Thelma Chambers | The Likely Lads Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia The Likely Lads Wiki Share Ad blocker interference detected! Wikia is a free-to-use site that makes money from advertising. We have a modified experience for viewers using ad blockers Wikia is not accessible if you’ve made further modifications. Remove the custom ad blocker rule(s) and the page will load as expected. The Likely Lads (Film) Thelma Ingrid Chambers, later Thelma Ferris is a character in British sitcom , Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? , and is mentioned in The Likely Lads . Thelma also features in the film adaptation The Likely Lads (1976). Thelma is played by Brigit Forsyth . Thelma is married to Bob Ferris in the second series. Thelma was born into an aspiring lower middle class family, to an aspirational and particularly snobbish mother and a down to earth father, who hailed from the working classes. Thelma attended Park Junior School, before attending a grammar school. [ edit ] Marriage to Bob Edit Thelma and Bob attended junior school together, along with Terry .

Bob and Terry were sent to the 'blackboard jungle' of secondary modern school, while Thelma attended grammar school. Thelma and Bob maintained contact and married. Thelma saw Terry as the largest threat to her marriage, although at some point she is known to have had courtship with him, which she describes as a product of a phase of hers to be 'mistreated by something coarse and vulgar'. Thelma is capable of being a snob at times and is keen to be seen to be middle class and tries to distance her husband from his working class roots, something Terry proves counter-productive in. Thelma's attitude to Terry seems to mellow throughout the series. Thelma and Bob's marriage appears to be happy; however it is often complicated and Thelma on several occasions falsely accuses Bob of infidelity. The Likely Lads (1976) - IMDb IMDb 17 January 2017 4:34 PM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends.

Error Terry is divorced from his German wife and has a Finnish girlfriend Christina. At Thelma's suggestion they join her and Bob on a caravan holiday but due to a mishap the men get separated ... See full summary » Director: a list of 27 titles created 28 May 2012 a list of 157 titles created 03 Jun 2012 a list of 35 titles created 27 Dec 2013 a list of 39 titles created 30 Jun 2014 a list of 32 titles created 9 months ago Title: The Likely Lads (1976) 6.7/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Terry and Bob from The Likely Lads (1964) continue their life after Terry arrives home from serving in the Army to discover that Bob is about to marry his girlfriend Thelma. Can Thelma lead...

See full summary » Stars: James Bolam, Rodney Bewes, Brigit Forsyth The adventures of two "likely lads" ostensibly set in the North East of England (but filmed in Willesden Junction, London). Terry and Bob have been friends since childhood. Bob is the ... See full summary » Stars: James Bolam, Rodney Bewes, Don McKillop Albert Steptoe and his son Harold are junk dealers, complete with horse and cart to tour the neighbourhood. They also live amicably together at the junk yard. But Harold, who likes the ... See full summary » Director: Cliff Owen Alf and Elsie are getting old, Rita's left home, Elsie's confined to a wheelchair. Alf must now do battle with the Social Security system. Stars: Warren Mitchell, Carmel McSharry, Arthur English A working-class Cockney bigot with a biased and expirienced opinion of everything shares them bluntly and almost carelessly. Stars: Warren Mitchell, Anthony Booth, Una Stubbs Albert Steptoe and his son Harold are junk dealers, complete with horse and cart to tour the neighbourhood. They also live amicably together at the junk yard. Always on the lookout for ways...

See full summary » Director: Peter Sykes BBC Television comedy detailing the fortunes of Reginald Iolanthe Perrin. Disillusioned after a long career at Sunshine Desserts, Perrin goes through a mid-life crisis and fakes his own ... See full summary » Stars: Leonard Rossiter, Pauline Yates, John Barron Bless This House centres on life in Birch Avenue, Putney, where travelling stationery salesman Sid Abbott (Sidney James) and his wife Jean (Diana Coupland) live with their teenagers: Mike (... See full summary » Stars: Sidney James, Diana Coupland, Sally Geeson This prison comedy is based on the popular British television series of the same name. Long time Slade prison inmate Fletcher is ordered by Grouty to arrange a football match between the ... See full summary » Director: Dick Clement Popular sitcom set in a seedy bedsit lorded over by the mean, vain, boastful, cowardly landlord Rigsby. In each episode, his conceits are debunked by his long suffering tenants.

