| Here Come the Double Deckers! | |
|---|---|
| Format | Children's television series |
| Created by | Harry Booth Roy Simpson Glyn Jones |
| Starring | Michael Audreson Gillian Bailey Bruce Clark Peter Firth Brinsley Forde Melvyn Hayes Debbie Russ Douglas Simmonds Nigel Barker |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes per episode |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC BBC One |
| Original run | September 12, 1970 (US) 8 January 1971 (UK) – September 3, 1972 (US) 30 April 1971 (UK) |
Here Come the Double Deckers was a 17-part British children's TV series from 1970-71 revolving around the adventures of seven children whose den was an old red double-decker London bus in an unused works (junk) yard.
Contents |
A co-production between British independent film company Century Films and American TV company 20th Century Fox, it was a children's comedy adventure sitcom. The shows (without adverts) were about 21 minutes long.
The programme made its debut on September 12, 1970 at 10:30 am ET in the US on ABC, and at 4:55 pm on 1 January 1971 in Britain on BBC One. In the US, the series was rerun on Sunday mornings during the 1971-72 TV season on ABC from September 12, 1971 to September 3, 1972, in the same time slot.[1]
Each week saw the gang in a separate adventure including episodes based around a runaway home made hovercraft, a chocolate factory and invading 'Martians' with guns that shot out chocolate candy, a disastrous camping holiday, collecting tin foil for a guide dog, becoming pop moguls with their protégé 'The Cool Cavalier' and a haunted stately home.
The cast were unknowns apart from Melvyn Hayes, an established adult actor, and Gillian Bailey, fairly experienced for a child actor. Bailey is now head of the drama department at Royal Holloway University. Peter Firth has gone on to a prominent acting career, appearing in Equus, The Hunt for Red October, Tess, Pearl Harbor, and Spooks (MI-5). Co-star Brinsley Forde later became the lead singer in Aswad.
The series was originally scheduled for 26 episodes (as well as a second series of 26 additional episodes), but production ceased after the 17th.
The entire series was released on 1 November 2010 on DVD in the UK.[2]
In the episode "Happy Haunting", at one point Peter Firth accidentally refers to Brinsley Forde's character as "Sticks". However, this was Bruce Clark's character name.
During one scene in "A Helping Hound", the theme music from The Magnificent Six and a Half can be heard as background music.
Some syndicated versions of the show replaced the "See you next week!" tagline at the end of each episode with a short trailer for the episode that would be shown the following week.
Melvyn Hayes receives billing as "Albert" in the episode "Barney", even though Hayes does not appear in the episode.
In addition to playing "Albert the street sweeper", Melvyn Hayes also wrote the episode "Man's Best Friend", co-wrote the episode "Get a Movie On!", co-wrote the series' theme song, and acted as a dialogue coach for the series.
Music played a prominent part in the programme, with an original soundtrack sung by the cast and written by Harry Booth, Melvyn Hayes and Johnny Arthey. The music was composed and directed by Ivor Slaney. An 11-track album of this was issued on Capitol Records in 1970 and re-issued as a CD in 2007 with liners notes by David Noades.[3]
All the episodes are presented as originally broadcast.
Here Come the Double Deckers!
Two-disc Region 2 DVD set containing all 17 episodes.
Special Feature:
Debbie Russ appears as herself/Tiger in the comedy film Go for a Take (1972), which was directed and co-written by Harry Booth. The film stars Reg Varney and is set in a film studio. Evidently, Here Come the Double Deckers is one of the shows in production within the fiction of the film.[4] Unfortunately, the original stuffed tiger prop had been lost shortly after filming had been completed on the series, so a look-alike had to be used.[5] Production was at Pinewood Studios and on location.
Prior to "Here Come the Double Deckers", Century Films produced a film serial for the Children's Film Foundation called The Magnificent Six and a Half. The series was very similar to the Double Deckers, and essentially acted as a blueprint for the latter. Like the Double Deckers, "Six and a Half" centred around the adventures of seven children, who had similar personalities to the Double Deckers. Many of the crew members from "Six and a Half" also worked on the Double Deckers, including producer Roy Simpson, director and writer Harry Booth, writer Glyn Jones, and choreographer Arnold Taraborrelli (who designed the title cards for "Six and a Half"). In addition, future Double Deckers Brinsley Forde and Michael Audreson were among the stars of "Six and a Half", and Melvyn Hayes appeared in a few episodes. "Six and a Half" also featured several gags and plotlines that would later be reused in "Double Deckers".