🎭 Reg Varney — His Full Career
Reg Varney's career lasted from the late 1930s to the mid-1990s. Although he became internationally known as Stan Butler in On the Buses, he had already spent more than 20 years as a pianist, singer, music-hall comedian and television performer before that breakthrough.
🎹 1930s — Starting in entertainment
👶 Born: 11 July 1916, Canning Town, East London
Reg left school at 14 and worked briefly as a messenger boy and hotel page boy. His real talent, however, was music.
🎹 He learned piano as a child and began playing professionally in:
- 🍺 Working men's clubs
- 🎭 Variety venues
- 🎬 Cinemas
- 🎹 Pubs
- 🎺 Dance bands
His first paid engagement was at the Plumstead Radical Club in Woolwich, where he earned 8 shillings and 6 pence. He subsequently sang with big bands and developed an act combining music and comedy.
⭐ 1938 — Windmill Theatre
In May 1938, he became a pianist at London's famous Windmill Theatre.
This was a major step because the Windmill was an important training ground for British comedians and variety performers.
🎖️ 1940s — War service and entertainment
When World War II began, Reg joined the Royal Engineers.
🇬🇧 But he didn't completely leave entertainment behind.
🎤 He organised and performed in concert parties and eventually entertained troops with Stars in Battledress, including a tour of the Far East.
After the war, he returned to the variety circuit.
😂 Late 1940s–1950s — Music hall & Benny Hill
After demobilisation, Reg worked extensively as an all-round variety entertainer.
🎭 One particularly interesting partnership was with a young Benny Hill in the stage revue Gaytime.
Reg worked for many years around Britain's music halls and summer shows.
🎹 His act could include:
- Piano
- Singing
- Comedy
- Accordion
- Character work
- Audience interaction
This was the foundation of the comic style that later made Stan Butler so successful.
🎬 1950s — Early film and television
Reg began appearing on screen while continuing his live career.
🎬 Films
1952 — Miss Robin Hood
🎭 Role: Dennis
1965 — Joey Boy
🎭 Role: Rabbit Malone
1966 — The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery
🎭 Role: Gilbert
📺 Television
He was also appearing on BBC variety programmes from the late 1940s and early 1950s, building up valuable television experience.
📺 1961–1963 — The Rag Trade
⭐ His first major television breakthrough
Reg became a household name playing Reg Turner, a factory foreman, in the BBC sitcom:
📺 The Rag Trade
🗓️ 1961–1963
The show was written by Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe, who would later create On the Buses.
Reg's character was caught up in the constant battle between management and workers at Fenner Fashions.
👔 Reg Turner
📏 Factory foreman
😂 Comic mediator
👩 Working alongside the machinists
💼 Constantly caught between workers and management
The programme became a major success and established Varney as a television comedy star.
📺 1964–1965 — The Valiant Varneys
Reg followed The Rag Trade with his own BBC programme:
📺 The Valiant Varneys
He played various characters and demonstrated the versatility he'd developed during his years in variety entertainment.
🏧 1967 — The ATM moment
One of the most unusual events in Reg's career happened in 1967.
🏦 Barclays introduced an early cash-dispensing machine at its Enfield Town branch.
🎭 Reg was chosen for publicity purposes and became the first person to make a withdrawal from the machine in its public demonstration.
💷 The withdrawal was £10.
⚠️ Reg did not invent the ATM—he was the celebrity chosen to demonstrate the new machine.
📺 1966–1968 — Beggar My Neighbour
Reg then starred in another successful sitcom:
📺 Beggar My Neighbour
🗓️ 1966–1968
👨 His character: Harry Butt
👩 His wife: Lana Butt, played by Pat Coombs
The show centred on two neighbouring families who were constantly at odds with each other.
By the late 1960s, Reg was already a well-established television comedian.
Then came the role that changed everything.
🚌 1969–1973 — On the Buses
⭐⭐⭐ Stan Butler
In 1969, Reg took the role that would define his entire career:
🚌 Stan Butler
📺 On the Buses
The sitcom was created by Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe, the same writers behind The Rag Trade.
