James Bolam
(Whatever Happened To) The Likely Lads.
Although I can’t remember watching the Likely Lads the first time round, I have seen repeats of some of the series. Although in black and white, and very much a mid sixties type series it is extremely funny and highly recommended viewing.
I follows the adventures of Terry Collier (James Bolam) and Bob Ferris (Rodney Brewes). Two lads just out of school and starting their first jobs, although their interests only go as far as girls, beer, football and having fun. Set in the “swinging sixties” it shows the two “working class heros” as they embark on a new life, with money in their pocket and the world as their oyster.
The two characters are very different, Terry is a cynic he believes he was born working class and that’s where he will stay, and is content with that, and taking any opportunity to grab anything and everything he can. Bob believes in the new era of the sixties where any man can achieve anything if he tries, and he wants to better himself. He just doesn’t have the confidence to go for it.
They get into many scrapes, usually Terry is the instigator and Bob is the unwilling accomplice.
Sadly they series only ran for 20 episodes between 1964 and 1966. However, the BBC did see fit to revive the series in 1973.
Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads.The sequel to The Likely Lads sees out hero’s a little older, but their characters have not changed.
Bob has gained promotion and now regards himself as middle class. He is also engaged to Thelma, a fierce, domineering woman who puts the fear of god into him most of the time.
Terry mean while has joined the army, served in Cyprus and Germany, married and divorced a German girl and returned to the North East. He has seen the world and it wasn’t a place he wants to see again, he’s a working class boy and has come back to live his life as it was intended. Working class born and bred, that’s his place and that’s where he is happy to stay.
Although he still grabs every opportunity that comes along. And so the theme continues. Bob thinking the world is full of opportunities to advance yourself, but not having the confidence to grab any, and Terry thinking you are stuck in a hole and can’t go anywhere, but that doesn’t stop you grabbing everything that comes past.
The scrapes they get into are a bit more sophisticated than the first series, but they still follow the theme of Terry being the instigator and Bob being the unwilling accomplice. They always go wrong in some way, but it’s usually Terry who comes of worst.
This series was, and still is very funny. Although a bit dated it is still very popular because everyone can identify either themselves or a friend in the characters. You are either a Terry or a Bob, or you know someone who is one or the other.
I remember talking about an episode with my best mate Mark, at the time it was first shown on TV. He said “I don’t know who wrote that, but whoever they are, they must know us”. And to me that sums up the series perfectly.