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 television 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 appeared only once in the original Sixties show, in which Bob had no steady girlfriend and was forever chasing after skirt (though she was also mentioned in some third series episodes, including 'The Rocker' and 'Goodbye to All That').

The word 'likely' in the show's 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", either 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 Collier: Terry's older sister)
• Bartlett Mullins (Mr Clough: Cloughie to the Lads, a work colleague)
• Donald McKillop (Jack: Another work colleague of the lads)
• Olive Millbourne (Mrs Collier: Terry and Audrey's mother)
• Irene Richmond (Mrs Ferris: Bob's mother)
• Alex McDonald (Mr Collier: Bob's dad)

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 Blakey in the 1968 radio series (in "Chance of a Lifetime"), and as Brian Flint in the 1975 radio series (in "No Hiding Place").
• Wendy Richard (in "Last of the Big Spenders")
• Susan Jameson (the real-life wife of James Bolam, in "Double Date"). Note : Susan Jameson reappeared in the 1967 radio series (in the episode "The Talk of the Town"), as Thelma Chambers!

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, pursued by a French girl who they met abroad
• 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 - Bob is offered a better job: in management!
• Chance Of A Lifetime (lost episode) - The Lads are offered the chance to emigrate to Australia
• The Suitor - Terry enlists Bob's help to try to get rid of his sister's Italian boyfriend

Series 2

• Baby, It's Cold Outside (lost episode) - The Lads have a double date arranged, but nowhere they can take the girls afterwards
• A Star Is Born (lost episode) - The Lads compete in a pub talent night
• Talk Of The Town (lost episode) - Bob's engagement to Thelma becomes the talk of the town: but it's news to Bob!
• Last Of The Big Spenders - The Lads take two London girls out on the town
• Faraway Places (lost episode) - The Lads plan a foreign holiday, but how are they to pay for it?
• Where Have All The Flowers Gone? (lost episode) - The Lads attend a friend's wedding, causing them to realise that they are now the only unmarried men they know!

Series 3

• Outward Bound (lost episode) - The Lads go camping, planning to end up at a campsite notorious for hippy love-ins!
• Friends And Neighbours (lost episode) - Bob is caught in the middle when Terry's grandad starts a feud with Bob's next door neighbours, whose daughter is Bob's new girlfriend
• The Rocker - It's Mods versus Rockers when Bob buys a moped; but it's Terry who ends up in hospital
• Brief Encounter (lost episode) - Bob becomes embroiled with Ursula, a sexy femme fatale
• The Razor's Edge (lost episode) - Bob grows a beard, an act which causes him trouble at work, and when Terry tries to defend him things go from bad to worse
• Anchors Aweigh (lost episode) - The Lads take a boating holiday together on the Norfolk Broads, despite Terry's deep mistrust of boats...
• Love And Marriage (lost episode) - The Lads are invited on a mate's stag night
• Goodbye To All That - Bob joins the Army, whereupon Terry, finding life lonely on his own, fatefully decides to join up too...

Christmas Night with the Stars

In addition, a further 20 minute Likely Lads episode was broadcast on 25 December 1964, as part of a 3-hour Christmas Day special on BBC 1 called Christmas Night with the Stars, in which Bob and Terry have an argument over Bob's encyclopaedic knowledge of 'Rupert Bear' Annuals ("It was Edward Trunk!"). This recording still exists in the BBC's film & videotape archive.

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 the surviving episodes.

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.

Trivia

The series was originally going to be set in Liverpool. Due to its popularity the BBC subsequently commissioned an actual spin-off series that was set in Liverpool, but with two female leads, under the title The Liver Birds.

See 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

• BBC Treasure Hunt

Sources

• A Likely Story: The Autobiography of Rodney Bewes, published by Century, 1 September 2005
• BBC Comedy Guide, The Likely Lads
• BBC Comedy Guide, Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads
• The Likely Lads on Tyne
• The Likely Lads IMDB entry
• Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads IMDB entry