I hate you, Butler.

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.