A bus on my television set! - 16 Jan 2026 (P1220805)

Friday 16 January 2026 – A photograph of my television set with a scene from the Channel 4 detective drama series ‘Patience’. The programme is set in York, England although is filmed in both England and Belgium which explains this bus with a difference which appeared in Episode 3 of Series 2.

I recognised the orange, white and blue livery once employed by NMVB/SNCV, Belgium’s national bus and tramway company, which was split up in 1991 to form two separate companies – De Lijn in the Flemish north and TEC in the Walloon south.

The image in the footage of the bus travelling through the countryside is transposed so as to appear as a right hand drive vehicle. As the stars walk away from the bus there is only an end on rear shot which doesn’t really give the game away.

The MAN powered Van Hool A120P integral bus carries a false UK style registration number AU54 NIT but a genuine Belgian fleet number 106118. It was new in January 1991 to Autobussen Alpaerts of Lier, a contracted operator for NMVB in the Lier/Mechelen area. Alpaerts operated the bus until March 2010 and upon withdrawal it passed to the preservation group NostalBus. (https://nostalbus.be)

The first four digits of the long fleet number depict the NMVB contract number 1061 and the final two digits relate to Alpaerts own fleet number. When contracts changed in January 2003 Alpaerts took on contract number 1108 and so this bus became 110818 but is preserved with the fleet number it carried when new.