Here Come The Double Deckers DVD Review

Classic children's TV series out soon on DVD

"Get on board! Get on board!
Come and join the Double Deckers.
Take a ticket for a journey,
On our double decker London bus."

If this song rings any bells with you (ding! ding!) then you may well have been a fan of this early 70s classic kids TV shows. And now you can relive all 17 episodes of comedy adventure and showbiz frolics courtesy of the forthcoming DVD release from Second Sight Films.

Admittedly this one was a little before my time (first aired in 1971), and so being completely impartial and watched this DVD without the rose-tinted spectacles that often make such releases hold more value than the sum of their component parts.

The Double Deckers are a gang of seven extremely enthusiastic youngsters (expect lots of winks, widespread arms and jazz hands) plus one stuffed toy tiger called Tiger (who belongs to Tiger!), and the series follows their various exploits and adventures, ranging from wacky inventions, camping holidays, exploring spooky mansions and fighting off alien invaders. Harking back to a time best described as 'more innocent' these plucky kids would probably be probably be given ASBOS for hanging around a junkyard in a broken down bus these days.

The cast of characters includes, Brinsley Forde (later a musician in UK reggae outfit, Aswad) as "Spring", Bruce Clark as "Sticks", Debbie Russ as "Tiger", Douglas Simmonds as token Beano-style fatso "Doughnut", the vocally talented Gillian Bailey as "Billie", Michael Audreson as "Brains", Peter Firth as "Scooper" and of course Tiger as "Tiger".

Peter Firth (Scooper) is in fact the same Peter Firth from the hit TV show Spooks, and Hollywood Blockbusters "Hunt For Red October" and "Equus".

The cast are actually a pretty likeable bunch and after a few episodes I found myself really enjoying this. The program's style is a slightly weird blend of very American (think Banana Splits or The Monkees) and very British with lots of silly speeded up chases scenes (a la Benny Hill).

A special mention has to go to the music and sound effects, which are great. It has more swanee-whistles, trombone slides and timpani-boings than a Carry On film, all perfectly timed with people bumping into each other, slipping on banana skins, and having bowls of gloop land on their heads.

The theme tune itself is wonderfully catchy, with some truly awesome arm-swinging dancing and even featuring revised lyrics for the outro version ("You've been on board, you've been on board...") - attention to detail that you just wouldn't get with today's education-laden CGI pap that gets spoon fed to our kids by Cbeebies et al.

And this is ultimately the charm of "Here Come the Double Deckers" - they literally don't make shows like this anymore. It represents a time when it was OK to just have fun. Kids could hang around in their den and muck about without worrying about the consequences. Gangs meant 'The Bash Street Kids' not 'The Bloods and The Cripps' and it was ok to laugh at the fat kid when he got his enormous bottom stuck in the gap in the fence.

Even if you didn't see it the first time round, Retrobabble gives the DVD a huge thumbs-up, a cheeky wink and a big gappy toothy grin!

DVD release date 20th November 2010.

Pre-order "Here come the Double Deckers" now on Amazon

Intro theme tune and lyrics

Get on board! Get on board!
Come and join the Double Deckers.
Take a ticket for a journey,
On our double decker London bus.
Ring the bell (ding! ding!),
Toot the horn (honk! honk!),
When you ride with the Double Deckers.
Fun and laughter is what we're after,
On our double double double decker bus.

You're aboard! You're aboard!
You're aboard with the Double Deckers.
Fun and laughter is what we're after,
On our double double double decker bus.
La la la! La la la!
La la la la la la la la.
La la la la la la la la,
On our double decker London bus.