On the Buses
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50 free On the Buses trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
On the Buses ran on ITV from 1969 to 1973 and was one of the most watched British comedies of its day, loved by audiences and loathed by critics in roughly equal measure. Its world is small and vivid: a bus depot, a cramped family home, a driver and conductor who would rather be anywhere but on their route, and an inspector who lives to catch them out. This quiz covers the television series and all of its spin-off films, including Mutiny on the Buses and Holiday on the Buses. Expect questions on Stan, Jack, Blakey, Olive, Arthur and Mum, on the actors who played them, on well-remembered episodes and film plots, and on how the show was made, sold abroad and spun off. It suits pub quiz setters, family quiz nights and anyone who remembers the repeats. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still leaves you with a story to retell.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which On the Buses star made the first withdrawal from the world's first cash machine, in Enfield?
Reg Varney
Reg Varney was photographed at the Barclays machine in June 1967 because he lived nearby, almost two years before he first played Stan Butler.
Q 02Which James Bond film did the first On the Buses film out-earn at the British box office?
Diamonds Are Forever
Diamonds Are Forever took less in Britain than the bus depot comedy, whose box office gross came to nearly 28 times its budget.
Q 03Which British studio, famous for Dracula and Frankenstein horrors, made the three On the Buses films?
Hammer
Hammer Films had not made a comedy for a decade when it took on Stan Butler, and the first film became its biggest British earner of the 1970s.
Q 04Which slang word does On the Buses use for the bus conductresses Stan Butler chats up?
Clippies
Clippies are Stan's constant distraction at the depot, and his sister Olive tries the job herself in the series, without success.
Q 05In which fictional Essex town do Stan Butler and Jack Harper work the buses in On the Buses?
Luxton
Luxton exists only on screen: the outdoor depot scenes were filmed at a real bus garage in Wood Green, north London, using borrowed buses.
Q 06Which creatures do Stan and Jack plant in the women drivers' cabs in the 1971 On the Buses film?
Spiders
Spiders are only the start: the pair go on to spike the women's tea, all to protect their overtime after the depot drops its men-only rule for drivers.
Q 07Which real wildlife attraction hosts Stan Butler's disastrous trial bus tour in Mutiny on the Buses?
Windsor Safari Park
Windsor Safari Park closed in 1992 and its site became Legoland; in the film a broken emergency exit leaves Stan and Blakey at the mercy of lions and monkeys.
Q 08Which real holiday camp chain hires Stan and Jack as a tour bus crew in Holiday on the Buses?
Pontins
Pontins let the crew film at one of its real camps, and a plaque was later unveiled at the gates to mark the film.
Q 09What happens to Olive in the first On the Buses film that never happens in the TV series?
She has a baby
She has a baby, Little Arthur, who grows up across the three films, while the television Olive and Arthur stay childless.
Q 10Why did On the Buses start faking its double-deckers with plywood top decks after a 1972 studio move?
The doors were too small
The doors were too small at the new South Bank studios, so single-deckers were driven in and a mock upper deck was lowered onto them from above.
Q 11Which actor played Inspector Blake in On the Buses, made up to look far older than his 42 years?
Stephen Lewis
Stephen Lewis had been a bricklayer and a merchant seaman before a night watching Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop led to an audition and a new career.
Q 12In which long-running sitcom did the actor behind On the Buses' Inspector Blake later play Smiler?
Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine kept him in work from 1988 until ill health forced him to retire in 2007, a far longer run than his years at the depot.
Q 13In which soap did the actress who played Olive in On the Buses later turn up as Aunt Sal?
EastEnders
Q 21Which spin-off sitcom sends On the Buses' Inspector Blake to retire in Spain with his sister?
Don't Drink the Water
Don't Drink the Water ran for 13 episodes from 1974, with Pat Coombs as his spinster sister Dorothy.
