On Mon, 18 Dec 2006 wrote:


wrote:
Ken Wheatley wrote:

There can't have been too many Routemasters in 1958, only the
prototypes existed.


[later]

Someone has pointed out that the film was actually shot at various
times between 1958 and 1966 when it was released.


Here's the definitive answer about the bus, from Kevin Brownlow's book
"How It Happened Here". Brownlow was co-director and co-producer of the
film, with Andrew Mollo, and is now a noted film historian.

The Parliament Square march-past scene which featured the bus was filmed
on 1 October 1961. After describing how they got no help from the
police, Brownlow says:

"The traffic had to keep moving, and we would have to shoot in the
gaps... As the band crashed out the Lippe-Detttmold Marsch, the column
moved forward in perfect step. When our wartime bus, with the Picture
Post eyes on the front, moved into position, the scene was almost
hallucinatory."

There's a b&w photo of the bus, with a contingent of "Wehrmacht troops
and the Big Ben tower behind. The bus is an AEC, number DLU92, with the
destination indicator saying
159
STREATHAM COMMON
LAMBETH BDG BRIXTON

And the cover has a close-up in colour of the driver cab, with a pair of
identification plates reading "AK 15".
--
Thoss