Dick Clement

The Likely Lads turns 50

Geordie sitcom The Likely Lads turns 50 next month. Ahead of the landmark, the show's creators Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais have been speaking to the Express newspaper about the series' longevity, the failed 1996 revival of the sitcom, the long-time fued between stars Rodney Bewes and James Bolam and more.

Radio Times review

The final chapter of this comforting hug of a programme focuses on the third and final series of Porridge - and its best, according to writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Also the spin-offs: Going Straight, in which Fletcher returns to civvy street; the 1979 movie (filmed at Chelmsford Prison during refurbishment after a fire); and the US adaptation, which featured a Puerto-Rican Fletch.

Going Straight is regularly dismissed in comedy textbooks as disappointing, but the only series made (in 1978) still attracted 15 million and won a Bafta. And marked an early appearance of Nicholas (Only Fools) Lyndhurst as Fletcher's son Raymond.

Christopher Biggins (Lukewarm), Sam Kelly ("Bunny" Warren) and Tony Osoba (McLaren) express pride at their involvement in co-starring in Porridge. And Kate Beckinsale, only five on the death of her father Richard, who played Godber, says she finds repeats "endlessly consoling and surprising". As do many.

Radio Times review

This is quite simply TV heaven. Just stick two colossi of comedy writing in front of a telly and get them to comment on favourite scenes. At one point in another delicious serving of Porridge memories, writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais do just that, the latter nailing the success of the show's plots and its main character with one phrase.

But there's much more besides. Celebrity fan Simon Day tracks down the famous, clanging doors of HM Prison Slade, there's brief behind-the-scenes footage from 1977 (more!), and Kate Beckinsale, daughter of Richard (Godber) will bring a lump to your throat with a story about her favourite episode.

The first of three programmes looking at the enduring affection for Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais's classic prison sitcom Porridge. Eric Idle, Keith Allen, David Walliams, Ronnie Corbett and Ian McShane join together in celebration of Ronnie Barker's iconic lag Norman Stanley Fletcher beneath a voiceover from former co-star David Jason. La Frenais and Clement dissect their own rather sterling work while original locations are visited, as is the little-known story of how the show very nearly never reached the screen.

Radio Times review

If Ronnie Barker's vote had counted, we could have been celebrating 40 years of Welsh gambler Evan Owen, not cynical jailbird Norman Stanley Fletcher. But instead of I'll Fly You for a Quid it was Porridge pilot Prisoner and Escort that was picked up for a series in 1974.

In the first of a three-part series, creators Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, now in their 70s but still pitching ideas in Hollywood ("It's Spielberg: tell him to go away!") reveal the unlikely origins of and initial fears for one of our finest ever sitcoms. One fab sequence sees the pair dissect their favourite scene, chuckling along with every familiar line.

Later, über-fan Keith Allen drives a police van around Porridge locations, while we hear rare Barker recordings intended for real prison inmates. Eric Idle points out the roundedness of HM Prison Slade's wiliest character, and Kate Beckinsale, daughter of Richard (Godber), reminds us that the series really clicked when it became a two-hander.

It's a total treat for devotees of the kind of comedy where not a word was wasted. David "Old Man Blanco" Jason is the narrator.

Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais on lifelong partnership

The duo behind The Likely Lads and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet discuss the teamwork required to write comedy and drama.

Clement & La Frenais: What happened to Christmas TV?

Legendary comedy writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais recall TV's heyday, and say why there are so few shows worth watching today.

For just under two hours this afternoon, BBC Two devotes itself to a celebration of Porridge (the prison-based sitcom, not the breakfast). First up, at 4.20pm, is a repeat of Comedy Connections (Scot, 8.00pm), which traces the genesis of the show and includes contributions from Ronnie Barker, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. It's followed at 4.50pm by Life Beyond the Box (Scot, 4.20pm), a nicely made mockumentary about Norman Stanley Fletcher, the show's central character. Finally, there's a classic episode (Scot, 8.30pm) in which Fletcher and co set up an illicit sweepstake.

"Don't mind Eddie, he likes to call a spade a spade. It's when he calls me a spade that I mind!"

Such is the power of sitcom that those two lines from Love Thy Neighbour are still fresh in my memory after nearly 40 years. Possibly because it is such a dreadful joke, possibly because every joke in Love Thy Neighbour was a variation on it.

Back in the seventies and early eighties, the humble sitcom was the meat and potatoes of British broadcasting, providing millions with unsophisticated but satisfying fare. This was before the genre was elevated to an art form, subjected to quality control and critically scrutinised to death. Or called a genre, for that matter.

Beyond a Joke takes us back to those glory days and places classic, and not so classic, British sitcoms into their social and historical context.

Which makes Beyond a Joke sound as dry as dust, but it really isn't. For one thing, the programme takes full advantage of the archives, cherry picking all of the best moments to make its point. And in a welcome change from the usual clip show convention of recruiting unknown stand-up comedians and former children's TV presenters to blab inanities, it invites actual informed opinion from such illustrious contributors as Tony Benn, John Cleese and Dick Clement.

Episode one was all about class, a rich vein of humour that sitcoms of the period mined extensively. We saw Captain Mainwaring bristle with indignation as Sergeant Wilson joined the golf club, Basil Fawlty fawning over an aristocratic guest, Margot Ledbetter locking horns with the local council. Plus Stan from On The Buses trying to sneak a dolly bird upstairs past his disapproving extended family. Which accurately reflected the enduring post-war housing shortage, but made a less than convincing case for Reg Varney as a sex god.

All of which was linked by Dave Lamb's suitably jaunty narration.