The 1970s television series ‘On The Buses’
spawned a total of three films, showing how hugely popular this programme must
have been. For television to be popular
it must have some kind of relevance to viewers, and I think that ‘On The Buses’’
popularity stemmed from its ability to tap into the concerns of working people
and their families. And as the daughter
of a bus conductor/driver who began work in the 1970s, I have been assured that
many of Stan and Jack’s situations are quite accurate for the time!
I have already covered the original ‘On
the Buses’ film and ‘Holiday on the Buses’ (see links below), where I was
reminded of pieces of everyday life which have now been swallowed up by modern
day commercialism. But when I watched the
second film in the series – ‘Mutiny on the Buses’, I realised that there is one
way in which our modern life has failed, and that we are now backtracking to
the lifestyle depicted in the film.
A thread running through this film is
Stan’s engagement to Suzy the Clippie.
She tells him that she wishes to marry him as soon as possible – and as
she is holding back certain benefits until their wedding night – Stan too is
keen to exchange vows. However the
sticking point is their inability to find somewhere to live. Stan attempts to save the money for a deposit
on a flat – with Suzy’s chosen flat secured, he is as good as married. However, when his brother-in-law (Arthur)
loses his job, he finds himself being forced into contributing more into the
family household pot. Because Stan’s
current living arrangement is sharing the family home with his mother, sister,
brother-in-law and nephew. Suzy is given
the option of joining them all as a new member of the family. However, she is
positive that this will never happen and as the flat becomes further out of
reach of Stan’s pocket, the engagement is called off.
To the modern viewer, this household set
up is unusual. We now expect to have our
own home and to live apart from our extended family. In the latter decades of the 20th
Century this idea of universal home ownership was aggressively pushed to us all. But this is a relatively new phenomenon. Throughout history, housing has been at such
a premium that two or three generations have routinely lived in the same house. Young couples couldn’t afford to pay out rent
on their own place and neither could outside care of the elderly be afforded. When my parents first married and until I
was around two years old, the three of us lived with my Mum’s parents. As I was born in the same year that ‘Mutiny
on the Buses’ was made, this shows that Stan’s home really wasn’t out of the
ordinary –as I said at the beginning, this is what made the show popular – it
was familiar to viewers. My parents moved
out of my grandparents’ home when they got to the top of the waiting list for a
council flat. Good council housing gave
many families the chance to make their own way and have a home of their
own. But then we were all pushed into
buying houses, it was what we were all told to aspire to. Prices have now reached such a point through the high demand that I
think we are facing a return to the multigenerational home.
 |
| 4 Generations of my family, 1973 |
I think that many of the problems relating
to housing today can be traced back to the selling of these council
houses. The first step on the family home
ladder has been rendered considerably more difficult to get a toehold on,
leaving families chasing a deposit that they will struggle to manage while they
line the pockets of greedy opportunist private landlords. Stan’s fiancée gives us a clue to when this
change was beginning. Young,
impressionable people were already reaching out for property that they really
could not afford to take on. One feels
that Suzy would never have been satisfied to make do on a busman’s wages and
would always be wanting to go one better.
He really was better off without all that.
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