Stan was a bus driver for the fictional Luxton & District Traction Company.
👥 His main characters
🚌 Stan Butler — Reg Varney
🎟️ Jack Harper — Bob Grant
👮 Blakey — Stephen Lewis
👩 Olive — Anna Karen
👨 Arthur — Michael Robbins
👵 Mum — Cicely Courtneidge/Doris Hare
😂 Stan Butler's character
Stan was:
😏 Cheeky
🚌 A bus driver
😴 Work-shy
❤️ A bachelor
👩 A ladies' man
😂 Mischievous
🙄 Anti-authority
👮 Constantly fighting with Blakey
His great comic enemy was Inspector Cyril "Blakey" Blake.
The basic relationship was:
Stan tries to avoid trouble → Blakey catches him → Stan makes things worse → Blakey explodes. 😂
The programme became one of ITV's biggest sitcoms and attracted audiences of up to 16 million.
🎬 1971 — On the Buses film
The success of the television programme led to a cinema version.
🎬 On the Buses — 1971
🚌 Reg returned as Stan Butler.
The film was a huge commercial success and was the highest-earning British picture of 1971, according to The Independent.
🎬 1972 — Mutiny on the Buses
The second film followed:
🎬 Mutiny on the Buses — 1972
Again:
🚌 Stan Butler — Reg Varney
👨 Jack — Bob Grant
👮 Blakey — Stephen Lewis
The films allowed the characters to be seen on a much larger scale than the television series.
🎭 1972 — Go for a Take
Reg also tried to move beyond Stan Butler.
🎬 Go for a Take / Double Take — 1972
🎭 He played Wilfred Stone, a waiter who becomes involved in a crime story.
It was part of his attempt to demonstrate that he could play characters other than the cheeky bus driver.
🎭 1972–1973 — The Best Pair of Legs in the Business
This was one of Reg's most interesting dramatic roles.
🎭 He played Sherry Sheridan, an ageing holiday-camp entertainer and drag artist whose career was fading.
The original television play had appeared in 1968, and the film followed in the early 1970s.
It was much more serious and melancholy than On the Buses. Critics including Harold Pinter and John Osborne admired the dramatic side of Varney's performance.
🎬 1973 — Holiday on the Buses
The final On the Buses film was:
🏖️ Holiday on the Buses — 1973
Reg again played Stan Butler.
🚌 Bus driver
🏖️ Holiday camp
😂 More chaos
👮 More Blakey
By this point, Stan Butler had become inseparable from Reg Varney's public image.
📺 1973–1974 — The Reg Varney Revue
Reg also returned to his variety roots with his own entertainment programmes.
🎭 The Reg Varney Revue
This allowed him to combine:
🎤 Singing
🎹 Piano
😂 Comedy
🎭 Variety performance
It was essentially a return to the type of live entertainment he had been doing since his youth.
🛒 1975–1976 — Down the 'Gate
After On the Buses, Reg attempted another sitcom.
📺 Down the 'Gate
🗓️ 1975–1976
🎭 Character: Reg Furnell
The series was inspired partly by characters Reg had encountered around Billingsgate Market.
The first series performed well, but the second series was less successful.
Unfortunately for Reg, audiences continued to associate him overwhelmingly with Stan Butler.
He once summed up the problem rather bluntly:
"Whatever I did after On The Buses, nobody wanted to know about it."
🎹 1970s — Recording career
Reg also made records and albums.
💿 His releases included:
🎵 1962 — The Rag Trade
🎵 1968 — Jingling Rag
🎵 1972 — This Is Reg Varney on the 88's at Abbey Road
🎵 1973 — Reg's Party – Reg Varney Plays and Sings
🎵 1976 — A Variety of Varney
These recordings demonstrated something sometimes forgotten about him:
Reg was genuinely a musician as well as a comedian.
🪟 1979 — The Plank
Reg appeared with Eric Sykes in the television remake of:
📺 The Plank
🎭 Reg played a window cleaner.
The programme used largely visual, almost wordless comedy, taking Varney back towards the physical comedy traditions of his music-hall days.
