The Likely Lads

1 9 6 4 - 1 9 6 6 (UK)
20 x 25 minute episodes

The Likely Lads has deservedly gone down in the annals of British TV history as one of the cleverest and most popular comedy series, and is still much appreciated and admired today. The series focused on the friendship between two working class lads living in the north east of England and recently out of school : Extrovert Terry Collier (James Bolam) and plodding Bob Ferris (Rodney Bewes) were continually getting themselves involved in humorous schemes and situations, usually associated with girls, pubs and their first jobs.

Even though the lads were 100% working class, they had some money in their pockets and the Swinging Sixties was just getting underway.  The very first scene of the very first episode, Entente Cordiale saw them returning home from a holiday in Spain, the sort of thing that had been unavailable to the working classes in earlier years but which came to be taken for granted by their generation.

Both the lads also had a sharp intelligence, but used it differently - reaching quite different conclusions about what they wanted from life. Terry was a cynic who knew his class and his place in society, and who's sole aim was to get what he could, when he could. Bob, on the other hand, had genuine ambition. He believed he could make a better life for himself but lacked Terry's confidence. Terry's crazy schemes scared him (although it was usually his friend who came off worse). 

Either for authenticity or for sheer joy, the boys drank real beer on the show - in one episode Bewes estimated that he got through 9 pints of bitter! - but they staggered along manfully until 1966. 

When the series came to an end, Bob had a girlfriend, Thelma Chambers (played by Brigit Forsyth), and Terry was off to new pastures in the army. Initially horrified by the idea, he had followed Bob into the Army, only to discover Bob had been discharged for having flat feet.  Sadly, like so many other great shows of the sixties, only 8 episodes of The Likely Lads are known to still exist.

The Likely Lads was born in unusual circumstances. Dick Clement was a trainee BBC director and Ian La Frenais an out-of-work salesman when the pair - who had previously met in an Earls Court pub -  renewed their acquaintance to write a short sketch. The BBC were so impressed that they asked for it to be turned into a series. Bob and Terry returned in 1973 with a follow up series, Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?

TRIVIA NOTE
The main cast reprised their roles for a BBC Radio version of The Likely Lads, with scripts adapted by James Bolam. It ran for 16 episodes; Eight of them between August 6th and September 24th, 1967 and eight of them between May 19th and July 7th, 1968.

EPISODES

Series 1  Entente Cordiale  Double Date  Older Women Are More Experienced  The Other Side Of The Fence  Chance Of A Lifetime  The Suitor

Series 2 Baby, It's Cold Outside  A Star Is Born Talk Of The Town  Last Of The Big Spenders  Faraway Places  Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

Series 3  Outward Bound  Friends And Neighbours  Rocker  Brief Encounter   The Razor's Edge  Anchors Aweigh  Love And Marriage   Goodbye To All That