Scene: Last Bus

📺BBC Schools TV

companyBBC

started10th Oct 1968

last rpt18th Jun 1993

25 school years

episodes1

duration30 mins

subject ⚖️Citizenship

age rangeAge 13-16

languageenIn English

2 images from Last Bus

Scene

Previous unit: The Dark Immigrants Next unit: The Sentence of the Court (1968)

Scene dramas

Previous drama: The Dark Immigrants Next drama: The Sentence of the Court (1968)

Last Bus is an episode of the BBC schools TV series Scene from the 1960s and 1990s, covering citizenship for secondary school pupils.

Late at night a gang of young men refuse to pay their bus fares, and assault the conductor. None of the other passengers of the driver intervene. After the incident everybody involved is interviewed in the studio about why they behaved as they did.

Scene's first play, specially commissioned for the series, was repeated late at night for an adult audience in December 1968, and shown again for schools to mark 25 years of Scene in 1993.

From the teacher's notes

"TEACHERS ARE WARNED THAT THIS PLAY DELIBERATELY SETS OUT TO CREATE AND THEN TO EXPLOIT DRAMATICALLY AN UNPLEASANT SITUATION, INVOLVING YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ARE HEARD TO USE BAD LANGUAGE AND WHO ARE INVOLVED IN A SHORT BUT CLOSELY OBSERVED ACT OF VIOLENCE. SOME TEACHERS MAY WISH TO FORGO THIS PROGRAMME AND THE SUBSEQUENT DOCUMENTARY. A RECORDING OF THE PROGRAMME HAS BEEN SHOWN TO REPRESENTATIVES OF THE TEACHING PROFESSION WHO FEEL THAT THE PLAY RAISES VITAL AND VALUABLE ISSUES IN A REALISTIC MANNER AND WILL PRESENT NO DIFFICULTIES TO A TEACHER IN ORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES WITH NO UNUSUAL DISCIPLINE OR BEHAVIOUR PROBLEMS" - Scene teacher's notes, autumn 1968 p.4

Credits

Written by

Keith Dewhurst

In the archive

Exists. This programme is preserved in the BBC archives, and was repeated on BBC2 in the 1990s.

Broadcasts

Autumn 1968
Autumn 1969
Summer 1993

Also broadcast for a general audience, late in the evening on BBC1 on 17th December 1968, followed by The Sentence of the Court the following night. The Times reported that this broadcast had "a special topicality in a week when London bus conductors are threatening to refuse to work after 9pm on Saturday because of violence." (The Times 17th December 1968 p.8 col.F)

Related programmes

Scene: The Sentence of the Court (1968)

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