Comics UK

Well spotted! I quite like that 'Vive le Revolution' edition.

It's the one where they introduce a whole new pupil cast of Kounter Kulture Kids, isn't it? Who are then never seen again!

Yes, that's the one, although I'm still working my way through the complete Please Sir! box set so I don't know whether this bunch of kids will be seen in later episodes. I have to say that I think by this stage the show was past its best, with the original 'kids' (most of whom must've been at least 25!) and Bernard Hedges having left. After completing Please Sir! I'll move on to watching spinoff The Fenn Street Gang.

It's maybe the best of the 'after everyone's left' editions. And the TV21s add a bit of class to it.

Yes, the main ones introduced don't appear again, I don't think; maybe one of that new class, once or twice, briefly.

A pity as a gang of early '70s revolutionary-style pupils might have been worth pursuing - and they did actually look like pupils, rather than 28 year olds who looked 35!

Are you simultaneously following Look-In's Please Sir! and 'Fenn Street Gang strips?

No, and I'm not familiar with them - were they any good?

See what you think from Lew's blog:

Please Sir!
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_448y6kVhntg/S ... sesir1.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_448y6kVhntg/S ... sesir2.jpg

(Here's his full Look-In: the Early Years article; well worth reading:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2008/ ... years.html )

Plus:

The Fenn Street Gang
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v_ixrwz7EQo/U ... street.jpg

(Full article: http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/ ... ok-in.html )

Thanks for the links. I've never really been keen on comic adaptations of TV shows, but I'll check out Lew's posts.

The Please Sir! example strip captured the feel of the TV series, and the likenesses were pretty good, with the semi-cartoonish style working well. Fenn Street was a bit trickier to judge as it was only a single episode of an ongoing story, but I got the feeling that it was just a generic humour/adventure strip with no strong connection a particular TV show (apart from Sharon's trademark 'utterly'). Having not seen Fenn Street since it was first broadcast the fault may lie with the TV show not having a strong premise unlike its predecessor's school-based plots.

They have been showing episodes of On The Buses on ITV4 which no longer have Reg Varney (Stan) or Michael Robbins (Arthur). Still funny but lacking.

stevezodiac wrote:They have been showing episodes of On The Buses on ITV4 which no longer have Reg Varney (Stan) or Michael Robbins (Arthur). Still funny but lacking.

I never understood why they kept it going after Reg Varney left.

I didn't know they left as seen the films countless times and love them but seen relatively few episodes.How did they leave and how long did the show continue without them as can imagine its like the xfiles without mulder

Probably Reg Varney got fed up with OTB. He went on to another sitcom called 'Down The 'Gate' where he played a market porter at Billingsgate (but not the same character he played in OTB). In OTB they explained Stan's absence by saying he'd got another job. OTB carried on for a few more episodes with Blakey moving into Stan's old room as a lodger. Arthur and Olive had divorced by this stage, which is why Arthur no longer appeared. After OTB ended there was a spinoff series in which Blakey and his sister retired to a flat in Spain. This follow-on series was called 'Don't Drink The Water' and it is BAD. No, really. VERY. BAD.

The character of Olive (still played by Anna Karen) later appeared in the 1977/78 revival of The Rag Trade.

thanks niblet i did hear there was a bad blakey series lol

It was called "Don't Drink The Water" I think! Pat Coombs played Blakey's sister! Supposed to be set in Spain!

Stephen Lewis (Blakey) actually appeared in a 1969 film alongside Richard Burton and Rex Harrison! "Staircase" I think was its title! Not really family viewing though!

The Black Windmill has some British nursery comics and Marvel imports in a railway newsagent.

Dear John series 1, episode 5 - originally broadcast 17 March 1986.



...featuring a copy of Buster published over 2 years earlier.