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The Last Bus

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The Last Bus

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Summary

Drama starring Timothy Spall. A widowed pensioner sets off from John o' Groats to Land's End by bus to fulfil a promise to spread his wife's ashes near their old family home.

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Review

A star rating of 3 out of 5.

Andrew Collins

This modestly quirky drama about a widower's adventures on the local bus network opens in flashback in 1952, when an opaque tragedy sends a couple from the West Country to the far point of John o' Groats, where, decades later, we meet them in their quiet dotage. A foreshadowed event sets creaky, muttering Timothy Spall on a cross-Britain pilgrimage to Lands End utilising the free bus network that he can access with his travel pass. With his map of the UK, precious brown suitcase and habit of nodding off, he learns to rely on a string of kind-hearted strangers, from hen-night revellers to a Ukrainian wedding. The movie's momentum is arduously slow, thanks to the arbitrary timetable, and changes of location are signalled more by bus company livery than by scenery, but it's neatly told by Brookside lifer Joe Ainsworth and briskly patted into feel-good shape by director Gillies MacKinnon (Small Faces). Spall makes believable if not always generous company, and you'll find yourself cheering him on to his destiny.

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6.6/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameTomTimothy SpallMaryPhyllis LoganFranGrace CalderDoctor MartinCelyn JonesBillyBrian Pettifer

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Crew

rolenameDirectorGillies MacKinnon

Details

Released on

2021-08-27

Languages

English

Guidance

swearing, a sex scene

Available on

DVD

Formats

Colour

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