to wonder whether On the Buses should still be allowed on the television?

[cocoachannel]

DGM is watching ITV's British comedy 'celebration' [buhmm] We currently have On the Buses on the television. DSis and I are agog that it is sooooo sexist. Obviously we know that in a bygone era this type of comedy was the norm, but is it really appropriate for 2012?

I think I probably ABU as DGM is quite happy, and obviously enjoys the nostalgia...

Could "Elvis" have been wearing a US army uniform when he was doing his national service?

Steptoe and Son has lots of pathos in it. The pair of them were absolutely tied to one another (Harold particularly so) by their circumstances.

IMO the very best of these comedies can get you to be sympathetic to an otherwise dislikeable character: Rigsby in Rising Damp has little to recommend him (racist, mean, a snob and a reactionary), but you still want things to work out for him.

Lovvvvve On The Buses! I even have the bloody movie box set. I would love to go back to the early 70's just to see what it was like, watching it makes me so nostalgic. Sometimes makes me a little sad that we don't live in 'simpler' times like they did back then...yes ok the sexism was rife but life just seemed a bit happier and more easy going.

Then again I was Born in the 80's s I'm probably talking shite.

"Sometimes makes me a little sad that we don't live in 'simpler' times like they did back then."

• there have been threads on here over the last couple of days, with people expressing outrage at the Govt's idea that young unmarried people should stay living with their parents. On the Buses has not only the unmarried man still living with his mum, but the married sister, BIL and later baby all in the same house.

I don't know how 'normal' that really was in the '70s, but maybe David Cameron is trying to get you your wish Pelican,

PelicansYawn: I was brought up in the 70s. There were things then that were a lot worse (rampant racism and sexism being the obvious ones) but the thing I remember as being decidedly better was everybody being able to afford their own houses - or, if they couldn't afford to buy a house, there'd be a council house for them. There just didn't seem to be this huge gulf between the very rich and the very poor that you get now. Even the people at the bottom of the pile, who are so very reviled these days, weren't that badly off. They weren't living in squalor or on drugs or permanently unemployed. Nobody was homeless. People had low-paid jobs but they managed. I remember when the Tories did their famous "Labour isn't working" campaign, unemployment stood at 1.5m and that was considered shocking.

The 70s was crap for a lot of reasons.

There was a gulf between rich and poor but people were not as aware.

I dont understand anyone hankering for the 70s.

hackmum I had friends in the 70s whose parents were farm labourers and who lived in tied cottages without heating who hadn't been on the bus to the county town because it was too expensive. Their parents might have had jobs but they lived a life so poor it is unimaginable today. 5 children, three bedrooms, no inside bathroom, no heating, no phone, no car and in the middle of nowhere - they washed at the kitchen sink and dreaded getting into and out of bed because it was so cold. Because they lived 2.5 miles from school, they either walked or came on bicycles in all weathers.

hackmum I was brought up in the seventies too and your post rings true with me on many levels, particularly about there being less of a gulf between people.

My favourite was the fall and rise of Reginald Perrin!
Genius

Absolutely love On the Buses! We have the complete box set of the whole series. My DS and DD love it too- they undertsand it was and is not real life but find the characters hilarious. It is so outdated now it works on that ludicrous level.

YANBU on the grounds that it is a load of old shite.