The european digital archive

Reviewer:R. Freedman - - February 24, 2006
Subject:Interesting for a bus buff
Never mind the politically correct part. It is a great movie of the RT type of London bus. Despite what the previous reviewer said, the buses are not the Routemaster which did not enter service until some years after this movie ws made.

Reviewer:rgs_uk - - October 12, 2005
Subject:The Colonial Film Unit shows Africans how to use a bus
There was famously one of these films that showed new-arrivals to Britain how to turn on an electric light. But maybe the British Government is holding back some of those really bad films?

This one isn't quite so patronising. Although, produced by the 'Colonial Film Unit', the aim seems to be to 'educate' Africans on how to travel on a double decker bus. Indeed it features a journey by two African students.

The irony is, the script seems to have been written by someone who had never used public transport. Buses always arrive on time and the staff are always polite apparently! Or maybe things really were different in those days?

Watch out for the 'cripple' who needs help boarding the bus!

Although these days it seems rather anally-retentive and something of a sledgehammer to crack a walnut, this film does have a lot of charm and plenty of great shots of the old red Routemaster double-decker buses that are due to disappear from London streets in the last months of 2005.

Later in the 1950's and 1960's many African and Carribean people would end up emigrating to Britain and working as conductors and drivers on the same double-deckers.