🌏 1980s — Overseas career
Although his television career had declined, On the Buses had given Reg an enormous international following.
✈️ He toured with his cabaret act in:
🇦🇺 Australia
🇳🇿 New Zealand
🇨🇦 Canada
🚢 He also worked as an entertainer on cruise ships.
His international tours became an important part of his later professional career.
🚌 1988 — On the Buses on stage
Reg returned to his most famous character for a stage version of On the Buses.
🎭 1988
🚌 He once again played Stan Butler, including performances in Australia.
It demonstrated how strongly audiences still associated him with the character.
🩺 1980s–1990s — Health problems
Reg's later career was increasingly affected by ill health.
❤️ He had suffered a heart attack in 1965.
❤️ Another serious heart attack followed in 1981.
🦠 He subsequently suffered a severe viral infection that affected his ability to work.
As he approached his 80s, his health increasingly forced him to reduce his professional commitments.
🎭 1991 — Red Peppers
Reg made another notable acting appearance in:
🎭 Red Peppers — 1991
This was one of his later acting credits.
📺 1995 — Final television appearance
One of his last notable television appearances came in:
📺 Paul Merton's Life of Comedy — 1995
He appeared as a bingo caller.
By then he had largely withdrawn from television but continued working in radio for a time.
🎨 Retirement — Painting
After retiring from most entertainment work, Reg developed another passion:
🎨 Painting
He became a serious landscape painter and produced work to a professional standard.
🖼️ Some of his paintings were exhibited in London.
🏡 He lived in Devon during his later years and also spent time in Malta.
📖 1990 — Autobiography
Reg published his autobiography:
📖 The Little Clown: An Autobiography
The book focuses particularly on his early life and his rise into entertainment.
🕯️ 2008 — Death
📅 16 November 2008
Reg died in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, aged 92, following a chest infection.
His wife Lilian had died in 2002.
They had been married since 1939 and had one daughter.
🏆 Reg Varney's career at a glance
📅 Period🎭 Career👦 1930s🎹 Pianist and club performer🎭 1938⭐ Windmill Theatre🎖️ 1940s🇬🇧 Royal Engineers + Army entertainer😂 Late 1940s🎭 Music hall + Benny Hill🎬 1950s📺 Early TV + films⭐ 1961–63📺 The Rag Trade📺 1964–65🎭 The Valiant Varneys📺 1966–68😂 Beggar My Neighbour🏧 1967💷 First public ATM withdrawal🚌 1969–73⭐ On the Buses🎬 1971🚌 On the Buses film🎬 1972🚌 Mutiny on the Buses🎬 1972🎭 Go for a Take🎭 1972/73⭐ The Best Pair of Legs in the Business🎬 1973🏖️ Holiday on the Buses📺 1975–76🛒 Down the 'Gate📺 1979🪟 The Plank🌏 1980s✈️ Overseas cabaret🚌 1988🎭 On the Buses stage show🎭 1991📺 Red Peppers📺 1995🎤 Paul Merton's Life of Comedy🎨 1990s🖼️ Painting and retirement🕯️ 2008⚰️ Died aged 92
⭐ The important thing about Reg Varney
Reg's career can really be divided into four chapters:
🎹 The entertainer — pianist, singer and music-hall performer from the 1930s.
📺 The television comedian — The Rag Trade, The Valiant Varneys and Beggar My Neighbour made him a household name.
🚌 The superstar — On the Buses made Stan Butler one of Britain's best-known sitcom characters and led to three successful films and international tours.
🎨 The later-life artist — after television success faded, he returned to live entertainment, painted professionally and eventually retired.
So while Stan Butler was his defining role, Reg Varney had already spent more than 30 years in entertainment before he ever drove that famous bus.
ON THE BUSES Australia stage tour
Records
Reg Varney - This Is Reg Varney
Vinyl LP, M-M-, Columbia, SCX 6518
Best Pair Of Legs In The Buisness, Single 45 B SIDE Come on and Tickle my Fancy Columbia 1973 DB 8977
Reg's Party, LP 1973 One Up EMI OU 2029
A Variety of Varney 1974
