I've enjoyed this thread immensely so far - it's been a real pleasure to share in a bit of virtual bus-spotting with so many other members!
I've got a few (quite a few!) more images to share from my own TV- and movie-watching in recent weeks.
First up is RTL543 (along with another unidentified bus) operating on route 15 in the movie
Stan & Ollie, which is set in 1953:
The two buses pass each other outside one of the secondary entrances to the Adelphi, on Adam Street, just off the Strand. You can also see a GIF of this scene
here.
However, as those of you know this part of London well may have spotted, the film-makers took some creative liberties in composing this scene (and to my knowledge, the 15 has never gone down this side-street). If you're looking down Adam Street with the magnificent Adelphi building on your right, you're facing south-east towards the Thames and across to Waterloo. As you can see
here on Google Maps, you certainly can't see the Houses of Parliament! Along with the extended roadway and monument in the distance, Parliament was digitally inserted in the background, presumably to make the scene look
a bit more like London to viewers (because the red buses obviously weren't enough...).
That's not the only example in this particular movie. In one scene, Laurel and Hardy travel by train from the north of England to London... somehow crossing the Thames on a non-existent railway bridge running parallel to Tower Bridge! An unidentified bus on the bridge again hammers home to the viewers that
it's London, baby!
A GIF of that scene can be found
here. Despite the liberties taken with London's geography - a sin all-too-often committed by film and TV producers - I rather enjoyed
Stan & Ollie, and I'd gladly recommend watching it.
Another film I recently enjoyed was
Made in Dagenham, featuring a superb cast, charming recreations of East London life in 1968, and a very brief background appearance by RML3 on an unspecified route, appropriately blinded for 'Dagenham':
...which you can also see in GIF form
here.
Curiously, 2019 saw two large-scale TV adaptations of H G Wells' classic alien invasion novel. One was a three-part adaptation produced by the BBC (
The War of the Worlds) and set in Edwardian England; the second was a bilingual US-French production produced by StudioCanal and Fox Networks, set across modern-day Europe (known as
War of the Worlds or
La Guerre des Mondes). There were numerous appearances of London buses in this latter production.
Among them was London Sovereign's VH45154, along with two additional Go-Ahead London buses:
Oddly, despite the obviously sudden nature of the alien attack - as evidenced by bodies littering the street - none of the buses in the scene above have any blinds showing even though they were obviously intended to be shown in service. Even more odd: the bus stop to the right of the shot has clearly had its flag covered over to obscure the roundel. Perhaps the show's producers wanted to avoid paying some sort of licensing fee to TfL?
At Bank, an LT is also seen with no blinds showing:
Strangely, in another scene, an unidentified bus
does at least have a rear number blind, showing '618' - a defunct school route previously operated by London Sovereign:
In the same sequence, another unidentified bus is shown blinded for the 292:
Another oddity in that shot: centred above the rear blind display, the 'LONDON' branding is clearly in the RATP Group font (and of course, London Sovereign previously operated the 292, so I think we can guess where the production team hired most of their buses from!) - but it only says 'London', with no 'Sovereign' or 'United' below it. Strange.
And here's another dose of weirdness - an overhead shot at Piccadilly Circus, showing Arriva's LT218 in the centre, Abellio's LT700 on the left, and... uhhh... Abellio's LT700 on the right as well (!?)
Moving on...
Channel 5 produced an enjoyable series called
Then & Now, examining various parts of Britain's recent history, and dedicated an entire episode to London's transport network. As you can imagine, there were
plenty of appearances by various London buses. Here are just a few of those that appeared - first up, it's Go-Ahead London's EH267 with an unidentified LT in the background:
Stagecoach London's 13085:
A glimpse of Abellio London's 2436, and Arriva's LT593:
A triple whammy! Go-Ahead London's EH206, SEe48, and LT299:
Go-Ahead's EH195:
...and a quick flash from Go-Ahead's SEe56:
There were a few glimpses of garage life too, including appearances by Go-Ahead's MHV3:
LT454:
...and WVL438, among others:
...as well as Arriva's LT348 and friends:
The show also offered some delightful glimpses into the very earliest days of London's bus network, including this collection of first-generation motor buses:
...along with B186, a fine example of the hugely successful and prolific B-Type motor bus operated by the London General Omnibus Company:
...and its sister vehicle B599:
This GIF captures footage of several of those magnificent B-Type buses in action.
This, I think, is a particularly superb image, commemorating the female workforce that worked on London's buses during World War I:
My favourite bus-spot from recent weeks is where I shall wrap things up for now. I've recently enjoyed watching the BBC Two series
Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, and I was rather surprised - to say the least! - to see a bus that I travelled on many, many times now appearing in the strangest of places.
Once upon a time, it was
London United's VA95, and I still fondly remember my journeys on it back in its earliest days serving in its '
oneeleven' route branding (at one point, it even had the nose of a Boeing 747 on its sides!). So what became of it?
Well, now it's... Bertram's Hotel!
It looks a bit different these days compared with how I remember it...
...although it certainly looks a bit more comfy than when it served on the 111!
The new décor is perhaps something of an acquired taste...
...and I'm not sure how I feel about the bathroom by the driver's cab...! (And they replaced the Wayfarer with a sink!)
I've stitched together a GIF offering a very quick glimpse of the various areas of the interior in action
here (check out the mini-bar!).
And if you fancy a trip down to North Devon to stay there yourself, you can find more info about Bertram's Hotel and book your stay
here. (And do let us all know how it goes!)
Please do keep bus-spotting from home and sharing what you find with us all on here
...but for now, well, this is my stop.
*waves*