THE rarest scheduled bus service in England — run by the Tavistock Country Bus — was filmed by the BBC’s The One Show on Saturday.

A production crew started filming the Tavistock Country Bus (TCB) as it left Tavistock on its route to Dawlish across the moor.

The show had discovered that TCB operated the rarest scheduled service in England: running only from April to September, only on a Saturday, and only when there’s a fifth Saturday in the month.

Steve McDonnell of Topical Television, who is producing the film for The One Show, said when they heard that this was the rarest bus service in England they all agreed that it would be a great subject to film.

‘What a brilliant idea to run it over the beautiful Dartmoor countryside and to link up with a seaside town like Dawlish, and it is obviously a wonderful service for all the people who live in the area,’ he said.

‘My thanks to Derek de Glanville and his team of volunteers who have made us so welcome and who run the bus on regular routes the whole year round.

‘Special thanks are also due to Roger Huish who was the driver and Colin Grice for helping with the filming.’

The film will be shown as a four-minute clip on The One Show in the near future — watch this space to find out when to see Tavistock Country Bus will be making its national television debut or keep checking on the website www.tavistockcountry bus.co.uk

The service starts in Tavistock at around 9am and crosses the moor on its trip via Newton Abbot to Dawlish. It winds its way to Princetown, via Yelverton and Dousland.

It continues its picturesque journey over the moor, on to Two Bridges and Dartmeet, avoiding the bridge on the road to Postbridge where The Hairy Hands legend is fabled for forcing vehicles off the road, especially in misty conditions!

The bus potters through Poundsgate and on to Ashburton and then continues into Newton Abbot.

The bus then travels down the Teign Estuary to Teignmouth and on to Dawlish following the coast, a small seaside town full of character and the famous black swans of Dawlish town.

If you missed September’s bus service to Dawlish the next one will be along on Saturday, April 29, 2018!