The Likely Lads

Infobox Television
bgcolour =
show_name = The Likely Lads


caption = Terry and Bob in "The Likely Lads"
format = Sitcom
camera =
picture_format = 4:3
audio_format =
runtime = 30 mins
creator =
developer =
producer = Dick Clement
executive_producer =
starring = James Bolam
Rodney Bewes
Sheila Fearn
narrated =
opentheme =
endtheme =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
network =
first_run =
first_aired = December 1964
last_aired = July 1966
num_episodes = 20 produced, 12 'lost'
website = http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/l/likelyladsthe_7774130.shtml
imdb_id = 0058821
tv_com_id =

"The Likely Lads" was a hit British sitcom created and written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Twenty episodes were broadcast by the BBC, in three series, between December 1964 and July 1966. However, only eight of these shows have survived (see below).

This show was followed by a popular sequel series, in colour, entitled "Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?", broadcast between January 1973 and December 1974; and, in 1976, by a spin-off feature film The Likely Lads.

Some episodes of both the original Sixties series and the Seventies sequel were adapted for radio with the original cast.

Premise

The original show followed the friendship of two working-class young men, Terry Collier (James Bolam) and Bob Ferris (Rodney Bewes), in the northeast of England in the mid 1960s.

After growing up at school and in the Scouts together, Bob and Terry are working in the same factory, Ellison's Electrical, alongside the older, wiser duo of Cloughie and Jack. The show's gritty yet verbose humour derived largely from the tensions between Terry's cynical 'everyman' working-class personality and Bob's ambition to better himself and progress to the middle class.

Bob and Terry were two average working class lads growing up in the industrial north, whose hobbies were beer, football, and girls. They were "canny", which is to say street-wise, yet they stumbled into one scrape after another as they struggled to enjoy the Swinging Sixties on their meagre incomes.

At the end of the third series, in 1966, a depressed and bored Bob attempted to join the Army, but was rejected due to his flat feet. Terry, however, who decided at the last minute to enlist to keep Bob company, was accepted A1 and shipped away for three years. Terry remains oblivious to Bob's rejection until their reunion in the first episode of Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads.

It was gradually revealed that Terry and Bob's full names were Terence Daniel Collier and Robert Andrew Scarborough Ferris ("Scarborough" not revealed until the seventies series). According to the later feature film, made in 1976, both "Lads" were conceived during the same wartime air raid, and were thus born in the same year, 1944.

Although in the Seventies sequel much would be made of Bob's "childhood sweetheart", Thelma, she seems never to have appeared in the original Sixties show, in which Bob had no steady girlfriend and was forever chasing after skirt, although she is referred to a number of times in the two surviving episodes from the third series - 'Rocker' and 'Goodbye to All That'.

The word 'likely' in the title (which in some northern English dialects means likeable) is somewhat ambiguous. It might be derived from the phrase "the man most likely to", a boxing expression in common use on Tyneside (in Geordie slang: "a likely lad"). Another possible meaning is the ambiguous northern use which refers ironically to small-time troublemakers, usually young, as "likely", as an ironic comment on the above sense, or as an expression of the sentiment that they are likely to be the cause of any trouble.

Cast

*James Bolam (Terry Collier)
*Rodney Bewes (Bob Ferris)
*Sheila Fearn (Audrey: Terry's older sister)
*Ronald Lacey (Ernie: Audrey's husband)

Guest stars

*George Layton (in "The Suitor" as "Mario", a.k.a. Ernie, Audrey's boyfriend). "Note" : In the later Seventies series, Ernie (played by another actor, Ronald Lacey) reappeared, as Audrey's husband. George Layton reappeared (as Brian Flint) in the 1975 radio series.
*Wendy Richard (in "Last of the Big Spenders")
*Susan Jameson (the real-life wife of James Bolam, in "Double Date")

Episodes

Only 8 episodes survive in the BBC archive, as a result of the BBC's wiping policy of the 1970s.

Series 1
*Entente Cordiale - The Lads return home from a foreign holiday
*Double Date - Lovelorn Bob is cheered up by a double date
*Older Women Are More Experienced - Terry finds an older girlfriend (and Bob finds a younger one!)
*The Other Side Of The Fence - The Lads attend a posh party
*Chance Of A Lifetime (lost episode)
*The Suitor - Terry enlists Bob's help to try to get rid of his sister's boyfriend

Series 2
*Baby, It's Cold Outside (lost episode)
*A Star Is Born (lost episode)
*Talk Of The Town (lost episode)
*Last Of The Big Spenders - The boys take two London girls out on the town
*Faraway Places (lost episode)
*Where Have All The Flowers Gone? (lost episode)

Series 3
*Outward Bound (lost episode)
*Friends And Neighbours (lost episode)
*Rocker - Bob buys a 'mod' moped, but it's Terry who ends up in hospital
*Brief Encounter (lost episode)
*The Razor's Edge (lost episode)
*Anchors Aweigh (lost episode)
*Love And Marriage (lost episode)
*Goodbye To All That - Bob fatefully joins the Army

Christmas Night With The Stars

In addition, a further 20 minute "Likely Lads" episode exists, which was broadcast on 25 December 1964 as part of a 3-hour Christmas Day special on BBC 1, known as "Christmas Night with the Stars", in which Bob and Terry have an argument over Bob's encyclopaedic knowledge of 'Rupert Bear' Annuals.

DVD Releases

In a recent DVD release, only 7 of the 8 extant episodes were included, in spite of the cover stating that it contained all of the surviving episode.

The eighth episode was included on the "Likely Lads" and "Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?" combined box set, as an 'extra' rather than in chronological order.

ee also

*List of films based on British sitcoms
*Pete Doherty and Carl Barat (The Libertines) made a tribute to The Likely Lads in their song "What Became of The Likely Lads?" in their Self titled album.

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/treasurehunt/missing/likelylads.shtml BBC Treasure Hunt]

ources

* [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Likely-Story-Autobiography-Rodney-Bewes/dp/0712669922 A Likely Story: The Autobiography of Rodney Bewes] , published by Century, 1 September 2005
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/likelylads BBC Comedy Guide] , The Likely Lads
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/whateverhappened BBC Comedy Guide] , Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/northeast/series6/likely_lads_tv.shtml The Likely Lads on Tyne]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058821/ The Likely Lads IMDB entry]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069655/ Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads IMDB entry]