A likely story: The Likely Lads
Published: Sunday 15th December 2024
It was 1964 when Rodney Bewes and James Bolam first debuted as The Likely Lads, Bob and Terry. The characters were two regular blokes, childhood friends just muddling their way through life. It was a refreshing premise for a sitcom: a thirst for realism in popular culture was spearheaded by the 'kitchen sink' movement of the time, and now it was situation comedy's turn.
The show's writers, the legendary Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, both attributed this in no small part to another iconic sitcom writing duo. Ian explained: "When we first wrote together, we were influenced by two great comedy series, Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe And Son, both written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson."
And there's no doubt that the comedy landscape saw a huge shift in style as Galton & Simpson pushed through the prevailing variety-influenced comedy of the mid-fifties. They pioneered a down-to-earth realism that is prevalent particularly in their later work with Tony Hancock (in 1960) and with the overarching bleakness of Steptoe And Son, their other huge success, which first hit our screens in 1962.
Enter The Likely Lads, a key comic milestone in the rich history of British sitcom. Often, its success is eclipsed and even confused with its later re-incarnation, Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?. However, the original run of three black and white series in the mid-sixties - titled simply The Likely Lads - was an undoubted pioneer in the depiction of authentic working class voices in television comedy.
The show came about whilst Dick Clement was taking a BBC directors' course. He was given one studio and a one-hundred-pound budget to make a comedy short. He turned to his friend Ian La Frenais and together they worked on a script based around a sketch that they had already written for the BBC's drama club, the Ariel Players.
La Frenais spoke of the duo's love of the kitchen sink dramas of the period such as Saturday Night And Sunday Morning and This Sporting Life, and their goal was to make a funny version of the genre. This pilot sketch took off, and the BBC ordered a series straight away, much to the disbelief of the two writers, unable to believe their luck. This was the start of The Likely Lads - but what inspired the name, you may ask. There have been many theories, however Dick Clement once revealed that he was inspired by a line in the 1945 musical Carousel: "Dozens of boys pursue her, many a likely lad..."
The commission came off the back of the launch of BBC2 (20th April 1964). The channel was looking for fresh content and new voices. Clement and La Frenais had never written for television before and suddenly a six-episode commission for a new sitcom had landed at their door.
Ian La Frenais recalled the night of the first studio recording: "It was the first time we'd worked with actors, the first time we'd been around actors. It was unbelievably exciting. I remember the first night, the first show we recorded, I had a panic attack! I was so wound up I had a panic attack, and I was taken to the BBC nurse. She told me to have a glass of red wine - and I've been taking her advice ever since!"
The Likely Lads told the story of Terry Collier (James Bolam) and Bob Ferris (Rodney Bewes) traversing their way through their day-to-day lives. Set up north (later pinpointed as Tyneside), this offered a refreshing change to the television landscape in the mid-sixties. Ian La Frenais stated that there were no Geordie accents on television at the time. The BBC was firmly London-centric - even more so than the media today - and may have had its eye on the growing popularity of Coronation Street over on ITV, which had launched in 1960 and found popularity for airing an authentic voice, not just of Manchester, but of the average working class person in Britain.
Although it may seem that a soap has little to do with a sitcom, the two series share a common founding outlook. They are shows about ordinary people doing ordinary things. Bob and Terry rarely got involved in any heightened sitcom high jinks, the warmth and humour came simply from the many conversations that they shared and the troubles they found themselves in as young adults. Typically, Terry would be moaning about something whilst Bob would have a more optimistic take on the situation. As a viewer, you feel as though you are a fly on the wall, watching as the pair offer a snapshot into the trials and tribulations of mid-sixties Britain.
There was just one issue that prevented the series from achieving overnight success. At this time, only a small percentage of the country could receive BBC2, with England's south east and London the only areas that could pick up the channel. Not to mention a new television set to watch the 625-line channel on, and a new aerial to pick up its UHF transmissions. By late 1966 it was hoped that BBC2 could reach more viewers (the BBC aimed for a further two-thirds of the population) but that did not help The Likely Lads debut on the 16th December 1964, with its first ever episode, Entente Cordiale, introducing the duo as they return from a holiday in Spain.
To reach a wide audience the series therefore needed to get on to BBC1. This is where the show found a stroke of good fortune, when a short sketch was included in the broadcaster's annual festive highlight, Christmas Night With The Stars. An annual yuletide centrepiece considered essential Christmas viewing from 1958 until 1972, it was not dissimilar to The Royal Variety Performance or a charity telethon today, with the most popular series of the period contributing mini-episodes, usually around 7-10 minutes in duration.
