Londoner  

We hop on the top deck of a London tour bus to spend some time with Phil, who has miraculously stayed in a job he took one summer for some extra cash… 15 years ago. Now a tourist favourite and low key star of the tour bus circuit, Phil reflects on what appeals to him so much about the job and the assortment of people he meets doing it.
1000 LONDONERS
This film is part of 1000 Londoners, a five-year digital project which aims to create a digital portrait of a city through 1000 of the people who identify themselves with it. The profile contains a 3 minute film that gives an insight into the life of the Londoner, as well as their personal photos of London and some answers to crucial questions about their views on London life. Over the course of the project we aim to reveal as many facets of the capital as possible, seeing city life from 1000 points of view.
www.1000londoners.com
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Twitter: @1000_londoners
1000 Londoners is produced by South London based film production company and social enterprise, Chocolate Films. The filmmakers from Chocolate Films will be both producing the films and providing opportunities to young people and community groups to make their own short documentaries, which will contribute to the 1000 films. Visit www.chocolatefilms.com
Transcript:
Never forget that the people on your tour are on holiday. You know, that they’re here to enjoy the place, they might never come back to this city again. It might be that their plane's been diverted and they've been sent to London for a day or so, nobody knows! So we’re going to slowly but surely make our way up towards Oxford Circus. You have to always remember that you’re an ambassador for not only London but also England and Great Britain, because you might be the only person that these people on the bus talk to in their entire tour maybe. And they remember you, and then they write it on trip advisor, hopefully, fingers crossed you get five stars! And I tell you, you get that first five star review and you’re like check that out! Somebody once asked me what the Marble Arch was made of. I thought that was a lovely question. And I asked her, how long is it since you slept, and the answer was 48 hours. We’ve seen some strange things, I’ve seen it snow, I’ve seen the sun come out. The Queen waves by the way, Prince Phillip never waves, Charles always waves, Tony blair used to wave, David Cameron waves. Kylie was on the bus, she was on the Big Bus but she wasn’t on my bus, you know, which was a shame...
"Hello mate how are you? Good to see you”
I really like that by the way, I like the Shard, I like the London Eye because it’s half and hour, you know on it, off it, done, you know. I also contemplated whether I’d take up stand up comedy. There’s some good stand up comics out there now though, it’s a busy world to get into. You know, tour guiding, you can still be up here. I can still be my own little ‘nobody’s ever heard of’ celebrity. So they had to spend millions of pounds on adding all of that stuff on the front to stop the sun shining off it. It’s a passion, it’s a hobby and a passion as well you know.The Shard. I watched The Shard go slowly but surely bigger and bigger. I’ve got a whole collection of photographs at home of it going bigger and bigger and bigger until its finished.
And that corner building is a nice little pub, it’s a Whetherspoons...inexpensive.
I have the advantage of being the tour guide in London.
And I could talk about... just everything!
May the force be with you, and may the force be with you, yes... don't go over to that dark side.