Reg Varney
Reg Varney | |
---|---|
Born | Reginald Alfred Varney 11 July 1916 Canning Town, Essex, England |
Died | 16 November 2008 Budleigh Salterton, Devon, England | (aged 92)
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1938–1995 |
Television | On the Buses |
Spouse |
Lilian Flavell
(m. 1939; died 2002) |
Children | 1 |
Reginald Alfred Varney (11 July 1916 – 16 November 2008)[1] was an English actor, entertainer and comedian. He is best remembered for having played the lead role of bus driver Stan Butler in the LWT sitcom On the Buses (1969–73) and its three spin-off feature films. Having performed as a music hall entertainer, Varney first came to national recognition as factory foreman Reg Turner in the BBC sitcom The Rag Trade (1961–63). He appeared in further sitcoms including Beggar My Neighbour (1966–1968) and On the Buses stardom facilitated overseas cabaret tours.
Early life
Varney was born in Canning Town, Essex (but now part of London),[2] to Sidney Thomas Varney and his wife Annie (née Needham). His father worked in a rubber factory in Silvertown and he was one of five children who grew up in 27 Addington Road, Canning Town. He was educated at the nearby Star Lane Primary School in West Ham and after leaving school at 14, he worked as a messenger boy and a page boy at the Regent Palace Hotel.
Varney took piano lessons as a child and was good enough to find employment as a part-time piano player. His first paid engagement was at
During the Second World War, Varney joined the Royal Engineers, but continued his performing career as an army entertainer, touring in the Far East for a time. After being demobilised in the late 1940s, he starred on stage in a comic revue entitled Gaytime, with Benny Hill as his partner in a double act.[4] He then became an all-round entertainer, working his way around the music halls.
Career
Varney had made only a small number of film and TV appearances prior to being cast in the role of long-suffering factory foreman Reg Turner in the BBC television sitcom .
The world's first voucher-based
Varney's most successful lead role was in the LWT sitcom On the Buses (1969–73) as bus driver Stan Butler. Varney took considerable lengths to prepare for the role, even attempting to gain a public service vehicle licence so that he could be filmed driving on the open road. However, Varney was not insured so LWT had to employ professional drivers for these scenes. Three spin-off films were made — On the Buses (1971), Mutiny on the Buses (1972) and Holiday on the Buses (1973). Varney was 52 when the first series was recorded, although his character Stan, who lived with his mother and often tried to attract young women, was implied to be aged around 35. Varney was only eleven years younger than Doris Hare, the main actress who played Stan's mother, and some twenty-one years older than Anna Karen who played his sister.
Varney left the series midway through its last season, hoping to move on to films and other projects. Ultimately, he only appeared in one further non-Buses film,
He later worked as an entertainer on cruise ships and toured Australia with his one-man show. He told an interviewer, "Whatever I did after On the Buses, nobody wanted to know about it. But I can't knock the programme because it brought me offers to do concert tours in Australia, New Zealand and Canada."[6]
At the height of his fame he was a subject of the television programme This Is Your Life on 20 May 1970 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews, making further appearances in programmes featuring Doris Hare, Douglas Bader, June Whitfield and Anthony Newley.
Varney released several LP albums during his career – see Discography, below.
Retirement and death
Varney had a heart attack in 1965, and in 1981 he suffered a more serious one.[7] He then contracted a severe viral infection, which for three years made working difficult for him. In 1989, he suffered a stroke, which left him with an uneven heartbeat.[6] Subsequently, he divided his time between his home in a small village (Stoke Fleming) near Dartmouth and a villa in Malta.
Varney moved to Devon in the late 1980s and lived alone after his wife died in East Devon in 2002.
