Stephen Lewis died yesterday, aged 88. In the 1970s, he was a household name. Or rather his character from On The Buses was. Lewis played Blakey, the hapless inspector whose famous catchphrase made him a gift for impressionists. On The Buses was one of most popular sitcoms ever seen on British television. Especially in our house. My mum and three of her siblings worked on the buses out of Cricklewood Garage, so the programme had a particular resonance with my family. It’s now derided as old-fashioned, sexist and “of its time”; full of saucy innuendo, nods, winks and nudge-nudges. So a few years ago, to demonstrate how comedy had moved on since those dark days, Channel 4 showed an episode of On The Buses. Trouble was, that episode and Stephen Lewis in particular, were laugh-out-loud funny.
I hate you, Butler.

- Bob Dylan win...14th Oct 2016
- "More for you...13th Oct 2016
- To the Soho e...11th Oct 2016
- Brian Blessed...9th Oct 2016
- I always love...8th Oct 2016
- It wasn't jus...6th Oct 2016
- Misandry.4th Oct 2016
- It's 5777.2nd Oct 2016
- Didn't you th...1st Oct 2016
- Greed is the ...27th Sep 2016
- We've now off...24th Sep 2016
- Have they fin...18th Sep 2016
- Oh Lucky Man.15th Sep 2016
- The tube was ...13th Sep 2016
- My stag night.12th Sep 2016 prev next