These are odd sightings where there isn't enough information to post a full entry - help needed!
Roadrunner (TV series)
Terry Jones recalls this series featured footage of the West of England Transport Collection at Winkleigh. Can anyone throw more light on this series?
(?)
Colin Read advises: "Two BMMO (Midland Red) D7s 4110 and 4111 were sold to Universal Studios in the mid 1960s. 4111 featured on the front cover of The Who's 'Magic Bus' album. 4110 was for many years on display in Hollywood, California but was sold in the 1990s and traced to a yard in Hesperia, California, (seen there October 2004). There have been no positive sightings of 4111 for over 30 years. One if not both were used in one of 'The Munsters' movies. 4111 might have been destroyed in the making of a film possibly 1974-5 by being driven over a cliff! Does anyone have any further details please?"
(unidentified movie)
The current owner of RT2557 is seeking details of a film the bus was used in some years ago:
"Our bus was painted to look like a prewar/wartime bus and the film required it to have its top deck blown off and suffer considerable fire damage. I believe it was used to double for a much older bus which couldn't be allowed to sustain any damage. All we have been able to find out is that this happened some time between October 1997 and the early summer of 1998, and the damage caused would have made the bus to appear as though it were totally destroyed." Can anyone help?
Route 601
Seeking information on a possible film with this title - it may of course not be about the London trolleybus route!
Dealing with Dickinson (BBC show)
Presumably a programme about junk/antiques, Greg Veare notes David Dickinson travels the country in an old Bedford or AEC - has anyone seen it?
(documentary?)
It's rumoured that a documentary exists depicting the
building of a GM PD3751 'Silversides' at the factory. Can any one help?
film or tv?**
Allan Morse recalls a scene: "It involves a double decker faced with a low bridge and the only way the crew can get under the bridge is by letting the tyres down and filling the bus with SHEEP! Can someone please put me out of my misery by confirming that I did indeed see the scene in any film or even on TV." Help!
(unidentified TV show)
Graeme Selway notes "A program on Meridian [ITV South of England], 29 April 2004 included external and internal scenes of Stagecoach East Kent Dennis Dart/Alexander 32606 (N606KGF) in Ashford. The program was one of these 'can a family survive a week without using their car?' efforts and unfortunately I didn't make a note of the title -
something like 'On the Move', IIRC. I don't know if this program went out in any other regions or just Meridian." - can anyone identify?
Various!
'Buses' Magazine, June 1977, reported on an "Omnibologists' Weekend" which featured a film show including a BET sales film, two newsreels of Greenslades coaches, also a BBC film of Royal Blue and a Greenslades mystery tour. Can anyone throw light on this?
Alan O Watkins advises: "The man who organised the show was Roy (R.C.) Anderson, who was General Manager of Greenslades, and with me organised the Omnibologists' Weekends. Roy had his finger on the pulse of bus preservation throughout the West Country. If memory serves me correctly, the film was shown at the weekend hotel in Livermead, Torquay."
Shiver (unidentified movie)
Recounting the heroism of a Greyhound bus driver during a freak blizzard in Canada. More information needed.
(unidentified movie)
At the end of a recent film, set in the 1940s, a teenager is going away to college. A Greyhound Silversides arrives, the air brakes lock up and the door swings open. There's no driver! He gets on and the bus moves off.
The Punch and Judy Man (TV series)
Bill Mellor asks: "In 1984 I saw the TV series "The Punch and Judy Man" being filmed at Lynmouth in Devon. Set in the 1920s, there was an immaculate approx 12-seater period bus there obviously waiting to play a part. I missed the episode in question and it was never repeated. Did the bus make it into the programme, and what type was it?"
Chewin' the Fat (BBC Scotland TV comedy show)
Steven Oliver queries: "During the BBC Scotland comedy show 'Chewin' the Fat' which was broadcast (in Scotland only) at Hogmanay 2002, the upper deck of an East Lancs-bodied doubledecker featured in one of the sketches. Unfortunately, it was impossible to tell whose vehicle was used as only the interior was shown, and I've a feeling the engine noise was also dubbed on.
