Buses on Screen - TV shows M-Ml

Magnum PI (Universal private eye series)

Episode: 3.22: Faith and Begorrah
American TV has made some strange attempts at representing Britain and Ireland, and this is possibly the most bizarre. The episode opens with a party of tourists visiting a tiny church in Armagh, Northern Ireland. However, the hills in the background are a bit pointy for Ireland, and the bus is 140HUO, a former Western National Bristol Lodekka FLF in the livery of Windjammer Tours of Hawaii!

(thanks to Noel Baxendale for this sighting)

Episode: 6.1 and 6.2 Deja Vu
A double episode first aired in 1986 that brings Higgins (John Hillerman) and Thomas Magnum (Tom Selleck) to England inevitably has views of London buses! The Routemasters, one distant, the other (WLTxxx) parked outside Marylebone railway station, are to be expected.

Less so is the DMS-class Daimler Fleetline that obstructs Magnum as he chases a man through the Covent Garden area; there is even a glimpse of the London Transport Museum as it was then.....

And quite unexpected is the T-class Leyland Titan crossing Tower Bridge:

The episode is also worth catching for the sight of Higgins driving a Reliant Rialto three wheeler.

The Making of the Italian Job (Channel 4 documentary)

This documentary about the film featured Bedford VAL14/Harrington Legionnaire coach 72 MMJ.

Malice Aforethought (Granada TV drama)

Features DB2243, a 1915 Crossley 22/25 with a 1974 replica body, in green/cream livery (thanks Mike Lloyd)

Man About the House (Thames TV comedy series)

Opening credits featured an unidentified London Transport AEC Regent III RT (thanks Bob Wingrove)

Man in a Suitcase (ITC private eye series)

Underrated 1960s show starring Richard Bradford as an American private eye based in London. Many episodes have passing glimpses of RT family buses as these shots from episode 11 show.

Episodes 6 and 22:

AEC Routemasters also appear; these are sightings from episode 6 and episode 9:

However there are some less usual sightings as well. In Episode 12 scenes in Italy include a good look at a passing Fiat 410:

This view of a BEA AEC RF/Park Royal airport coach comes from Episode 9

....while although it's not clear, this Episode 18 view appears to be of one of Jack Crump's AEC Reliance/Harrington Coaches

(all screencaps courtesy of stronghold)

María de Nadie (Argentine soap opera)

1985 TV series; "in the opening a Balut coach is shown on a mountain road in Jujuy Province. Grecia Colmenares starred" (thanks Carlos Wallberg)

Marilyn on Marilyn (BBC documentary)

This portrait of Marilyn Monroe includes glimpses of several US buses (including two open staircase doubledeckers) of the 1940s and 1950s, also streetcars. Locations are not made clear but the colour footage has both buses and streetcars in a green/white/orange livery. Behind the scenes footage of the making of the film 'Some Like it Hot' features a dark grey bus.

"Marple" (ITV crime drama) shares a page with the BBC drama "Miss Marple" - CLICK HERE

MASK (ICC cartoon series)

In one episode the villain, Venom, sends one of his henchmen to place bombs in different buildings in Hong Kong. Seen is a China Motor Bus Daimler Fleetline, formerly London Transport DMS-class.

Mary, Mungo and Midge (BBC children's carton series)

1971 show that ran to 13 episodes of 15 minutes each. Bob Wingrove provided this screenshot from the opening credits:

Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere (Channel 4 comedy serial)

Episode 3:
Our eponymous heroes hijack a school bus. David Gill notes it was filmed in Bolton and identifies it as a Mercedes Vario with Alexander ALX100 bodywork. "It's in a very tidy allover yellow livery, with no side adverts. I can't remember the exact registration, but I think it was one of the P1xxHCH batch new to Arriva and was owned at the time of filming by Pete's Travel (West Midlands). It says 'Pete's Travel' in green writing above the driver's window."

Max and Ruby (Nickelodeon children's cartoon)

Episode: Max Misses the Bus
Curious tale of two cartoon rabbits. Ruby wants to visit her friend by bus but keeps missing it. Although the route apparently has a two minute frequency, she becomes increasingly agitated. The same red single decker bus (fleet number 14) passes four times in the same direction, therefore the route must be a circular, especially as on the fourth pass the friend has got tired of waiting and has come to visit Ruby instead!

Meetings With Remarkable Trees (BBC documentary series)

One programme in the series looks at a tree outside the Dorchester Hotel in London; several London Routemasters are glimpsed, also coaches from Green Line and Frames Rickards.