The Likely Lads' segment duly offered something a little bit different, with the other sketches coming from Meet The Wife, The Benny Hill Show, Hugh And I, Marriage Lines and The Dick Emery Show. James Bolam's Terry proceeded to take a cheeky swipe at the programme that they were guest starring on itself. When asked if he would be staying in for Christmas, he responded curtly: "You won't catch me staying in! Bowl of nuts! Box of dates, and Christmas Night With The Stars! No thank you!"
It was modern humour that many described as a breath of fresh air. The pair discuss what they might do for Christmas:
TERRY: There's one Christmas in every bloke's life, when he first reaches out for a fizzy tablet instead of a Rupert Annual.
BOB: Aye! I remember Rupert... the little bear.
TERRY: You should remember him, you look like him!
This conversation then promptly descended into an argument about what Rupert the Bear's friend was called. They have a bet on it, which results in Terry going to dig out his old Rupert Annuals (they're somewhere up in the loft).
Speaking exclusively to British Comedy Guide in 2019, La Frenais recalled: "When most of the country watched Christmas Night With The Stars, they must've thought 'who the fuck are they?'"
Dick Clement explained: "Well, that's what triggered it. That special triggered the repeats, which had a massive response."
The Likely Lads was indeed given a repeat run on BBC1 off the back of this sketch. It was clear that the corporation had enormous faith in the series, and with audiences of between 8 and 10 million viewers each week in March and April 1965, they had good reason. However, they were not keeping the recordings. The Likely Lads suffers from a problem that plagues the majority of 1960s television, that of wiped and destroyed video tapes. Television was still considered a disposable format and consequently most episodes were destroyed after a single repeat run. Of the three series and twenty-one episodes, only ten editions survived as video recordings. More recently, audio of all missing programmes have been recovered, allowing a complete box set to be released for the show's 60th anniversary - but the lost visual element of Bolam and Bewes's performances are still a blow.
Dick Clement lamented: "I directed the second series of Not Only... But Also... with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and most of those episodes were lost in the same way."
However, one of the best of the series is its finale, Goodbye To All That, which does survive in tact. It sees Terry sort-of accidentally packed off to join the Army, and for those Likely Lads it could have all ended there. According to the writers, there was no grand plan for what eventually came to pass; having the series go on a hiatus before the characters return, middle-aged and at a more cynical period in their lives - one ripe for even more comic potential and nostalgia.
Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?, which launched with a bang in 1973, brought viewers right up to date with Bob and Terry's adventures. It also saw Clement and La Frenais go from strength to strength, and would go on to even greater acclaim, spawning a hit feature film in 1976.
Imagine, though, if they had never returned. If you even half know the series, it's hard to think of The Likely Lads without the successor's theme tune playing in your head. But of course, the initial 1960s incarnation of the show didn't have it; The Likely Lads' theme was a fairly standard, jazzy little tune. The show had the content, but not the branding that would propel it into the comedy hall of fame.
Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais never stopped writing together after they first sat down to create that initial sketch. Across their illustrious careers they have written hundreds of scripts and further cemented their place in TV history with the creation of the sublime Ronnie Barker prison sitcom Porridge, and the comedy drama that shone a light on marginalised labourers from Bob and Terry's neck of the woods, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, amongst others.
Ian explained: "Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? solidified our reputation in TV. By then our writing was much better informed and more self-assured. But Bob and Terry started it all and we are forever in their debt."
Although The Likely Lads is often skimmed over in favour of its more colourful, recognisable successor, this was a series that pioneered realism in sitcom, giving a voice to working class Britain through two loveable leads - it is a style of sitcom making that has never really left us.
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Love comedy? Find out moreThe Likely Lads Complete Collection: 60th Anniversary Edition
All episodes of The Likely Lads and its sequel Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?, released together on DVD for the first time.
The first series to be made by prolific writing partners Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, The Likely Lads chronicled the misadventures of best friends Bob (Rodney Bewes) and Terry (James Bolam), as they navigated life and love in a northern town in the 1960s. The series ran for three series (and one Christmas special) from 1964 to 1966. One of a wave of innovative new working class sitcoms in the 1960s, the series was the first top 20 comedy hit for BBC Two.
In the early 1970s, the series was revived as the even more successful Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?, picking up on Bob and Terry seven years later and looking at how their lives had drifted apart in the intervening years. The show rose to become the second most watched television programme in Britain, running to 26 episodes, plus another Christmas special.
All 38 surviving episodes of the two series are presented here together on DVD for the first time, alongside audio recordings of 10 otherwise lost episodes from the 1960s that were never archived by the BBC. Additional features, exclusive to this set, include two documentaries about the programme; footage from one of the lost episodes; two new audio commentaries from Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais; and a collection of previously unreleased archive content.
First released: Monday 25th November 2024
DVD New- Distributor: BBC
- Region: 2
- Discs: 7
- Minutes: 1,420
- Subtitles: English
- Catalogue: BBCDVD4618
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