Stars: Leonard Rossiter, Don Warrington, Frances de la Tour Classic 1960s British comedy series about a middle aged man and his elderly father who run an unsuccessful 'rag and bone' business (collecting and selling junk). Harold (the son) wants to ... See full summary » Stars: Wilfrid Brambell, Harry H. Corbett, Frank Thornton Now a qualified chef, Robin from "Man About the House" (1973) sets up home with his girlfriend, and a business with his girlfriend's father. Stars: Richard O'Sullivan, Tessa Wyatt, Tony Britton Edit Storyline Terry is divorced from his German wife and has a Finnish girlfriend Christina. At Thelma's suggestion they join her and Bob on a caravan holiday but due to a mishap the men get separated from the women. Thelma mistakenly accuses Bob of infidelity and their row is heard publicly as they are in a van with the P.A. still switched on. Bob and Terry then holiday without the girls and,in a hotel at Whitley Bay,score with both the landlady and her daughter but have to make a hurried,trouserless,exit.

Terry decides to emigrate and Bob joins him for a farewell drink on board his ship. However Terry changes his mind at the last minute and disembarks, realising too late that Bob is still on board and heading for Bahrain. Written by don @ minifie-1 See All (3) » Taglines: Emotion blazes across the big screen as Bob and Terry knock down the frontiers of human knowledge and Newcastle ale. Genres: 2 April 1976 (UK) See more » Also Known As: Más que amigos See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know? Trivia Alun Armstrong (milkman) would later star with James Bolam in New Tricks (2003) in the early 21st Century. See more » Goofs The damaged Vauxhall Chevette has registration plates with a different spacing, indicating it was probably a different vehicle. (The original undamaged car reappears later in the film). See more » Quotes Thelma : She must have quite a hold on Terry. Bob : Probably at this very moment. Thelma : Maybe we should invite Chris and Terry to badminton club.

These two actors were so good together and the script equally top notch why oh why in these days of poor sequels and the flogging to death of anything half-decent must we be deprived of this fantastic idea / partnership. The main players are still alive - so too the writers - what is the problem BBC ?? If it is still Bewes & Bolam's dislike of each other that is simply not an excuse - many actors have turned out memorable roles opposite people they detested. Common sense and professionalism should enter the scenario here as future generations will not thank us for allowing this wonderful pairing to die off - DO IT NOW. You did it with 'Only Fools....' Whether they like it or not these two characters/actors are a NATIONAL INSTITUTION and they achieved legendary status in their own lifetimes - something very rare indeed - this should simply NOT BE ALLOWED to wither on the vine. If you are reading this Messrs. Bolam and Bewes...please bury the hatchet (if that is indeed the problem). Even if only for the sake of posterity...Delboy has gone, so too Victor Meldrew.....Blair's Britain must have something to look forward to.....your nation expects.

Must more licence-payers money be thrown at a seamless line of Antique / Boot Sale / Move to the country / Flog it / DIY / Cookery programmes? To say nothing of those awfully bad sensationalist fly-on-the-wall 'Reality' programmes which only serve to provide a stage for and inevitably generate yet more moronic and talentless 'wannabes'. I recently met up with an old work colleague after 30 years and it's been great - please let Bob Ferris and Terry Collier do the same. As both would now be heading down the retirement road, a nice twist would be Terry having finally turned out to be the more successful of the two whilst Bob (& Thelma's) fortunes have stagnated on the Elm Lodge Housing Estate courtesy of occupational pensions that didn't live up to their expectations.

They could meet at an airport ......having recently sold his string of Costa Del Sol bars, a flush, sun-tanned Terry returns and literally bumps into Bob re-stocking vending machines in the airport lounge "I do this part-time purely to keep active, you understand, kidder" Come on..MAKE IT HAPPEN FOR A NATION CRYING OUT FOR A DECENT SIT-COM....I've started it off, all you've got to do is carry it on. 13 of 15 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes The Likely Lads fall out as Bolam refuses to sanction TV repeats | The Independent The Likely Lads fall out as Bolam refuses to sanction TV repeats Former co-stars' simmering 35-year feud boils over Sunday 14 February 2010 00:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Online They were the best of friends – on screen at least. But now a feud that has simmered between the estranged stars of the BBC sitcom The Likely Lads for almost 35 years has erupted.

