Bus-spotting at home: London buses in movies + TV
Apr 18, 2020 18:11:00 GMT
M1104, Hassaan, and 10 more like this
Post by thelondonthing on Apr 18, 2020 18:11:00 GMT
I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this thread - if it's not, I hope the moderators will move it to somewhere more suitable. I did do a search for thread titles containing words like 'film(s)', 'movies', 'TV', 'television' etc, to see if there was a similar discussion already happening, but all I could find were a handful of ancient threads that had seen no recent activity. My apologies in advance if I missed another more active thread on this subject.
- - -
The coronavirus lockdown has forced us all to spend a lot more time at home than we're used to in recent weeks, and this situation will obviously continue for some time to come. I've read several comments from members recently remarking on how much they missed being able to travel around town during this lockdown period - and no doubt, many are missing the regular joy of seeing buses while out and about.
And of course, many of us now have a lot more free time on our hands - and if you're anything like me, you've probably been spending at least some of that time enjoying TV shows and movies.
So I thought it might be fun, while so many of us are stuck indoors, to enjoy a spot of bus-spotting from the comfort of our own homes, by sharing examples of London buses that we've spotted in all those films and TV programmes that we've been bingeing on lately.
Of course, there are websites devoted to 'buses in film' and the like - but I don't think that's quite as satisfying as spotting a bus in a TV show or movie for oneself... and if you do happen to spot one, I hope you'll share it here!
I have a few examples to get the ball rolling. You might well be familiar with a few of them - but there is one example that I'm fairly confident will come as a surprise to many, if not most... but we'll get to that in a bit!
First up is RT4421, which is an occasional guest star on BBC One's Call the Midwife (and you can even hire this beauty for yourself from Ensignbus!):
Here's another example that I'm sure many of you will be familiar with, in the 2002 movie 28 Days Later - a rather forlorn-looking RM1245 (LDS210A) lying on its side in Whitehall:
Any Top Gear fans in the house? You'll probably remember the race across London - car vs. public transport, bike, and boat - in which the Stig begins the first stint of his journey by taking a 391 (operated by Transdev London United's DPS669) from Kew Bridge to Gunnersbury station:
(It was my recent re-watch of that episode that inspired this thread!)
Top Gear fans may also recall that James May drove a New Routemaster on the show in the form of Arriva's LT7, back in 2013:
Now, here's an example that I suspect a few of you won't have seen - it's from a short-lived BBC One 'pre-apocalyptic drama' called Hard Sun, which was broadcast in 2018. In one episode, there's a pretty graphic and horrifying scene in which a passenger on a packed bus begins to cut himself with a knife before stabbing another passenger to death.
The scene takes place on the fictional '306' to Oxford Circus (a real route 306, from Fulham to Acton Vale, was of course introduced in December 2019):
The bus used in the episode was formerly vehicle 9467 (reg LJ09 OJZ) with Abellio London, before transferring to Sullivan Buses:
Here's one you might have spotted at the cinema last year, in the Marvel blockbuster Spider-Man: Far From Home. Peter Parker's classmates arrive in London at St Pancras International on the latest leg of their European trip, and they're met at the station by an open-top bus operated by the fictional company 'London Sightseers' (you can see a better shot of the bus in this Flickr photo (which, unlike the other images in this post, was NOT taken by me)).
The bus had a former life as VLA80 (reg. LJ54 BFK) at Arriva London, before beginning its movie career. Here it is in the movie outside St Pancras:
Sadly, the bus does not have a happy ending!
(Oddly, the digital model of the bus, which was used in CGI shots, has a different registration plate - MYS BFK - which is briefly visible when the teenagers flee the bus on Tower Bridge.)
There are, of course, also examples of London buses in TV and film which aren't London buses at all.
This example, of the '200' to Victoria, from Doctor Who, speaks for itself!
...but this is the one that I'm fairly sure will raise an eyebrow or two here - and it's from a movie that's probably the last place you'd expect to spot a London bus.
It's from Star Trek Into Darkness, the sequel to JJ Abrams' 2009 Star Trek reboot. Early in the movie, a character visits a facility in London, and shortly before he enters the building, a red blur can be briefly seen whooshing past in the background. As soon as I saw it in the cinema, I knew it was a bus (and as a fan of both Star Trek and buses, I can't tell you how much my inner geek giggled with delight at that...!).
It rushes past so quickly that it's tough to grab it in a single freeze-frame. Here's the front:
Here's the rear:
You can also view an enlarged crop of the bus zooming past in the background in GIF format here):
...and if you were still in any doubt that it is indeed supposed to be a London bus, check out this page on Memory Alpha (the largest online encyclopaedia and leading authority on all things Star Trek), where you'll see an image captioned 'A bus driving down a road in London.'