Mersey Beat (BBC drama series)

A gun siege takes place aboard an MTL Leyland Atlantean. (thanks Ewood Eddie). Andy Heywood notes an MTL Atlantean in MTL livery but with fictitious fleetnames being used for filming of season two in Widnes.
A January 2004 episode reuniting ex-Brookside John McArdle (Billy Corkhill) and ex-Brookside Claire Sweeney (Lindsay Corkhill) also has an Arriva Merseyside Olympian/Northern Counties passing the window of the police station.

Midsomer Murders (Carlton police series)

Episode 8: Dead Man's Eleven
Wessex 6184 (R813RWS) brings Inspector Barnaby's daughter Cully to the fictional town of Causton, played here by Wallingford in Oxfordshire. It's a Plaxton-bodied Volvo B10M in National Express livery. Thanks to Paul for the screen capture.

Episode 20: Ring Out Your Dead
Chris Hough notes "This Carlton series set in the fictional county of Midsomer has in two recent episodes had buses on the screen as stage sets. The first episode featured a Mk 1 National in NBC livery with vinyls saying 75 years of service but no clue as to the identity of the owner."

Noel Clark has confirmed the identity of the Leyland National as his former Alder Valley 221 (KPA372P) in Aldershot and District livery, although when filmed it was owned by Mike Nash in Surrey. Some information (and a picture) can be found here on Joan Street's Midsomer Murders website (thanks Malcolm Crowe). Mike Lloyd confirms an appearance by Dodge S56/Northern Counties E44FFV ex Preston, which also appears in 'Murder in Mind'.

Episode 21: Murder on St O'Malley's Day
Dodge S56/Northern Counties E44FFV ex Preston appears (the location is Turville in Buckinghamshire) - it bears 'Causton and District' fleetnames

Millennium (Fox scifi series)

Grim turn-of the-millennium show from the team behind 'The X-Files':
Episode 2.07: 19:19:
A school bus is craned out of a ditch; in flashback we learn how it was hijacked and the children taken away in a van.

Episode 2.13: The Mikado:
Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) follows a GM 'Fishbowl' in his car:

Episode 3.04: Closure:
Two men hijack a GM 'Fishbowl' New Look transit bus in Fredericksburg, Virginia. It's liveried in dark blue and silver with an FRT logo, it's on service 252 to Inglewood. Fleet number outside is 8, inside 85. During the action all the windows are shot out.

Earlier in the same episode is a brief flash of a red double decker, probably a Bristol VRT, but you don't see much!

Episode 3.07: Through a Glass Darkly: A convicted sex offender returns home by bus. The fleetname is 'Oregon Trail Coachlines', fleet number 745, and it's probably an MCI, but again you don't see much:

(screen captures thanks to Grant Morton)

Minder (Thames comedy drama series)

Episode: 3:13 In
Features unique London Transport AEC Routemaster/Weymann prototype RM3 (SLT58). "It is wearing its original 1960s livery, which is surprising as the episode was made in 1982. The bus was used as the setting for a massive fight between star Dennis Waterman and one of his enemies. The fight even includes a seat cushion being thrown through one of the upper deck windows completely smashing the glass, plus an excellent scene with them fighting on the platform whilst the bus was moving." (thanks Alan Jones)

Episode: 7.2 It's a Sorry Lorry Morrie
Two characters steal a truck; they stand talking to the driver between three or four R & I Coaches midi coaches. (thanks Ian Hardie)

Episode: 8.12 The Coach That Came in From the Cold
"In this episode the local police sell Arthur Daley a coach. He takes the coach to Heathrow airport with Ray driving, and fills it up with tourists for the trip back to London. The coach then breaks down and the passengers have to bump start it. The police end up buying it back at an inflated price. The vehicle used is H808VCY fleet number 7519 in a plain green livery, body mid entrance possibly by Marshalls. Both interior and exterior shots." (thanks Ian Hardie)

A Mind to Kill (Channel 5 police series)

Ian Kirby notes the appearance of John, Maesteg (Bridgend Bus Company) Mercedes 609D F428 EMB in an episode shown in October 2002

Mission: Impossible (CBS thriller series)

"The 1980s series 'Mission: Impossible' was set all over the world but shot entirely in Australia. There is a London-based episode with a 'decker appearing several times in the background which is red with London Transport roundels, but the bodywork is unlike anything of British manufacture. 'Time Trax' was done in a similar way with Queensland representing the whole world, but their representation of London didn't contain any buses and the taxis were yellow Peugeot 405s!" (thanks Noel Baxendale) I would guess the Mission: Impossible episode in question is 1.15: 'The Devils'.

"Miss Marple" (BBC crime drama) shares a page with the ITV drama "Marple" - CLICK HERE

Miss Match (Fox comedy drama)

Episode 1:
Limp vehicle (no pun intended) for Alicia Silverstone set in Los Angeles has bus 7537 or 7637, also a brief scene riding on a trolley.

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