Comedy Classics is a brand new series which raids ITV’s comedy archives and celebrates some of the best-loved sitcoms in the channel’s history.

Light-hearted and entertaining, the series looks at classic shows: On the Buses, Rising Damp, Doctor in the House, Brass, Duty Free and The New Statesman, and features contributions from cast members and celebrity fans as well as behind-the-scenes gossip and some of the programmes’ funniest moments.

The first in the series, Comedy Classics: On the Buses, goes back to the bold, bawdy and brash show which hit the screens in 1969.

The comedy centred around a bus depot and the working class family of one of the drivers, Stan Butler, played by Reg Varney.

Writers Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe tell the programme how the series was inspired by their own working class roots and other celebrities such as Ian Wright, June Sarpong, Antony Cotton and Wendy Richard share their memories of the sitcom.

Comedy Classics looks at the popular characters in the show and what made them such a hit with the viewers.

Wendy Richard says Reg was a legend in the show. “Reg had been in the business for years, he’s what we’d call a turn so he knew his comedy,” she says.

Anna Karen, who played Stan’s sister, Olive, says: “Reg had a complete variety background that was very strong.”

Anna also speaks highly of Doris Hare who played the pair’s mum.

She says: “When Doris did ‘Mum’s Last Fling’ she had all the experience of the reviews and the people she worked with and she knew every trick in the book, Doris never wasted it. When she came in in those knee high PVC boots, she made sure the camera got them.”

Anna’s character, the long-suffering Olive, is also featured. The programme shows classic clips of Olive as the constant butt of jokes at the hands of her brother and her husband, Arthur.

Anna says: “That’s what she was made for, to be the butt of jokes and I played her and wasn’t a bit offended.”

Stan’s bus depot friend, Jack, played by Bob Grant, and their boss, Blakey, played by Stephen Lewis, are also featured in the show.

Stephen’s character, Blakey, was constantly looking over his shoulder as Stan and Jack made it their mission to get one over on him.

Wendy Richard tells the show: “The public took him to heart, the long suffering chap trying to exert some authority over the other two rascals.”

And the writers reveal how two of Blakey’s most famous catchphrases, ‘I’ll get you, Butler’ and, ‘I hate you, Butler’ were not scripted but added by Stephen as he got into character.

The show also looks at the sexist and racist undertones in the show which would not be tolerated in today’s society.

Ursula Mohan, who played a clippie called Joyce in the show, says: “It never really occurred to me how weird it was that these young girls would be going with these very ancient men and finding them attractive… it was faintly iffy.”

Anna adds: “It does give the impression that all women were raging nymphomaniacs who fell into bed very quickly. I don’t think it was like that but it was just past the sixties, which was the age of liberation, so maybe all women weren’t free and easy but men liked to believe we were.”

And Comedy Classics looks at what happened to the cast after the series ended – including Anna’s blossoming acting career which sees her still on screen in Eastenders now, and the tragic loss of Bob who suffered from depression after the series finished.


(ITV must have read my thread about their lack of classics! )

Well, after watching it, I'd say it's a bit run of the mill...

Admittedly, there aren't many ways of dealing with this kind of programme, probably, you interview the writers, producers and the original actors, if they're available of course, and a handful of "personalities" whose names look good on the bill, show a number of clips, do the "where are they now" bit and off you go...

But I found this a bit dull, at least BBC's Comedy Connections has a bit of a twist with the basic idea.

Or maybe it's just that I never cared much for "On The Buses" in the first place...

However, needless to say I'm going to follow the series anyway

Looking forward to "Rising Damp" and "The New Statesman".

ITV's running another "nostalgia" series of documentaries, btw, only marginally related to comedy (but there are good bits of it every now and then), "Celebrating the South Bank Show", which I also found on the disappointing side.

Title is a bit misleading, in the first place, "Melvyn Bragg celebrates himself" would have been more appropriate, he's on screen ALL the time, and you spend more time watching him sitting in the studio and jovially entertaining himself than actually watching historical archive material, in the scarce half hour of the programme.

Maybe it's true what some critics say, they can't write new and interesting shows, and now they're proving they can't even write about old and interesting shows...

Still, I like watching cultural documentaries, there's always something new to be learned, even if you have to be thoroughly and utterly bored before you've earned a new little piece of knowledge...

Come to think of it... isn't that pretty much like school?