Rodney Bewes, who played Bob Ferris in the series, has accused his former co-star James Bolam of condemning fellow cast members to poverty through his refusal to grant permission for the series to be repeated on network television. "Jimmy Bolam's killed it, which is such a pity," he said: "I'm very poor so I have to tour one-man shows because Jimmy has buried The Likely Lads. You have to sign a waiver for them to repeat it and he stopped it while he did New Tricks. Well, New Tricks has been on so long, and is so repeated, that he must be very wealthy; me, I've just got an overdraft and a mortgage." Bewes added: "He should let it be repeated on BBC2 or BBC1; to stop other people earning money is cruel." Watched by some 27 million people – half the population of Britain at the time – the 1960s sitcom made the pair household names, giving them a level of success they have not matched since. Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, The Likely Lads was about two best mates from the North-east.

It spawned a second series in the 1970s and even a feature film. But its stars have not spoken since they made the film in 1976. It was not always that way, according to Bewes: "We were great friends. When my babies were born, his was the first house I went to. I had a daughter first, Daisy, and then we had three boys who were triplets." When asked why the pair haven't spoken since 1976, he said: "It's this actor's ego thing: he thinks he is important. Actors aren't important. I'm not important; I have fun. I think Jimmy takes himself very seriously as an 'actor'." Bolam did not respond to requests to comment on his former colleague's remarks. However, in an interview to promote a children's TV series called Grandpa in My Pocket, he said: "It's irksome that people like you bang on about it as if it's the only thing I've ever done in my life.... When the series is over it's over and you move on to other things. You see, because one played great friends it doesn't mean that you are great friends." What happened next?

James Bolam went from playing Terry Collier to a series of top TV roles, from When the Boat Comes In to New Tricks. He is an MBE. Sheila Fearn played Terry's sister, Audrey. Also in George and Mildred, Sorry! on TV and Terry Gilliam's film Time Bandits. Rodney Bewes had his own sitcom Dear Mother... Love Albert. Now, 72, he still takes his acclaimed one-man shows on tour. Brigit Forsyth played Bob's wife, Thelma. TV roles span Boon and The Bill to Dr Who and Calendar Girls on stage. She is 69. More about: Likely Lads star Brigit Forsyth is loving life in Broadbottom, Hyde - Celebrity Interviews - Cheshire Likely Lads star Brigit Forsyth is loving life in Broadbottom, Hyde 00:02 14 October 2013 Brigid Forsyth appearing locally not Archant Brigit Forsyth is thankful for her role as long-suffering Thelma in The Likely Lads. It may be years ago, but she tells Natalie Anglesey from her home in Broadbottom village, near Hyde, it means she is always busy.

Email this article to a friend To send a link to this page you must be logged in. Mention The Likely Lads, the popular Sixties’ television series starring James Bolam, Rodney Bewes and fresh-faced Brigit Forsyth who played long-suffering girl-friend Thelma and usually the reaction is a nostalgic smile. Fast forward four decades later and I’m sitting opposite Brigit on her sun terrace in the charming village of Broadbottom and she doesn’t look much older. ‘It must be the genes and all the walking and swimming I love to do here,’ Brigit chuckles from underneath her straw sun-hat. ‘I came to Broadbottom because so many of my friends were already living here and I love this view from my terrace of Coombe Edge which I think used to be a quarry. I gather some of its stone was used to build parts of Stockport. ‘I enjoy the beautiful walks around here and I swim a lot. Although at one time it must have been a bustling mill town because most of these cottages belonged to the workers.

It’s so tranquil here that I doubt if I’ll ever leave - apart from when I’m working of course.’ That’s exactly what Brigit will be doing soon when she joins The National Theatre tour of People, a new play by award-winning playwright Alan Bennett who happens to be one of her heroes. She even relinquished her place on a family holiday she’d organised to do the tour. ‘I’d jokingly said to my daughter-in-law that the only reason I wouldn’t make this holiday was if I was offered a job by The National Theatre and blow me who’d have thought it!’ Proudly Brigit shows me a hand-written post-card Alan Bennett had previously sent her in praise of her performance as the Queen in a BBC Radio play. ‘Wasn’t that a kind thing to do? I’ve treasured that for years and now I’m going to be in one of his plays with my old friend Sian Phillips, so who knows, perhaps we’ll finally get the chance to meet.’ Although she’s originally from Glasgow and trained at RADA, Brigit’s lived in Cheshire for most of her married life.