Q 22Which American comic actor starred as Stanley Belmont in Lotsa Luck, NBC's remake of On the Buses?
Dom DeLuise
Dom DeLuise played Stanley as a lost-and-found clerk at the bus company rather than a driver, and the remake was cancelled after one season.
Q 23How does Inspector Blake come to live with the Butlers once Stan has left On the Buses?
As their lodger
EastEnders made her the sister of Peggy Mitchell, a part played by her best friend since they filmed Carry On Camping, and she kept returning until 2017.
Q 14Which union post does conductor Jack Harper use against management in On the Buses?
Shop steward
Shop steward Jack abuses the post to thwart Blakey's schemes, though he is just as ready to steal his own driver's girlfriends.
Q 15Which Steptoe and Son star plays Bert, the Irish widower who charms Mum, in Holiday on the Buses?
Wilfrid Brambell
Wilfrid Brambell was Irish himself, and had already played Paul McCartney's grandfather in the Beatles film A Hard Day's Night.
Q 16Which second-hand vehicle does Arthur Rudge buy and endlessly tinker with in On the Buses?
A motorbike and sidecar
A motorbike and sidecar carries the whole family in the films too, and in Holiday on the Buses it loses their luggage in the same river twice.
Q 17In which earlier sitcom by the On the Buses writers did Stan Butler's actor play a foreman called Reg?
The Rag Trade
The Rag Trade was set in a London clothing workshop, and when it was revived in 1977 Olive from the bus depot joined the staff.
Q 18At which pub game do conductresses Iris and Jenny beat Stan and Jack in On the Buses?
Darts
Darts settle the bet after Iris distracts Stan with the promise of a date, and after his favourite set turns up in Olive's stew.
Q 19How is Inspector Blake punished at the end of Mutiny on the Buses, after a run of depot disasters?
Demoted to conductor
Demoted to conductor, Blakey ends the film working Stan's own bus in place of Jack, turning passengers away just as Jack did at the start.
Q 20What job does Stan Butler end up with at the close of Holiday on the Buses, courtesy of Blakey?
Wrecking ball driver
Wrecking ball driver is the labour exchange's answer for a man who smashes everything up, and the clerk who hands the job over is the sacked inspector.
As their lodger, the inspector takes over the very bedroom of the driver he spent years trying to sack.
Q 24What kind of workplace in the north of England lures Stan Butler away in his last On the Buses episode?
A car factory
A car factory job writes Stan out halfway through the seventh series, because the actor who played him wanted to move on to films and other projects.
Q 25Which never-explained event in Arthur Rudge's past is a running joke for Stan and Jack in On the Buses?
His hospital operation
His hospital operation is never identified, which lets the scripts hint at whatever best suits a joke about his marriage to Olive.
Q 26Which relative of Inspector Blake does Stan Butler date, and plan to marry, in On the Buses?
His niece
His niece Sally and Stan break up after a disastrous tea with the Butlers, where she mocks his looks and insults Mum's baking.
Q 27What do two Swedish women take Stan and Jack for when the pair trial smart new uniforms in On the Buses?
Airline pilots
Airline pilots is so flattering a mistake that the pair come round to the new kit, just as management scraps it because the other busmen refuse to wear it.
Q 28Which pet of canteen dancer Fatima gets loose in the Butler house in On the Buses?
A snake
A snake goes home in a laundry bag that Stan carries without knowing what is inside, and at first only Olive sees it, so nobody believes her.
Q 29How do the busmen fight a new early-morning schedule in The Early Shift, the first On the Buses episode?
An unofficial strike
An unofficial strike, with no strike pay, puts Stan on an early picket line, and a television crew arrives to give the walkout publicity.
Q 30What ruins Olive's stint as a conductress on Stan's bus in the On the Buses episode Olive Takes a Trip?
She gets travel sick
She gets travel sick from the exhaust fumes and the motion, so Mum takes over and promptly spills the money satchel and loses all the fares.