Our mother, Jean Harvey, who has died aged 83, declared at the age of six that she wanted to be an actress. She went on to a successful stage and screen career, receiving widest recognition for her work in television over more than 30 years.
Her most famous role was in Compact (1962), one of the BBC's first soaps, as the editor of the magazine from which the show took its title. She appeared in several classic serials, including North and South (1975) and two versions of Jane Eyre, playing Mrs Reed in the 1973 adaptation and Mrs Fairfax in 1983. Her favourite TV role was as Sally, the wife of Max (George Cole) in A Man of Our Times (1968), for which she received a Bafta nomination.
Jean was born near Birmingham, daughter of Dorothy and Frederick Hillen-Harvey, and studied at the city's Central School of Speech and Drama before joining Birmingham Rep as a junior member,...
Her most famous role was in Compact (1962), one of the BBC's first soaps, as the editor of the magazine from which the show took its title. She appeared in several classic serials, including North and South (1975) and two versions of Jane Eyre, playing Mrs Reed in the 1973 adaptation and Mrs Fairfax in 1983. Her favourite TV role was as Sally, the wife of Max (George Cole) in A Man of Our Times (1968), for which she received a Bafta nomination.
Jean was born near Birmingham, daughter of Dorothy and Frederick Hillen-Harvey, and studied at the city's Central School of Speech and Drama before joining Birmingham Rep as a junior member,...
- 1/28/2014
- The Guardian - Film News
Co-writer of TV sitcoms On the Buses and The Rag Trade
At the height of his writing partnership with Ronald Chesney, Ronald Wolfe, who has died aged 89 after a fall, enjoyed huge success with the sitcom On the Buses; its bawdy humour was panned by the critics but lapped up by the viewing public. Originally turned down by the BBC, the idea for a comedy based around the antics of a driver and conductor giving their inspector the runaround at the Luxton Bus Company appealed to Frank Muir, head of entertainment at the newly launched ITV company London Weekend Television.
Reg Varney played Stan Butler, at the wheel of the No 11, and Bob Grant was his lothario conductor, Jack. The pair made life hell for the miserable Inspector Blake (Stephen Lewis). Blakey's "Get that bus out" and "I 'ate you, Butler" were two of the most frequent lines that flowed...
At the height of his writing partnership with Ronald Chesney, Ronald Wolfe, who has died aged 89 after a fall, enjoyed huge success with the sitcom On the Buses; its bawdy humour was panned by the critics but lapped up by the viewing public. Originally turned down by the BBC, the idea for a comedy based around the antics of a driver and conductor giving their inspector the runaround at the Luxton Bus Company appealed to Frank Muir, head of entertainment at the newly launched ITV company London Weekend Television.
Reg Varney played Stan Butler, at the wheel of the No 11, and Bob Grant was his lothario conductor, Jack. The pair made life hell for the miserable Inspector Blake (Stephen Lewis). Blakey's "Get that bus out" and "I 'ate you, Butler" were two of the most frequent lines that flowed...
- 12/20/2011
- by Anthony Hayward
- The Guardian - Film News
It's set in a London of rusting Hillman Minxes and bare lightbulbs, but On the Buses was a huge hit in its time, and the fanclub is still going strong
A 1965 Routemaster bus pulls up somewhere in the London suburb of Borehamwood; the passengers pile out and cluster around a nearby manhole cover, and point their cameras at it – for this is no ordinary manhole cover. It has gone down in movie history as the actual drain cover in which On the Buses' Olive Rudge got her bottom stuck. And the amateur photographers are part of a group of 100 or so punters who had paid £35 a head to attend an event called On the Buses Rides Again: a fan-club weekend to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the appearance of the On the Buses spin-off film.
It may seem bizarre now, but On the Buses was the most successful British film of 1971, outgrossing allcomers,...