Although she’s now happily single and settled in Broadbottom, she hasn’t lost touch with her friends in Mellor where she once lived. ‘I’m still president of the Mellor March which has been going for nearly twenty years. It’s a twelve-mile walk of the Mellor boundary and has raised huge sums of money for charity - mainly for cancer. This is entirely due to the efforts of Paddy Whitham, a local businessman and his team. I handed out cheques for over £15,000 this year! I think it’s wonderful and am so pleased I‘m still president.’ Brigit is one of those actors who seems rarely out of work. ‘I’ve been so lucky. The Likely Lads, written by Dick Clements and Ian la Frenais, opened all sorts of doors for me and in the Seventies we made the sequel Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?

I remember at one time we were filming the feature film of The Likely Lads during the day and I was appearing in Alan Ayckbourne’s Norman Conquests in the West End in the evening - a manic time!’ In a mixture of theatre and television we’ve seen Brigit in Sharon and Elsie, Tom, Dick and Harriet, Boon, Murder Most Horrid, Wycliffe, Poirot and The Practice in which she played Dr Judith Vincent. From Noises Off to Calendar Girls Brigit has thoroughly enjoyed herself. ‘In Calendar Girls I was one of the lucky ones as I didn’t have to take my clothes off! But my favourite role was in Playing the Field opposite the wonderful Ricky Tomlinson. I played his wife and she was such a horrid person to play but great fun. Recently I played a small role in Coronation Street as Babs Fanshawe - for a laugh and the cast were so welcoming.’ Brought up in a musical family, Brigit is an accomplished cellist and tries to practice every day. ‘I’ve recently joined a band with some friends and I’m doing a gig in London then straight back here for a radio play and rehearsals of course.

‘In People I play Iris who is a rather mysterious, dishevelled character who turns out to be more than meets the eye. It’s a far cry from Thelma. I don’t want to give too much away except to say it’s really about family values - and it’s going to be fun.’ Family is very important to Brigit and she’s obviously rightly proud of her children. ‘My son Ben’s an accomplished engineer and my daughter Zoe is writing a screenplay as well as a play with roles for us both. We’ve actually performed together before in a Studio production at The National-and here we go again!’ With her three grand-children, her band and her cello practise to fit in - as well as touring with People - it looks like Brigit will have to put her cherished walks on hold for the time being. People is on at The Lowry, Salford Quays, from October 15-19 Whatever's happened to the likely lads? | Express Yourself | Comment | Daily Express VIDS Whatever's happened to the likely lads? The actors who played them haven't spoken in more than 30 years.

As it's revealed that the duo could return to our screens, we find out what Bob and Terry would be doing now... 00:00, Wed, Nov 7, 2007 FRIENDS REUNITED: Rodney Bewes at his peak in the '70s BEER, birds and football. Relying on that simple formula, the exploits of two working class Geordies captured the public imagination. One a cynical waster, whose only concern seemed to be where his next pint was coming from; the other determined to better himself, marry the boss’s daughter and get a foothold among the middle classes. Yet in spite of their differences, the former infant school classmates managed to cling on to their friendship. Bob Ferris and Terry Collier, better known as the Likely Lads, became national icons in the Seventies as they sat in the pub wallowing in nostalgia and putting the world to rights. At its peak the show attracted an audience of 27 million viewers and regular repeats are a testament to its enduring popularity. And James Bolam More than three decades later Rodney Bewes, who played Bob, has spoken of his desire to revive the comedy.

He’s held talks with the original scriptwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Bewes, 68, is convinced the Likely Lads can become a hit again. But a simmering feud with James Bolam, now 69, who played Terry, stands in the way. They fell out when Bewes let slip that the intensely private Bolam was about to become a father and they haven’t spoken since. That was 31 years ago. Clement, now living in the US, reveals that he and La Frenais couldn’t resist bringing the lives of two of their favourite characters up to date. They're blokes you would meet in the street. “Bob was always very ambitious,” says Clement. “He would have gone into the building trade, founded his own small business but gone bust. Terry would have been hit by a bus while crossing the street in Newcastle and been awarded compensation. Of course, seeing his friend who never did a proper day’s work now having all the money would be a bitter irony for Bob. We always felt the best comedy came when he was miserable.” Clement says that Bob’s marriage to the disapproving Thelma would have survived despite Terry leading him astray.

