"Don't Drink the Water" (1974) TV series 1974-1975

Creators:

Ronald Chesney
Ronald Wolfe

Seasons:

1 | 2

Release Date:

27 July 1974 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

This short lived sequel to "On the Buses" saw Blakey move to Spain with his sister.

Cast

Stephen Lewis	...	Cyril Blake (13 episodes, 1974-1975)
Pat Coombs	...	Dorothy Blake (13 episodes, 1974-1975)
Derek Griffiths	...	Carlos (13 episodes, 1974-1975)

Runtime:

30 min (13 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Company:

London Weekend Television (LWT)

Movie Connections:

Follows "On the Buses" (1969)

I 'ate you, Senor!

My memories of this show are hazy to say the least. I recall that the 'T.V. Times' did a special feature to tie-in with the opening episode. Written in the form of diary extracts, it told of the events leading up to the first transmitted episode - how Inspector Cyril Blake retired from the Luxton bus company after years of loyal service and moved to Spain with his sister Dorothy ( "Who's driving this plane? Stan Butler?" ).

We knew Blakey had a sister because in the 'On The Buses' episode 'Going Steady' he shows Stan a photo. Stephen Lewis put on drag to play Dorothy, but for 'Don't Drink The Water', it was ( rightly ) decided to hire an actress to play the role. The wonderful, much-missed Pat Coombs was then appearing regularly as a foil for Dick Emery. Lewis and Coombs made a formidable comedy team, much as Lewis and Varney had been.

Rather like 'Duty Free' nearly a decade later, 'Water' was shot entirely in the studio, with travelogue footage spliced in. It made no difference. Audiences did not demand authenticity in their comedy in those days. It did well enough to secure a second season, but the ghost of 'On The Buses' proved hard to exorcise. Rather like 'Going Straight', 'The Fenn Street Gang' and most recently, 'The Green, Green Grass', 'Water' was deemed inferior to the original, its merits ignored. It was an uphill struggle for Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney to recapture the success of 'Buses'. Eventually, they gave up and moved on to, surprisingly, another spin-off - the awful 'Yus, My Dear' starring Arthur Mullard.

The first episode of 'Water' has been made available as an extra on the 'On The Buses' season 7 D.V.D. and makes enjoyable viewing, if you like 'fish out of water' comedies. Interestingly, six years later, 'Reggie Perrin' creator David Nobbs wrote a similar series for the B.B.C. - the appalling 'Sun Trap' - which despite being shot in Spain, was far less amusing than 'Water'.