MovieChat Forums > On the Buses (1969) Discussion > Why always poor with 2 men working in 1 ...

Why always poor with 2 men working in 1 house?

posted 9 years ago by suzanne-lawson1
12 replies | jump to latest

Nearly every show is about money or lack of it. One today was how they were all helping the mother because they thought she had won a holiday for 2 to Spain.
This is a household with two men working full time, and I expect the mother has a pension. OK Olive doesn't work, but what does she need to buy if others are paying bills and mother buys the food? Cooking for lots of people at once is cheaper than them all eating separately. In real life Olive and Arthur would have their own house.

[–] caledoniancraig-78-431259 9 years ago

Well they do refer, a few times, to how much they are paying out to HP, in other words paying to rent goods such as television and washing machine so there is a lot of the income already gone. Plus remember this was at a time when Britain was struggling to financially adjust to decimilisation (covered in an episode) and if memory serves I am sure Arthur may have been part-time employed by British Rail. In any case Stan and Arthur weren't exactly in higher paid jobs in any case. As for Arthur and Olive having their own house - well perhaps but that would have destroyed all the comedic values would it not? In any case jum was notorious for not wanting to allow her children their freedom and Arthur was notoriously mean so I'd say it suited both parties.

[–] andy_gee68 9 years ago

Didn't you see how much olive ate?

[–] cameron-whyte 9 years ago

The jokes about how much Olive ate were a bit pathetic. She was not even that fat.

[–] caledoniancraig-78-431259 9 years ago

No as they got laughs so they weren't pathetic. Just as there were jokes about Jack's teeth or Arthur's operation - all got laughs which is the primary aim of comedy.

[–] cameron-whyte 9 years ago

I still say Olive was not that fat. But from where you're coming from, yes, the jokes got laughs, so the show hit the mark from that angle.

[–] herbertanchovy-897-618118 9 years ago

That's a very good point, busmen were on pretty good money back then. With overtime you could pretty much double your wages. There was a chronic staff shortage at the time.

[–] littlesue-567-593153 9 years ago

I agree, watching the re-runs on ITV2 and Olive was very slim, quite attractive in 'real life' just made up as a plain jane

[–] t-dalley 8 years ago

I think being hard up is funnier than having plenty of money more down to earth ,no frills and fancies IE step toe and son Alf Garnet.
Much more funny than To the Manor Born and such.

[–] culttv-2 8 years ago

Exactly because most British people at the time could relate to it, working class families with not a lot of money so I think they 'got it' more.

[–] SamuelSpade 8 years ago

I thought Arthur was unemployed, I can't remember any information on what he did for a living.

Run for it?, Runnings not a plan! Runnings what you do, once a plan fails!

Earl, Tremors.

[–] oranges99 7 years ago

I seem to recall it being mentioned that he worked for British Rail.

[–] Daddy_Tej 7 years ago

That episode where the mum put a sausage and 1 piece of bread on the table and said... "there you are, that's all we have" was ridiculous, hana