All Likely Lads episodes collected on DVD for the first time
- A complete DVD box set of The Likely Lads is being issued for the series' 60th anniversary
- After recent audio recoveries, all 47 episodes of the sitcom and its successor are collected together for the first time
- The two series, following Bob Ferris and Terry Collier, are amongst the most celebrated of all BBC comedies
A landmark new The Likely Lads box set is to be issued at the end of November.
The sitcom was one of the first comedies ever aired by BB2, debuting on Friday 16th December 1964, the year of the channel's launch.
Written by Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement, and starring James Bolam and Rodney Bewes as best friends and workmates Terry and Bob, the series was an instant hit, riding the revolutionary wave of northern and working class life, places and people at the forefront of popular culture.
Later adapted for radio and cinema, it ran for three series and concluded in summer 1966, but remained so enduringly popular that a sequel, Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?, launched in 1973 to even greater success.
However, whilst all episodes of the latter series survive, only fragments of the original mid-60s incarnation were kept in the BBC's archives. Through a series of recoveries over the last 30 years, a final discovery announced by British Comedy Guide in September means that either the full episode (ten), or complete soundtrack recording (another ten), of all 20 regular The Likely Lads episodes now also exist.
The new 7-disc box set, marking the series' 60th anniversary, is thus the first complete television record of the much-loved series.
Alongside all 47 television episodes, the set includes an array of special features:
The Lively Arts: The Unlikely Lads (arts documentary, aired 10th October 1976)
A BBC short feature on filming The Likely Lads
Comedy Choice: The Likely Lads (short introduction by James Bolam)
Free Thinking: Whatever Happened To Dick Clement And Ian La Frenais? (BBC Radio 3 documentary, aired 27th March 2019)
Photo gallery
Pre-orders are now being taken at a range of retailers ahead of the set's release on 25th November 2024. The film adaptation and radio version of Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? have previously been released.
The Likely Lads Complete Collection: 60th Anniversary Edition
All episodes of The Likely Lads and of 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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