The perfect fusion of bus spotting and film trivia.....
Buses on Screen - TV shows Rm-Rz
Rock and Chips (BBC comedy drama)
Prequel to 'Only Fools and Horses' set in 1960 recreates (can you recreate something that hasn't happened yet?) the infamous 'Jolly Boys' Outing' to Margate. In this case mercifully the coach doesn't explode. It's MJB481, a smart 1956 Bedford SBG/Duple in the livery of Lodge of High Easter, Essex.
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This is as much as we see of London Transport RM70 (VLT70). This is not quite an anachronism - RM70 was new in 1959, although it did not enter service until November of that year. RM70 was new to London Transport
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The Rockford Files (NBC private eye series)
Episode 1: Backlash of the Hunter
The pilot reportedly features a bus of Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines

Episode 1.10 In Pursuit of Carol Thorne (from season 1)
Opens with a woman being released from prison and catching a bus, a GMC PD-4107 Buffalo with 'Westway' fleetnames:
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Jim Rockford (James Garner) is following her, in an improbable floppy hat:
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Episode 4.1: Beamer's Last Case (from season 4)
Fred Beamer (James Whitmore Jnr) tries to chat up a girl on a bus (Carlene Watkins). The bus is a GMC Scenicruiser
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Episode 4.17: Dwarf in a Helium Hat (from season 4)
Jim Rockford is at the wheel of a stolen bus, from which he and his confederates escape by parking the bus in a narrow alley way, thus neatly blocking it.
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A scene follows at a Trailways bus station - there's a Greyhound station across the road. Two buses are parked in the street, one a GMC PD-4107; neither has fleetnames:
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Meantime a New Look 'Fishbowl' crosses the street:
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Only one bus is seen inside the Trailways station:
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Episode: Nice Guys Finish Dead (from season 6)
Rockford is following bus 5396, however footage of the interior shows the fleet number 5394 over the driver's head. The fleet number of the bus changes throughout the scene.
Rosie (BBC sitcom)
"United Automobile 1600 (WHN600M), a Bristol LH/Eastern Coachworks, was in an episode in 1981 starring Paul Greenwood as a police officer based at Scarborough. The bus was then based at Pickering depot and the scene involved a smelly tramp boarding the bus and the driver (and conductor) promptly leaving the vehicle. It is doubtful that in reality Pickering depot (or even Scarborough) still had any conductors by this time." (thanks Tony Walshaw)
The Rotters' Club (BBC drama serial)
Episode 2 features outside and inside footage of West Midlands 4041 (XON 41J), a Daimler Fleetline. Greg Veare explains "Although this was originally from Wolverhampton garage, the lower blind you see had to be replaced with a Birmingham Central, and a cut-out was inserted to say Rednal."
The Rotters' Club The Rotters' Club
Routemaster (Carlton London documentary)
This documentary shown in early 2001 looked at the history and future of the London Transport AEC Routemaster.
The Royal (Yorkshire TV drama serial)
Episode 7: Crash
Spin off from 'Heartbeat' set in the 1960s had an episode screened in March 2003 featuring a coach crash. "The vehicle, on its nearside for the entire show, was a Plaxton Supreme registered XSY 934. This is obviously a re-registration and I don't know its identity yet, or even what chassis it had, there being no external badges except the Plaxtons castle logo on the grille. They had tried to make it look older by having a white-on-black front number plate but it didn't go with the Dennis F8 fire engine, Bedford J and CA ambulances, Ford Zephyr, etc." (thanks Mike Lloyd)

Chris Hough notes this featured former West Yorkshire Road Car Bristol MW5G/ECW dual purpose saloon EUG71 (TWT123) in the episode aired on 23 January 2005, "with a faked blind which showed 7 Elsonby as it drove through Whitby, which masquerades as Elsonby in the programme"
Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul (BBC comedy series)
An 'On the Buses' sketch includes a scene aboard Sullivan buses MCW Metrobus M1069 (B69WUL), driven by Dean Sullivan, who provided the id:
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(screencaps by stronghold - also noted by Steve Bunce)
Rumpole of the Bailey (Thames legal drama)
Season 6 Episode2: Rumpole and The Summer of Discontent
The opening scene sees a coach driver trying to drive through pickets at his home depot. Several vehicles are seen, but the only one identifiable is YWU582L, a 1973 Leyland Leopard/Plaxton Elite III.
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The fictional operator is 'Ernie Elvers' Luxury Charas'
Rutland Weekend Television (BBC comedy series)
In one sketch a woman, played by actress Gwen Taylor, falls victim to continuity errors; she boards a Southdown full-front Leyland Titan PD3/4 in National Bus Company green livery, only for it to turn into a taxi by the time she arrives at her destination:
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Allan Haynes notes that this sketch was filmed in several locations; although the PD3 was filmed in Brighton, another sequence in the sketch was filmed in Denham in Buckinghamshire.
Back to the top of this page - updated 10 June 2010