In his retirement years, Varney painted local landscapes in oil, with many to professional standard; some of his works were exhibited in London.[8]
Varney died aged 92 in a nursing home in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, on 16 November 2008, following a chest infection.[1]
In 2016, 100 years after Varney was born, an exhibition called "Before the Buses" was commissioned by his only child, his daughter Jeanne.[3][9]
Filmography
Film
Year | Title | Role | Type |
---|---|---|---|
1952 | Miss Robin Hood | Dennis | Feature film |
1965 | Joey Boy | Rabbit Malone | Feature film |
1966 | The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery |
Gilbert | Feature film |
1971 | Too Close For Comfort (short) | The Motorist | Public Information Film[10] |
1971 | On the Buses | Stan Butler | Feature film |
1972 | Mutiny on the Buses | Stan Butler | Feature film |
1972 | Go for a Take a.k.a. Double Take | Wilfred Stone | Feature film |
1973 | The Best Pair of Legs in the Business | Sherry Sheridan | Feature film |
1973 | Holiday on the Buses | Stan Butler | Feature film |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Type |
---|---|---|---|
1947 | Variety | Performer | Series (BBC) |
1948 | The Boltons Review | Performer | Variety special (BBC) |
1948 | Crock Of Gold | Harry Pickering | Movie (BBC) |
1953 | Showcase | Performer | Series (BBC) |
1954 | Stars at Blackpool | Performer | Series (BBC) |
1955 | Easter Spree | Performer | Variety special (BBC) |
1956 | Here's to the Next Time | Performer | Series (BBC) |
1956 | It's Magic | Performer | Series (BBC) |
1958 | The Saturday Show | Performer | Series (BBC) |
1960 | The Good Old Days | Performer | Series (BBC) |
1961–1963 | The Rag Trade | Reg Turner | Movie (BBC) |
1961 | Puss in Boots | Jolly the Jester | Movie (BBC) |
1962 | It's a Square World | Performer | Series (BBC) |
1963 | Dick Whittington | Capt. Reginald Fitzwarren | Movie (BBC) |
1966 | Ninety Years On | Performer | Variety special (BBC) |
1964, 1966 | Juke Box Jury (two episodes) | Self | Series (BBC) |
1966 | Emergency Ward 10, Episodes 1.880 and 1.882 | Harry Binns | Series (ATV) |
1966 | Comedy Playhouse, "Beggar My Neighbour" (pilot) | Harry Butt | Play (BBC) |
1967–1968 | Beggar My Neighbour | Harry Butt | Series (BBC) |
1964–1965 | The Valiant Varneys | Various characters | Children's series (BBC) |
1966 | The Good Old Days | Performer | Series (BBC) |
1966 | David Nixon's Comedy Bandbox
|
Performer | Series (ABC) |
1967 | Hooray for Laughter (pilot) | Performer | Sketch show (ABC) |
1968 | Humpty Dumpty | Simple Simon | Play (BBC) |
1968 | The Wakey Wakey Tavern | Performer | Series (ABC) |
1968 | Lulu's Back in Town, Episode 5 | Performer | Series (BBC) |
1968 | ITV Playhouse, "The Best Pair of Legs in the Business" | Sherry Sheridan | Play (ITV) |
1969–1973 | On the Buses | Stan Butler | Series (LWT) |
1969 | The Rovers, "The Odyssey of Reginald Peck" | Reginald Peck | Series ( 0-10 Network , Australia)
|
1968 | The Rose and Crown | Performer | Series (Air Media, Australia) |
1969 | All Star Comedy Carnival, On the Buses segment | Stan Butler | Special (ITV) |
1970 | The Other Reg Varney a.k.a. The Reg Varney Comedy Hour | Self, performer | Special (LWT) |
1970 | Holiday Startime Special | Performer | Variety special (LWT) |
1970 | This is Your Life, Series 10 Episode 5 | Subject of show | Series (Thames) |
1972 | The Reg Varney Revue | Self, performer | Series (LWT) |
