A few I think, chief one being both were working class and had chip on their snoulder. Eric Chappell was definitely influenced by Clement and Le Frenais when he wrote Bolam's character in Only When I Laugh[c/].
James Bolam: Figgis/Terry Collier similarities
Quote: peter gazzard @ September 7 2009, 9:57 AM BSTA few I think, chief one being both were working class and had chip on their snoulder. Eric Chappell was definitely influenced by Clement and Le Frenais when he wrote Bolam's character in Only When I Laugh[c/].
But the character in Only When I Laugh[c/] was meant to be working class as a contrast to Peter Bowles' upper class Archie Glover and the dithering middle class Norman Binns, played by Christopher Strauli.
Perhaps Chappel was influenced by Clement and Le Frenais, but class was something he'd already dealt with brilliantly in Rising Damp, as well as touching upon it in shows like The Bounder and Duty Free.
Quote: peter gazzard @ September 7 2009, 9:57 AM BSTA few I think, chief one being both were working class and had chip on their snoulder. Eric Chappell was definitely influenced by Clement and Le Frenais when he wrote Bolam's character in Only When I Laugh.
I agree that his character in Only When I Laugh is more or less Terry Collier. This is a brilliant thread, I have been recently watch episodes of Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? and James Bolam has to be one of the greatest sitcom actors of all time.
Terry Collier is one of my top favourite characters in all sitcom, possibly the one I personally identify most with, and if I'm thinking of a blokey, funny, working class everyman type as a central character for a sitcom I want to write, it's invariably Collier I go to as a rough model. He is as crafty as a fox and although he's basically a single bloke up for a good time and doesn't want the ties of marriage, he has some very strong principles that you just don't get with modern male single type characters such as Gary and the other one in MBB. He's worldly wise and a great conversationist. He's also a bit of a sponger and quite lazy. There is little doubt in my mind that Shelley, another favourite of mine, owed a lot to the creation of Terry Collier.
What on earth does this thread mean?
If you read it, you would see that it is pondering upon similarities between two characters played by the comic actor James Bolam, in Only When I Laugh and The Likely Lads series, respectively. 
Both characters have the same face, torso and limbs. (I cannot comment as for the genitalia.)
Looks very much like that bloke in New Tricks too.
Sorry but I never knew his name in OWIL.
Also bares a passing resemblance to Doctor Shipman.
They've actually got a Figgis in tonight's New Tricks.
I found OWIL very funny at the age of eight.
Just think a man called Gupta!
Yeah I like James Bolam too...There is a lot of similarities in both these roles...The one person who always struck me of being unnoticed in Owil was Dr Thorpe....played by the brill ...Richard Wilson...class!
Funny scene in hindsight in episode of OWIL called 'The Rumour', the name of Thorpe's dog is Victor
James Bolam is clearly a fool but he is a very fine actor and not just a sitcom actor at all.