User Reviews

No sooner had the '70's begun than 'On The Buses' was back for its third season, and this time in colour. Stan and Jack are enjoying an extended lunch break outside the Cemetery Gates, using the heat of their bus engine to keep their chips warm. Blakey unexpectedly appears, and reprimands them. Stepping aboard, he slips on a chip, and hurts his leg. Stan and Jack try to administer first aid, but are completely useless at it.

Back at the bus depot, Blakey is pleasantly surprised at the attention his injury has brought him from the clippies. He demands that all drivers and conductors go on a first aid course. Failure to do so will result in suspension. Stan asks Arthur and Olive to help him out...

A good opener to the first colour series. As colour sets were rather expensive, many people ( myself included ) waited a good few years for the price to drop before upgrading. For us, the early '70's would be just as much a black and white era as the '60's had been. It was not until 1984 ( when I.T.V. started repeating 'On The Buses' on Saturday afternoons in the slot vacated by 'World Of Sport' ) that I was able to see the episodes in colour for the first time.

Poor Olive becomes the 'victim' of Stan and Arthur's attempts at first aid. She gets twisted and pushed about so much she looks to be in need of actual first aid by the time they have finished.

Funniest moment - Jack complains about the funny taste of his tea. Stan tells him that the pencil he had just stirred it with had been in Blakey's mouth! The conductor spits it out.

The first sighting of Stan, Jack, Blakey and co in colour.

At the Cemetery Gates, Stan and Jack are taking the liberty of having a longer tea break but are soon busted by Blakey. When he slips on the step of the bus and hurts his leg, he asks Stan and Jack to administer first aid, but their cackhandidness puts him in an even worse state.

In view of this, Stan and Jack are forced to sit a first aid course or else face suspension. They duly pass the course but when a young pregnant woman goes into labour on their bus, they are forced to put their knowledge to use sooner than they had anticipated!

'First Aid' is a more than sufficient opener to the third series. It was by this point that the show really hit the button. Whilst the first two series featured a relatively short run of episodes ( the first series featuring seven episodes and the second series featuring six ), this series featured and impressive run of thirteen episodes, bringing us some first rate episodes such as 'Brew It Yourself' and 'Mum's Last Fling'. With viewers in the region of 13 million tuning in each week, its future was secured.

Funniest bit - Stan refusing to assist the young lady in labour on the grounds that he is not the father. ''Neither am I!'' shouts Jack, to which Stan hits back with: ''If that girl is a regular, there is a fifty fifty chance that you are!''.