1973–1974 | Reg Varney | Self, performer | Series (ATV) |
1973 | Whose Baby? | Self, guest | Series (Thames) |
1974 | Look Who's Talking | Self, interviewee | Series ( Border TV )
|
1974 | Looks Familiar | Self, guest | Series (Thames) |
1975–1976 | Down the 'Gate | Reg Furnell | Series (ATV) |
1976 | Summer Night Out | Self, performer | Variety special (ATV) |
1977 | Tell Me Another | Self, guest | Series ( Southern TV )
|
1978 | Capriccio! | Self, performer | Series ( Australian Broadcasting Commission )
|
1979 | The Plank | Window cleaner | Movie (Thames) |
1980 | The Mike Walsh Show | Self, guest | Series ( Nine Network Australia )
|
1980 | Night of One Hundred Stars | Self, performer | Variety special (LWT) |
1985 | Super Troupers | Self, guest | Series ( Tyne-Tees )
|
1990 | Wogan | Self, guest | Series (BBC) |
1990 | This Morning | Self, guest | Series (ITV) |
1991 | Tonight at 8.30, "Red Peppers" | Bert Bentley | Play (BBC) |
1995 | Paul Merton's Life of Comedy, "Marital Bliss" | Bingo caller | Series (BBC) |
1996 | Noel's Telly Years, 1969 | Self, guest | Series (BBC) |
1998 | Heroes of Comedy, "Benny Hill" | Self, guest | Series (Thames) |
1998 | Biography, "Benny Hill" | Self, guest | Series (ITN) |
2003 | Living Famously, "Benny Hill" | Self, guest | Series (BBC) |
Discography
This list is partially sourced from.[11]
Year | Title | Format | Label |
---|---|---|---|
1962 | The Rag Trade (TV cast, spoken word) | LP | Parlophone, PMC 1188 |
1968 | Jingling Rag b/w Reg's Rag | 7" single | CBS, 3742 |
1972 | This Is Reg Varney On The 88's At Abbey Road | LP | Columbia, SCX 6518 |
1973 | Best Pair Of Legs In The Business b/w Come On And Tickle My Fancy | 7" single |
Columbia, DB 8977 |
1973 | Reg's Party – Reg Varney Plays And Sings | LP | EMI, OU 2029 |
1976 | A Variety Of Varney (reissued in 1985 as Reg Varney Orchestra Conducted By Harry Robinson – A Variety Of Varney, Flash Backs, FBLP 8100) | LP | Pye, PKL 5544 |
1998 | The Very Best Of On the Buses (TV cast, spoken word) | Cassette | MCI Spoken Word, GAGDMC 063 |
Further reading
- Downs, Michael (2016). Our Little Clown: A Centenary Tribute to Entertainer Reg Varney. Fairlynch Museum.[12]
- Varney, Reg (1990). The Little Clown: An Autobiography. Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-52077-9, which covers his life up to his Army call-up in 1942.
References
- ^ a b "On The Buses' Varney dies at 92". BBC News. 16 November 2008. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
- ^ "Reg Varney". 4 July 2015.
- ^ a b "Reg Varney". Telegraph.co.uk. 16 November 2008. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
- ISBN 978-1-86-105115-8.
- ^ Milligan, Brian (25 June 2007). "The man who invented the cash machine". BBC News. Retrieved 17 November 2008.
- ^ a b "Reg Varney: Comic actor and entertainer who found fame in 'On The Buses'". The Independent. London. 18 November 2008.
- ^ "Obituaries: Reg Varney". The Stage. 1 December 2008.
- ^ Barker, Dennis (17 November 2008). "Obituary: Reg Varney". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
- ^ "Reg Varney tribute show at Budleigh Football Club". Eastdevon24.co.uk. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
- ^ "Too Close For Comfort". BFI. Archived from the original on 5 March 2021. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
- ^ "Reg Varney". Discogs. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
- ^ Downes, Michael. "Our Little Clown". Devon Museums. Retrieved 13 September 2023.