User Reviews

Stan and Jack get a new fiddle going - by waiting round a corner from a bus stop they can avoid picking up passengers and have a crafty smoke at the same time - but then disaster strikes! Jack is unexpectedly promoted to the post of Inspector.

Stan is chuffed at first, as he thinks his friend will give him more overtime and turn a blind eye to his numerous fiddles, but instead Jack undergoes a change of personality. He becomes another Blakey.

Poor Stan suddenly finds his perks under the close scrutiny of the management. To make matters worse, he has arranged a date with the lovely Christine, a clippie who eats like there's no tomorrow...

This is 'On The Buses' answer to 'Animal Farm'. Its also a reworking of a first season episode called 'The New Inspector', though Stan was the one promoted on that occasion. Bob Grant gives one of his best performances here; as soon as he puts on the badge and peaked cap he turns thoroughly evil. That cheeky grin is suddenly gone.

Surprisingly, Stan never tries to exact revenge when Jack becomes an ordinary Conductor again. Another man would have belted him one for betraying confidences.

This is the lovely Madeleine Mills' third appearance in the show; previously, she had been 'Sally' in 'Going Steady' and 'The Inspector's Niece'. Christine is not so stuck-up as Sally, though with her appetite for food she would have been a financial drain on any man who took her out.

Funniest moment - Blakey getting drenched in batter!

Desperate as ever to ease the staff shortage, and to put a stop to Stan and Jack's skiving, Blakey suggests to Jack that he put in for the job as Assistant Inspector. At first Jack is reluctant but relents when he discovers he will get a higher pay.

Stan at first is overjoyed when he thinks he could get special favours from Jack but unfortunately the power goes to Jack's head and no sooner is he ordering Stan about in the same way Blakey does. To add to Stan's troubles, his new clippie, the lovely Christine, who he has arranged a dinner date with, has a voracious appetite which would even put Olive to shame...

Written by Bob Grant and Stephen Lewis, this episode is a remake of the series one episode 'The New Inspector', only on that occasion it was Stan who got the job. In truthfulness, 'Vacancy For Inspector' actually works better and in my view just narrowly misses being the funniest episode. When Stan became an Inspector, he just came across as a bumbling nitwit who kept messing things up, here Jack turns incredibly nasty, grassing Stan up for all his previous misdemeanours whenever Blakey threatens to sack him.

Olive's greediness provides a bit of humour here too. When Mrs. Butler serves up the family's dinner ( which as a result of them being so skint consists of one measly sausage and a piece of fried bread ), Olive scoffs down the lot, causing Arthur to bark : ''You would make a vulture look like a sparrow!''.

Madeleine Mills, who played Sally in 'The Inspector's Niece' and 'Going Steady' plays Christine. Her character's appetite put me in mind of a play I recently went to see entitled 'Yer Granny' ( which was based on an Argentinian play entitled 'La Nona' ) which focused on a family struggling to make ends meet due to their 100 year old granny ( who was played by Gregor Fisher ) eating them out of house and home.

Needless to say, Jack goes back to working as a conductor again. No mention was ever made of it again afterwards.

Funniest bit - running late for work, Stan tries to sneak in through the manager's toilet window to avoid Blakey. The look of horror on his face when the man in question catches him says it all.