Does anyone know what make of bus it was, and also who owned it?"
London Transport advertisement
David Ralph asks "Late 1970s or early 1980s London Transport produced an 'advert' regarding fare dodgers. A driverless bus was filmed going along Oxford Street. Can anyone remember this or has a copy of the advert?"
Reg Gregory recalls the ad: "I was working as a bus driver for London Transport at the time and in the company magazine, LT News, I am sure I read of it prior to it appearing on TV. All of the driver's controls were situated on the top deck and could only be driven short distances for safety reasons."
Keith Nason adds: "I believe it worked by the driver sitting on the floor upstairs with a steering wheel, brakes and accelerator. In the corner of the was I think the column for the steering. The driver had to look through the blind box glass. Presumably the blind door was removed."
(unidentified TV drama)
Stuart P recalls "a Granada 'one-off' drama about a young girl who was an excellent swimmer. She travels to/from the pool by bus (usually an Atlantean). It was filmed in the Wigan area. Cannot remember the title though !!!" Steve Winder adds that the swimming coach was played by David Calder, but so far we're no nearer identifying the drama.
(unidentified TV show)
Alan at Oldham 163 Preservation Group reports ex Oldham Corporation Leyland Tiger Cub 114 (114JBU) used on the moors of Oldham in the 1960s in an unidentified TV show.
(unidentified advert)
One from Dave Root: "One I vaguely remember from quite a while back, probably 10-15 years ago, I seem to remember involved a play on the phrase "caught the bus", in which a girl was standing in the road at the end of the advert holding a double decker bus off the ground - having "caught" it. It was for some supposedly strength-giving food; I don't know what exactly, although fortified bread is a possibility. My memory is vague but an RT suggests itself as the bus? Surely someone else must remember this one to be able to provide better information?"
(unidentified US advert)
Slightly off-topic, Alan Gryfe asks: About a year and a half ago a (pants? Dockers?) ad appeared with people riding on a subway train with distinctive full-height quarter-round windows in the doors - looking very much like the proposed new sub-surface stock in the book [Sorry, can't remember the title, and I'm not able to get to my bookshelf right now.] It definitely WASN'T a mock-up, because the train was moving and was photographed from another moving train on the adjacent track. (The camera started broadside to the interior of the carriage, zoomed out, then panned down the exterior of the car; the tracks are visible recending in the distance.) The whole scene was photographed at night, lit solely from the interior lights.
Any ideas or info?
(unidentified horror film)
"In a horror movie, a community of vampires takes a Flxible Clipper bus (or the like) killing all passengers." (suggested by Carlos Wallberg).
(unidentified children's TV show)
"In the 70's - the BBC had a kids' programme shot in and around Preston with much lovely footage of Leyland PD2s and PD3s and the odd Leyland Panther thrown in for good measure - unfortunately the name of the damn' thing escapes me." (thanks Andy Richards)
(unidentified children's TV show)
"I saw a [UK] kids' show once with an ex Blackburn Leyland Titan PD2 playbus; it had its own song too!!, 'The Busbus.'" (thanks Ewood Eddie)
(unidentified TV drama)
"Rhymney Valley DC Leyland Titan PD2/Massey LTX 311 appeared in a drama but blew a head gasket the day before filming. Filming went ahead but the engine noise drowned out the actors voices so the bus coasted up to the busstop with the engine switched off! When it eventually appeared on TV the engine sounds of a Bedford OB had been dubbed on!" (thanks Glyn Bowen)
Allan Haynes comments: "The dubbing theatre crew rarely have any detailed knowledge of the finer points of buses and trucks, and faced with a 'mute' shot of a bus they will reach for a disc in the record library marked 'bus' and find a bit of track that appears to fit the action. A lot of dubbing theatres buy the BBC set of sound effects discs which for many years only included 'Bedford Coach' (OB) and 'London Bus' (RT)."
The Lowry Story
....was a drama that featured a vehicle from the Museum of Transport Manchester - anyone care to identify it? (suggested by Paul Williams)