton 71 (K171DFS) and a Kingston upon Hull-liveried Metrobus, East Yorkshire Optare Excel.
Carriageway Chaos:
Two North Kent Express coaches including DAF/Ikarus P713RWU involved in an RTA with a lorry and a National Express coach
Echo Bravo 1-1:
Cardiff Bus MCW Metrorider 103 and Optare MetroRider 107 (M107JHB).
Uniform Bravo:
Travel West Midlands Leyland Lynx, Wright-bodied low-floor and double deckers, and unidentified red/white Plaxton Verde.
(encyclopaedic information provided by Stephen Osman - wow!)
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