“Thelma and Bob were joined at the hip,” says Clement who, with his writing partner, went on to create Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. “There’s a great strength about Thelma. They’d probably have kids.” Naturally, Terry would be single. While he still sees Bewes occasionally, Clement has not bumped into Bolam for seven years. “We had dinner,” says the writer. “James never wanted to be associated with just one role. I think that he should have got over that now though because he’s had a very varied career. I’m surprised he still feels he has to be protective. “They were a great partnership. We were going for a very realistic comedy and people found them believable. They were the sort of blokes you could meet in the street. Later on, comedies such as Men Behaving Badly tapped into that.” The Likely Lads, which was first shown in 1964 in black and white on the then recently launched BBC2, is seen as one of the first programmes to give a voice not only to the working classes but the North. Viewers immediately warmed to Bob and Terry.

In the early Seventies, the pair returned in colour in Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? By now Terry had a failed marriage, while ambitious Bob was carving out a career and dating the redoubtable Thelma. Unusually for a revived sitcom, it proved even more successful than the original. There was even a film spin off in 1976, focusing on a disastrous camping holiday. The script sparkled, the on-screen chemistry between Bewes and Bolam established them as a classic double act and in its own way the Likely Lads became a powerful social commentary. A changing world was portrayed, with the lads struggling to make sense of what was going on. They rowed and moaned constantly but remained great mates. “I’d offer you a beer but I’m down to my last six pack,” Terry says in one episode. Who can forget the pals desperately trying to avoid hearing the result of an England football match so they can watch the highlights later? They succeed but it transpires the game has been postponed.

IT didn’t matter that neither was a Geordie – Bewes is a Chelsea-supporting Yorkshireman while Bolam hails from Sunderland – or that the first series was filmed in Willesden Junction, north London. Off-screen the pair were also pals but the friendship collapsed over a trivial incident in the same year the Likely Lads film was released. Bewes was already the proud father of triplets when he revealed to a newspaper how Bolam had discovered that he was also to become a father. Realising what he’d done, Bewes telephoned to apologise but there was silence before the line went dead. It was the last contact between the two and Bolam even refused to appear as a guest when This Is Your Life honoured his old friend in 1980. Their acting paths diverged. Bolam went on to confirm his talent in When The Boat Comes In, Only When I Laugh and The Beiderbecke Tapes. He also played the serial killer Dr Harold Shipman in an acclaimed television drama. He is married to the actress Susan Jameson and lives in West Sussex. Still notoriously private, he once said in a rare interview: “I’m having new track rods fitted on my car.

I don’t want to know anything about the man who’s doing it. Why should he want to know about me?” Bewes continued treading the boards but struggled to make ends meet. There came a point when his overdraft reached £21,000 and he considered selling his home in Cornwall. In recent years his one-man theatre shows have been a success but he craves a return to sitcoms. When Ant and Dec starred in a Likely Lads tribute, Bewes had a cameo role. He has said of the rift with Bolam: “It’s all terribly sad. We used to like each other so much. My wife Daphne was very fond of him. Now he won’t even talk about the Likely Lads. He says it’s dead in the water. He’s wrong. People still have great affection for it. They smile at me in the street and recognise me because of it. “He also vetoed repeats of The Likely Lads for 18 years.

He justified it by saying: ‘It’s a retrospective step in my career.’ But eventually they did show the series again and I’d love to have asked Jimmy: ‘Did you send the repeat cheque back because of your principles?’” Bewes, now prepared to offer an olive branch, spoke excitedly this week about a new series or one-off special. “It would have been tremendous,” he said. “Instead of being the Likely Lads, we’d have been the Unlikeliest Grandads. We would have been sitting on a park bench in a pair of grubby grey anoraks, feeding the pigeons and grumping about youngsters.” Carla Lane, who wrote the Liver Birds, would also love to see Terry and Bob return: “The original was brilliant comedy because they were down-to-earth lads and we all knew their kind. It could work again but it would have to be more than two old men reminiscing.” Lane has her own ideas on how the pair might have aged. “Terry was always the more interesting character and he would still be living on the fringes, maybe even as a beggar, who is reunited with Bob in the street.

His old friend is a retired company director, who lives a dull life but has political aspirations.” Brigit Forsyth, who played Thelma, is thought to be enthusiastic about a revival but there has been no official approach. “It’s always James Bolam who has spiked it,” says a friend. “Brigit has very fond memories of the programme but she gets asked about the Likely Lads so often it’s a case of can we talk about something else.” Ultimately, Clement fears there may be “too many difficulties” to allow a revival. He rules out casting another actor to work alongside Bewes. The writer of the comedy classics says he’s saddened by the rift between Bewes and Bolam. He hopes that the Likely Lads will, at least, one day shake hands, for old times’ sake. Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? | The Likely Lads Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia The Likely Lads Wiki Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? 72pages on The show followed the friendship, resumed after five years apart, of two working-class young men, Bob Ferris ( Rodney Bewes ) and Terry Collier ( James Bolam ).