A 1965 Routemaster bus pulls up somewhere in the London suburb of Borehamwood; the passengers pile out and cluster around a nearby manhole cover, and point their cameras at it – for this is no ordinary manhole cover. It has gone down in movie history as the actual drain cover in which On the Buses' Olive Rudge got her bottom stuck. And the amateur photographers are part of a group of 100 or so punters who had paid £35 a head to attend an event called On the Buses Rides Again: a fan-club weekend to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the appearance of the On the Buses spin-off film.
It may seem bizarre now, but On the Buses was the most successful British film of 1971, outgrossing allcomers,...
- 6/23/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
The strike by women at the Dagenham Ford factory in 1968 that led to the Equal Pay Act is given the Calendar Girls treatment
Andrzej Wajda's superb Man of Iron (1981) was shot in the Gdansk shipyards at the very heart of Solidarity's activities, gave Lech Walesa a brief role as himself, and became part of the political process it commented on. It was a rare case of a feature film based on a major episode in the history of organised labour made close to the actual events. More typically, Mario Monicelli's The Organizer (1963) was a bracing reconstruction of a strike in late 19th-century Turin. Bo Widerberg's Adalen 31 (1969) lyrically recreated the violent strike in northern Sweden that ushered in 40 years of Social Democratic government.
There was an even greater gap in the case of Comrades (1986), Bill Douglas's epic account of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the Dorset labourers transported...
Andrzej Wajda's superb Man of Iron (1981) was shot in the Gdansk shipyards at the very heart of Solidarity's activities, gave Lech Walesa a brief role as himself, and became part of the political process it commented on. It was a rare case of a feature film based on a major episode in the history of organised labour made close to the actual events. More typically, Mario Monicelli's The Organizer (1963) was a bracing reconstruction of a strike in late 19th-century Turin. Bo Widerberg's Adalen 31 (1969) lyrically recreated the violent strike in northern Sweden that ushered in 40 years of Social Democratic government.
There was an even greater gap in the case of Comrades (1986), Bill Douglas's epic account of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the Dorset labourers transported...
- 10/2/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
The star of one of Britain's most successful television comedies has died at the age of 92. Reg Varney became a household name appearing as driver Stan Butler in ITV's On The Buses during the 1970s. His daughter Jeanne Marley told the BBC that her father died 'peacefully' after a short illness at a nursing home in Devon. Varney was born in East London and began his career in entertainment by playing the piano in working men's clubs. During WWII, he served in (more)...
- 11/17/2008
- by By Sarah Rollo
- Digital Spy
Beloved British TV star Reg Varney has died aged 92.
Varney, best known for his role as cheeky bus driver Stan Butler in classic comedy On The Buses, passed away of natural causes at a retirement home in Devon, England.
According to his daughter, Jeanne Marley, the actor died peacefully.
Born in east London in 1916, Varney served in World War II as an engineer and began his career as a performer, entertaining the troops.
His first U.K. TV performance was in the BBC show The Rag Trade, before landing his most famous role in the On The Buses in 1969. The show ran until 1973.
After the show, the actor appeared reprised his role in a stage adaptation of the hit series in a theatre tour of Australia, before performing his own cabaret show The Other Reg Varney in the U.K., Australia and Canada.
His wife, Lilian Emma Varney, died in 2002. He is survived by a daughter.
Varney, best known for his role as cheeky bus driver Stan Butler in classic comedy On The Buses, passed away of natural causes at a retirement home in Devon, England.
According to his daughter, Jeanne Marley, the actor died peacefully.
Born in east London in 1916, Varney served in World War II as an engineer and began his career as a performer, entertaining the troops.
His first U.K. TV performance was in the BBC show The Rag Trade, before landing his most famous role in the On The Buses in 1969. The show ran until 1973.
After the show, the actor appeared reprised his role in a stage adaptation of the hit series in a theatre tour of Australia, before performing his own cabaret show The Other Reg Varney in the U.K., Australia and Canada.
His wife, Lilian Emma Varney, died in 2002. He is survived by a daughter.
- 11/17/2008
- WENN
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