The Most Sexist TV Show Ever On The Buses

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A popular TV show in the UK was On The Buses, a sit-com about the staff of a London bus company and their families. The lead performer, Reg Varney, was Stan Butler, a bus driver, who lives with his Mum and brother in law, (called Arthur, which got me laughed at a lot) and his brother in law''s plain, frumpy wife, (Stan's sister) Olive. Much of the humour was about Olive trying to look sexy while Arthur insults her and tries to read the newspaper in peace and Stan's mum makes their meals. At work, Stan has a bus conductor friend, Jack, who gets on well with the ladies, even though he always gropes them, and wolf whistles a lot. Many episodes involve Stan & Jack trying to get rich quick and their plans going wrong. The only great character was Blakey, the utterly Hitler-like jobsworth bus station inspector, incapable of smiling and constantly threatening to fire Stan. Blakey's 'I hate you Butler' catch phrase was instantly recognizable. To be fair, Stan & Jack are always late and deserve sacking anyway. The show lasted 7 seasons, and three full length movies. A Blakey spin off called Don't Drink The Water about the Inspector retiring to Spain (cue lots of rude jokes about foreigners) failed to catch on. Reg Varney was popular enough to be the first man in Britain to use an ATM bank card machine when they were launched in the UK. Stephen Lewis (Blakey) went on to play the equally miserable Smiler in Last Of The Summer Wine. Bob Grant (Jack) later plunged into depression and sadly died on his third suicide attempt. The show was mostly painfully unfunny, with Blakey too reminiscent of the kind of bosses many people have actually ended up working for. Youtube - The series Theme tune Arthur Chappell