UK NEWS
ON THE BUSES STAR REG VARNEY DIES, AGED 92
CHIRPY: Reg Varney
By Natalie Chalk
COMEDY star Reg Varney, who played chirpy driver Stan Butler in the 1970s ITV sitcom On The Buses, has died.
Varney, 92, had suffered a chest infection and passed away following a short illness.
Yesterday, his daughter Jeanne Marley, 59, said Varney died peacefully yesterday.
She said: “He’s always been very young for his age, when he was in On The Buses he was playing a 35-year-old, but he was actually 50.”
Born in London’s East End, he had lived in Devon for the past 20 years and died in a nursing home in Budleigh Salterton.
After leaving school at 14 he took various menial jobs working as a messenger and a page boy at the Regent Palace Hotel. He learned to play the piano as a child and got his first gig at Plumstead Radical Club in Woolwich, for which he was paid eight shillings and sixpence.
After showing a flair for performances in working men’s clubs, he turned to show business and became a full-time actor. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Electrical Engineers but carried on entertaining in music halls. He had a number of roles in different TV shows before achieving fame in On The Buses, which began in 1969 and ran for seven series. The sitcom centred on three blokes who worked for a bus company.
Stan, played by Varney, was the cheeky, cheerful driver. His happy-chappy mate Jack, played by Bob Grant, was the conductor and the bane of their lives was Blakey, played by Stephen Lewis, who was the stickler of an inspector.
In later years, Varney took on various film roles but he retired in the 1990s because of health problems.
Varney – who had lived alone since his wife Lilian died in 2002 – is survived by his daughter, two grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
No funeral date has been set.
REG WHO? MIKE_H
11.06.09, 2:38am
Gosh, you are so miserable.
• Posted by: DaviniaH • Report Comment
ON THE BUSES
09.12.08, 10:50pm
I have to agree with Mike from Hollywood - On The Buses has got to be one of the worst TV programmes ever.
I think Reg Varney will be more remembered for opening the first cash machine in Britain in 1967!
• Posted by: Rebel_Music • Report Comment
REG WHO?
30.11.08, 3:23am
The 1970's comedy program, "On The Buses," was rubbish. Absolute rubbish. For years, while growing up in London I, along with the pre-teen generation of the times had to endure this dialobolicle nonsense and suffer at the hands of pathetic third-rate, tedious, low-quality comedy programs such as this miserable attempt at humour because, quite frankly, there was nothing else on. I may be incorrect on the exact time, but If I remember, "On The Buses," was shown every Sunday evening at around 7:00pm.
The weekly monotonous scenario of one or two sloppily-dressed lazy working class lads, (one being bus driver Stan Butler) in presumably London somewhere, gainfully employed at London Transport bus service while being continuously spied upon and unfairly targeted by a somewhat annoying, fixed facial smirking, immensely over-characterized rule-bound "Hitler," (complete with fake Hitler-type mustache) a bus inspector/supervisor, known as "Blakey," whom we got to see on a regular basis standing in the bus depot, in front of a row of parked buses, with straight slick black greasy hair which was always anchored down to one side and held in place by his black London Transport-issued bus inspector cap, forever clutching a work clipboard against his chest and periodically raising himself up on tip-toes with extolled excitement in what seemed to be more concern with anticipated insubordination from Stan Butler and staff, than operating an effective, productive public transport service and whose futile efforts were in constant vain in attempting prove repetitive misconduct and defiant arrogance toward the system by Varney's character et al; was in itself a sorry attempt at analyzing the average working class way of life, even in its most average form.
The one-line jokes were always lame and the humour was of a schoolboy level, where every cast member contained therein were just as guilty in their feeble attempt to try and entertain the British masses with flat-line remarks throughout the program that, ...well, just weren't very funny. The entire cast who's annoying cockney accent would make any great British playwright squirm with annoyance at incorrect British grammar and failure to properly annunciate nouns in their corrective speech pattern, or use vocabulary in its purest form is in itself a crime against linguistic origins. Yet programs like this were either forced upon us primarily because we were led to believe this was first-rate comedy which was the accepted norm in family viewing, or simply because there was a limited choice for quality television viewing during those times.
Either way, "On The Buses" and similar comedy programs of that era will not be missed. Neither will Stan Butler. His character, played by Varney, was never very funny. The program was career suicide for anyone who had a part in it. But don't worry, Mr. Varney wasn't alone in his third-rate bad character acting or being involved in a comedy program which often relied heavily on sexy innuendos and "toilet" humour as a means to achieve a good laugh. There were many other programs like it around at that time, although not as bad, but yet were just as weak in being expected to being accepted as peek viewing for the whole family. "On The Buses" should never have been promoted as a successful comedy program, season after season, thereby giving the impression it was a hit amongst its populace viewers. If anything, it should have been canceled before the first season was complete and all the cast of characters should have either signed on to the dole, or been given adequate employment at the Crossroads Motel or on "East Enders"-the familiar actors graveyard for most has-been's.
Mike Hughes,
Hollywood, California, USA
• Posted by: Mike_H • Report Comment
REG VARNEY
17.11.08, 12:08pm
It's very sad news to hear Reg Varney is dead - one of the greatest and loved actors - He was a funny man not like the comics of today - Never had to try for laughs - Just a natural, and much loved man by young and old. My family adored him - Thank goodness for DVD's so we can all have him round for much longer. Rest in peace Love to his family for loaning him to us. xxx
• Posted by: Jaypuss • Report Comment
COMEDY STAR REG VARNEY HAS DIED.
17.11.08, 9:48am
He was one of the great Comedy Actors in the days when Television produced REAL COMEDY PROGRAMMES. Goodbye Reg, never to be forgotten.
• Posted by: EmperorMing • Report Comment
LAUGHTER IS THE SPICE OF LIFE
17.11.08, 1:07am
A BIG thank you to Reg,your laughter put many years onto my life,one of Britains GREATS,God Bless
• Posted by: mackie • Report Comment
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