After seeing a hovercraft in action, Brains draws up designs for a homemade version. Once they have finished laughing at him, the other Double Deckers build it. The finished result looks like a double bed in a skirt.
Searching for her favourite toy, Tiger blunders into the machine, accidentally pressing the 'Ignition' button.
The hovercraft hurtles out of the junkyard, and onto the London streets, picking up a passenger along the way - Albert the road sweeper.
The Gang give chase, but just how do you stop a runaway hovercraft?
The first episode of 'Here Come The Double Deckers!' starts with the Gang already formed, with no back story as to how they met and acquired their strange nicknames. We see the elaborate ( for a kids' show anyway! ) security measures Brains has put in place to keep intruders out of their little domain. After pulling a concealed wire, a door opens in the fence surrounding the junkyard to allow Brains through. We then see him opening a safe door to gain access to the bus which serves as their headquarters. The password is changed each week, as Doughnut finds to his cost when he tries to get in.
There's little plot here, but plenty of visual comedy. As they construct the hovercraft, the Gang accidentally hit each other with planks to the accompaniment of a bell-like sound effect. The girls - Tiger and Billie - help out too ( hope Germaine Greer saw this show! ).
The director on this and other episodes was Harry Booth ( who also co-wrote it ); the experience served him in good stead when he later made two of the three 'On The Buses' movies. The scene in 'Mutiny' where Stan's bus goes haywire in a safari park could have fitted nicely into this show.
Melvyn Hayes doesn't get to say much, but then what is there to say when you are hurtling around on an out-of-control hovercraft, except maybe: "Help!". Amazingly, the Gang are not charged with causing a public nuisance. Presumably this sort of thing is a familiar sight in London.
Funniest moment - a running gag in which an doddering old man trying to cross a road is knocked to the ground. As Kenny Everett used to say, all done in the best possible taste!
Searching for her favourite toy, Tiger blunders into the machine, accidentally pressing the 'Ignition' button.
The hovercraft hurtles out of the junkyard, and onto the London streets, picking up a passenger along the way - Albert the road sweeper.
The Gang give chase, but just how do you stop a runaway hovercraft?
The first episode of 'Here Come The Double Deckers!' starts with the Gang already formed, with no back story as to how they met and acquired their strange nicknames. We see the elaborate ( for a kids' show anyway! ) security measures Brains has put in place to keep intruders out of their little domain. After pulling a concealed wire, a door opens in the fence surrounding the junkyard to allow Brains through. We then see him opening a safe door to gain access to the bus which serves as their headquarters. The password is changed each week, as Doughnut finds to his cost when he tries to get in.
There's little plot here, but plenty of visual comedy. As they construct the hovercraft, the Gang accidentally hit each other with planks to the accompaniment of a bell-like sound effect. The girls - Tiger and Billie - help out too ( hope Germaine Greer saw this show! ).
The director on this and other episodes was Harry Booth ( who also co-wrote it ); the experience served him in good stead when he later made two of the three 'On The Buses' movies. The scene in 'Mutiny' where Stan's bus goes haywire in a safari park could have fitted nicely into this show.
Melvyn Hayes doesn't get to say much, but then what is there to say when you are hurtling around on an out-of-control hovercraft, except maybe: "Help!". Amazingly, the Gang are not charged with causing a public nuisance. Presumably this sort of thing is a familiar sight in London.
Funniest moment - a running gag in which an doddering old man trying to cross a road is knocked to the ground. As Kenny Everett used to say, all done in the best possible taste!
