Matt Monro Forum

Actually, it's not exactly my story, but one of the stories I grew up hearing that my mum told me. It was during the time he was driving the London bus, and he was trundling up towards Euston Road (probably up Tottenham Court Rd or thereabouts) and he spotted my mum on the street, (they knew eachother, most likely from down Tin Pan Alley as my mum was a singer) and he stopped the bus, jumped down from the cab and had a good natter with her there and then, leaving the passengers sitting twiddling their thumbs till he was done.

Can't imagine a bus driver doing that nowdays eh!

F x

What a lovely story!! Good to welcome you aboard--and with a pic already.

Nice to *meet* you Mariana. Thanks for the welcome.

F x

Nice to hear from you Shaskova, I don't know if you ever watched the tv comedy On The Buses from the early seventies, but it sounds like something Stan Butler (Reg Varney) would do.

john wrote:Nice to hear from you Shaskova, I don't know if you ever watched the tv comedy On The Buses from the early seventies, but it sounds like something Stan Butler (Reg Varney) would do.

I did indeed, and yes, it does sound a bit Reg Varney........ except I bet Mr Munro was a bit classier!

F x

Reg Varney was born in Canning Town, all part of the East end of London. Having struggled to make a showbiz career, apart from being a great comedy actor he could have become a professional pianist, but his 4ft stature was against him. As good as he was, his legs were dangling from the stool and so he had a problem reaching the pedals.
He must have learned standing up. Well we remember he did appear on television once and spoke of his poor upbringing and how he was brought up on rice pudding, it was coming out of his ears and how when he accidently dropped it once and was scraping it up from the coconut mat. He's still alive and well.!! Good old rice pudding.

Yes, I believe he will be 91 this year.

Was Reg Varney really only 4 ft tall--I never thought of him as being short. Maybe it was just clever camera work....

I think those two pesky Londoners got their facts a little bit wrong there Marian. I would say he was about Matts height

Well ok so he wasn't 4ft , neither was Don Estelle, nor Al Martino, so Robert, how tall was Matt then ???? and before you start working those fingers on the internet...........

Thats a great story Shashkova!

John - that has to be the most tenuous link with 'On the Buses' - do I detect it is your fave sitcom ever ever ever!

I do believe L&H that Matt was 5 feet 3 or 5 feet 4

WRONG !!!!!

Mike--I think you have missed a link along the way--"Shashkova" is now known by the name of "Francesca". Lena and Harry discoverd that--do not ask me how!!!

I do not think that Matt was very tall, but I would guess at something like 5 feet 8" or 5 feet 9 inches.