Not The Nine O'Clock News - Baby on the Bus - The Verdict

Thanks to the collector who came up trumps with the full Not The Nine O'Clock News episode that featured the Baby on The Bus sketch.  This was from an Australian broadcast which EEfan mentioned in the comments of the original Baby on the Bus posting.

Despite the episode originally having been broadcast on 13th November 1979, it is presented as if it is a Christmas special with a decorated title screen and some festive sketches.

 

The credited cast from the end credits are as follows:-

Featured:-

• Rowan Atkinson
• Chris Langham
• Mel Smith
• Pamela Stephenson

With:-

• David Rappaport
• Robina Gauge
• Griff Rhys Jones
• Christopher Goodwin
• Neil Cunningham
• Willoughby Goddard
• Danny The Donkey (joke credit)

Credits

Robina Gauge is the only female name listed and there is only one woman seen in the episode other than Pamela Stephenson. 

Robina Gauge also appears in another sketch in the same episode in which she is fully topless.  This occurs right at the very end after the credits and copyright screen.  It involves her holding up a banana while posing for artist Rowan Atkinson who we discover is only painting the fruit which a caption then states is degrading to bananas.  She doesn't speak in this sketch.

 

With all the evidence now in it is at last possible to say with confidence that the woman in the Baby on the Bus sketch must indeed be called Robina Gauge.



Baby on the Bus sketch



Banana Painting sketch

   

Here is a rundown of sketches in the episode.

Retrieved from an archived website (mentioned on the show's Wikipedia page) which lists the sketches in every episode.

 

SERIES 1, SHOW 5
13 November 1979

1. SF: Giraffe
2. Live from Carrickmore
3. Titles
4. Baby on the bus
5. Nativity (Restricted Inn)
6. New jeans/David Rappaport
7. Religious fanatic (Disappearing policeman)
8. Nativity audition (Rappaport with dead donkey)
9. Hot Gossip/James Goldsmith
10. SF: Thatcher slurp
11. N: Iranian government statement
12. N: Flat racing/Interview tins of cat food
13. N: Reggie Bosanquet lookalike competition
14. White House quickie (Jimmy Carter/Dirty phone call)
15. Punks advertising church ('I thought I preferred the boiling oil...')
16. Christmas 1643/Head under arm
17. Ranting Frenchman
18. Miss World
19. SF: Soldiers applauding
20. Amputation/Weight loss
21. Trial by egg
22. Probe (Prison overcrowding/Aristocrats)
23. Bar quickie (Rappaport)
24. Bingo caller
25. Rowan's rant (Party hats/Janet Street Porter/Plastic baths/Are You Being Served)
26. Nanny service
27. Carol/Credits
28. Nude painting (Banana)

N=Newsreader jokes
SF=Stock Footage jokes