Here Come the Double Deckers! is a 17-part British children's TV series originally broadcast from 1970 to 1971, revolving around the adventures of seven children whose den was an old red double-deckerLondon bus in a scrap yard.
The show
A co-production between British independent film company Century Films and 20th Century Fox Television, it is a children's adventure sitcom. The shows are about 22 minutes in length. Each week saw the gang in a separate adventure including episodes based around a runaway homemade hovercraft, a chocolate factory and invading 'Martians' with guns that shoot 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. Some of the cast were unknown, though Melvyn Hayes was an established adult actor, Gillian Bailey was fairly experienced for a child actor and both Brinsley Forde and Michael Audreson had appeared in The Magnificent Six and a Half, a series of Children's Film Foundation films on which the Double Deckers were based. 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. Bailey is now head of the drama department at Royal Holloway, University of London. Peter Firthhas gone on to a prominent acting career, appearing in Equus, The Hunt for Red October, Tess, Pearl Harbor and Spooks. Co-star Brinsley Forde later became the lead singer in Aswad. The programme made its US debut on 12 September 1970 at 10:30 am ET on ABC, and in the UK began at 4:55 pm on 1 January 1971 on BBC1. In the US, the series was repeated on Sunday mornings on ABC from 12 September 1971 to 3 September 1972, in the same time slot. The series was originally scheduled for 26 episodes, but production ceased after 17 had been completed. The entire series was released on 1 November 2010 on DVD in the UK.
Cast
Children
Michael Audreson - Brains, the gang's brightest resident science geek.
Gillian Bailey - Billie, the tomboyish girl of the gang.
Bruce Clark - Sticks, the only American member of the gang, so-named because of his drumming skills.
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.
In the United Kingdom, Here Come the Double Deckers was released in November 2010 by Second Sight as a two-disc Region 2 DVD set containing all 17 episodes. All the episodes are presented as originally broadcast. The set also includes a special feature, Double Decker Memories, featuring interviews with Brinsley Forde and Michael Audreson.
Comic strip
Children's comic Whizzer and Chips ran a "Double Deckers" cartoon strip from 22 May 1971 until 13 May 1972.
''Go for a Take''
appears as herself/Tiger in the comedy film Go for a Take, 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. Unfortunately the original stuffed tiger prop had been lost shortly after filming had been completed on the series, so a lookalike had to be used. Tiger makes the reference of the character "Brains". Production was at Pinewood Studios and on location.
''The Magnificent Six and 1/2''
Prior to Here Come the Double Deckers, Century Films produced a film serial for the Children's Film Foundation called The Magnificent Six and 1/2. 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 on the adventures of seven children, who had similar personalities to the characters in Double Deckers. Many of the crew members from the Six and a Half series also worked on the Double Deckers, including producer Roy Simpson, director and writer Harry Booth, writer Glyn Jones, and choreographer Arnold Taraborrelli. In addition, future Double Deckers cast members 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.
