Don't Drink the Water (1974–1975) User Reviews

dont drink the water - series

[gorytus-20672 · 6/10 · 3 April 2024]

Apr 24

I must confess i had never even heard of this series let alone ever seen it, and judged on the lack of IMDB scores and reviews, not many others have seen it either.

I just went through all the On the buses episodes for the first time, which led me to this series which is an offshoot, as its about Blakey and his sister and life after On the buses.

Personally i found Blakey very likeable in On the Buses but the problem is here he is retired so no longer an inspector and truthfully this could of been anybody in this series, it wouldnt of mattered.

Its Ok but not great, not surprised there were only 13 episodes, incidentally the first series covered just 1 week of their time in Spain.

Worth watching but thats about it..

6.5 out of 10.

I 'ate you, Senor!

[ShadeGrenade · 8/10 · 2 December 2006]

My memories of this show are hazy to say the least. I recall that the 'T. V. Times' did a special feature to tie-in with the opening episode. Written in the form of diary extracts, it told of the events leading up to the first transmitted episode - how Inspector Cyril Blake retired from the Luxton and District bus company after years of loyal service and moved to Spain with his sister Dorothy ( "Who's driving this plane? Stan Butler?" ).

We knew Blakey had a sister because in the 'On The Buses' episode 'Going Steady' he shows Stan a photo. Stephen Lewis put on drag to play Dorothy, but for 'Don't Drink The Water', it was ( rightly ) decided to hire an actress to play the role. The wonderful, much-missed Pat Coombs was then appearing regularly as a foil for Dick Emery. Lewis and Coombs made a formidable comedy team, much as Lewis and Varney had been.

Rather like 'Duty Free' nearly a decade later, 'Water' was shot entirely in the studio, with travelogue footage spliced in. It made no difference. Audiences did not demand authenticity in their comedy in those days. It did well enough to secure a second season, but the ghost of 'On The Buses' proved hard to exorcise. Rather like 'Going Straight', 'The Fenn Street Gang' and most recently, 'The Green, Green Grass', 'Water' was deemed inferior to the original, its merits ignored. It was an uphill struggle for Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney to recapture the success of 'Buses'. Eventually, they gave up and moved on to, surprisingly, another spin-off - the dire 'Yus, My Dear' starring Arthur Mullard.

The first episode of 'Water' has been made available as an extra on the 'On The Buses' season 7 D. V. D. And makes enjoyable viewing, if you like 'fish out of water' comedies. Interestingly, six years later, 'Reggie Perrin' creator David Nobbs wrote a similar series for the B. B. C. - the underrated 'Sun Trap' - which despite being shot in Spain, was far less successful than 'Water'.

Since I wrote this review, the complete show has been made available on DVD.

Inspector Blake becomes Senor Blake

[Rabical-91 · 8/10 · 24 February 2017]

After 'On The Buses' finished in 1973, three of its cast members tried, all with not very successful results, to front shows of their own. Bob Grant took on the leading role of a randy milkman ( which also starred Anna Karen as his wife ) in a pilot for an ATV sitcom entitled 'Milk-O'. It failed to spawn a series. Reg Varney starred as a Billingsgate fish market porter in ATV's 'Down The 'Gate', but it didn't gel with viewers. The most unsuccessful of them all was 'Don't Drink The Water' which itself was a sequel to 'On The Buses' and saw Stephen Lewis' Blakey retiring after years of loyal service as a bus inspector and emigrating to Spain with his nagging sister Dorothy. Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney once again provided the scripts, whilst Bryan Izzard flew in as producer and director. Much hype was made at the time about the show. For instance, the 'TV Times' did a two page featurette to promote the pilot episode. However, without Stan Butler and Jack Harper to boss around, the British viewing public just did not take to Blakey this time around.

'Don't Drink The Water' starts off with the newly retired Cyril Blake and his sister Dorothy ( played to the hilt by the late Pat Coombs ) arriving ( ironically ) by bus outside their new apartment in Spain. Blakey's face lights up at the sight of his new home whilst Dorothy's facial expression is one of consternation. They are greeted outside their new apartment by Spanish porter Carlos ( Derek Griffiths ) whose laziness matches his incompetence. From day one, Blakey realises his life is never going to be the same again.

In the first series, Blakey's neighbours are the frightfully common Cockney couple Bill ( Frank Coda ) and Beryl ( sexy Christine Shaw ), however they soon left and were replaced with German neighbours Willie ( David King ) and Bertha ( Claire Davenport ).

It was not altogether bad. It was just unfortunate to arrive so soon after 'On The Buses'. Stephen Lewis was great as usual as Blakey and Pat Coombs made a fine foil as Dorothy, who was first introduced in the 'Buses' episode 'Going Steady' in a photograph, though on that occasion she was played by Stephen Lewis in drag. Wolfe & Chesney supplied most of the scripts though some were written by Jon Watkins.

The first episode was released as an extra on the series 7 DVD of 'On The Buses' and resurfaced again in 2010 when the full series was released by Network. Some of it is pretty hard going but all in all makes for entertaining viewing.