It's a 23rd-century New Routemaster!
- - -
So, now it's over to you. If you've spotted a London bus in a movie or TV show, please share it here!
Yes, yes, I know it's not quite the same as going out and being able to see and travel on buses around town, but you never know, it might just bring a smile to someone's face while we're all stuck inside.
- - -
The coronavirus lockdown has forced us all to spend a lot more time at home than we're used to in recent weeks, and this situation will obviously continue for some time to come. I've read several comments from members recently remarking on how much they missed being able to travel around town during this lockdown period - and no doubt, many are missing the regular joy of seeing buses while out and about.
And of course, many of us now have a lot more free time on our hands - and if you're anything like me, you've probably been spending at least some of that time enjoying TV shows and movies.
So I thought it might be fun, while so many of us are stuck indoors, to enjoy a spot of bus-spotting from the comfort of our own homes, by sharing examples of London buses that we've spotted in all those films and TV programmes that we've been bingeing on lately.
Of course, there are websites devoted to 'buses in film' and the like - but I don't think that's quite as satisfying as spotting a bus in a TV show or movie for oneself... and if you do happen to spot one, I hope you'll share it here!
I have a few examples to get the ball rolling. You might well be familiar with a few of them - but there is one example that I'm fairly confident will come as a surprise to many, if not most... but we'll get to that in a bit!
First up is RT4421, which is an occasional guest star on BBC One's Call the Midwife (and you can even hire this beauty for yourself from Ensignbus!):
Here's another example that I'm sure many of you will be familiar with, in the 2002 movie 28 Days Later - a rather forlorn-looking RM1245 (LDS210A) lying on its side in Whitehall:
Any Top Gear fans in the house? You'll probably remember the race across London - car vs. public transport, bike, and boat - in which the Stig begins the first stint of his journey by taking a 391 (operated by Transdev London United's DPS669) from Kew Bridge to Gunnersbury station:
(It was my recent re-watch of that episode that inspired this thread!)
Top Gear fans may also recall that James May drove a New Routemaster on the show in the form of Arriva's LT7, back in 2013:
Now, here's an example that I suspect a few of you won't have seen - it's from a short-lived BBC One 'pre-apocalyptic drama' called Hard Sun, which was broadcast in 2018. In one episode, there's a pretty graphic and horrifying scene in which a passenger on a packed bus begins to cut himself with a knife before stabbing another passenger to death.
The scene takes place on the fictional '306' to Oxford Circus (a real route 306, from Fulham to Acton Vale, was of course introduced in December 2019):
The bus used in the episode was formerly vehicle 9467 (reg LJ09 OJZ) with Abellio London, before transferring to Sullivan Buses:
Here's one you might have spotted at the cinema last year, in the Marvel blockbuster Spider-Man: Far From Home. Peter Parker's classmates arrive in London at St Pancras International on the latest leg of their European trip, and they're met at the station by an open-top bus operated by the fictional company 'London Sightseers' (you can see a better shot of the bus in this Flickr photo (which, unlike the other images in this post, was NOT taken by me)).
The bus had a former life as VLA80 (reg. LJ54 BFK) at Arriva London, before beginning its movie career. Here it is in the movie outside St Pancras:
Sadly, the bus does not have a happy ending!
(Oddly, the digital model of the bus, which was used in CGI shots, has a different registration plate - MYS BFK - which is briefly visible when the teenagers flee the bus on Tower Bridge.)
There are, of course, also examples of London buses in TV and film which aren't London buses at all.
This example, of the '200' to Victoria, from Doctor Who, speaks for itself!
...but this is the one that I'm fairly sure will raise an eyebrow or two here - and it's from a movie that's probably the last place you'd expect to spot a London bus.
It's from Star Trek Into Darkness, the sequel to JJ Abrams' 2009 Star Trek reboot. Early in the movie, a character visits a facility in London, and shortly before he enters the building, a red blur can be briefly seen whooshing past in the background. As soon as I saw it in the cinema, I knew it was a bus (and as a fan of both Star Trek and buses, I can't tell you how much my inner geek giggled with delight at that...!).
It rushes past so quickly that it's tough to grab it in a single freeze-frame. Here's the front:
Here's the rear:
You can also view an enlarged crop of the bus zooming past in the background in GIF format here):
...and if you were still in any doubt that it is indeed supposed to be a London bus, check out this page on Memory Alpha (the largest online encyclopaedia and leading authority on all things Star Trek), where you'll see an image captioned 'A bus driving down a road in London.'
It's a 23rd-century New Routemaster!
- - -
So, now it's over to you. If you've spotted a London bus in a movie or TV show, please share it here!
Yes, yes, I know it's not quite the same as going out and being able to see and travel on buses around town, but you never know, it might just bring a smile to someone's face while we're all stuck inside.