Set in Northeast England , humour was based on the tension between Terry's firmly working-class outlook and Bob's aspirations to join the middle class , through his new white-collar job, suburban home, and impending marriage to prissy librarian Thelma Chambers ( Brigit Forsyth ). Since the ending of the original series, in 1966, Bob has left factory life behind for an office job with his future father-in-law's building firm (something which leaves Bob even more desperate to retain favour with Thelma and her family). But what Bob does for a living is not a major factor in the show; more important is the fact that he is now a white-collar worker, and (at Thelma's urging) is joining badminton clubs, attending dinner parties, and — in all sorts of ways — appearing to Terry as aspiring to join the middle class. Terry thus sees his own army experience and solid working class ethos as giving him moral superiority over Bob. But he finds it hard to adjust to all the changes which have occurred in the five years he's been away.

As implied in the lyrics to the programme's theme song, the 1970s series plays on both lads' feelings of nostalgia for the lost days of their innocent and reckless youth. Both characters are depressed by the demolition being carried out on the landmarks of their youth, but Bob, who works for a development agency, puts forward that it can be seen as progress. Bob also lives in his own semi-detached house on a recently-built estate, whereas Terry lives with his mother in a 19th century house, which he claims has far more charm than the one owned by Bob, where "The only thing that tells you apart from your neighbours is the colour of your curtains." Indeed, in the opening credits shots of Terry show him along with the older and more industrial buildings of the city, with Bob displayed along with modern, less attractive development. The word "likely" in the title referred, in the 1960s series, to those showing promise, but also those likely to get up to well-meaning mischief; but, as the 1970s title implied, the mischief days were (or at least, perhaps, should have been) behind them now.

Yet, in reality, life was still seen by both Bob and Terry as something in which the only things that really mattered were beer, football and sex — though not necessarily in that order. As Terry says at one point, in disbelief, "After all, there are some people who don't like football!" The conflict between what Bob had become, and what he saw himself as, led him to be impulsively inclined to follow the lead set by the more headstrong Terry (especially after a heavy drinking session), who led them recklessly into one scrape after another. And Terry frequently behaved badly, his working class instincts dominating Bob's better judgement. But whatever the plan, they rarely got away with it. Nemesis, in the shape of Thelma (and, to a lesser extent, Terry's sister Audrey) was usually waiting just around the corner. Indeed the battle of the sexes was a frequent theme of the series. Bob usually blamed his drinking, heavy smoking, poor diet and reckless behaviour on Terry: a view which Audrey and Thelma only too willingly agreed with. This may have been true in part, but actually Bob needed little persuasion to stay out drinking with Terry, or to behave accordingly.

The show was firmly based in the tradition of Northern comedy, in that much of the humour arose from the fact that Bob and Terry were living in a strongly matriarchal society. They were, in point of fact, surrounded by a sea of women. Bob was henpecked alternately by Thelma and by Thelma's mother; and Terry was henpecked by his own mother and his sister Audrey, and by the various women he dated. There were no strong male influences in either Bob or Terry's life: neither Bob's father nor Terry's ever appeared, and on the few occasions that we saw Thelma's father he was usually being henpecked by either Thelma or her mother. The thirteen episodes of Series 1, aired in 1973, were all self-contained. But nonetheless they were loosely linked together by two common threads: the earliest ones feature Terry's attempts to settle down again, following his discharge from the Army; and the subsequent episodes revolve around the preparations for the wedding of Bob and Thelma. In contrast, the Series 2 episodes the following year were not entirely self-contained: many of them formed parts of related storylines.

For instance, the series opens with a two-part story concerning Terry's romance with Thelma's younger sister. There are several two-part stories; and in one instance a single storyline is developed over four episodes (beginning in "Affairs and Relations"). This is never taken so far that it's necessary to the comedy to have seen the previous episodes; but, if you have, there's a stronger unity to this series than in the previous one. [1] [2] Terry and Bob are arrested in One for the Road.The show's catchy theme song, "Whatever Happened to You", was written by Mike Hugg (of Manfred Mann ) and La Frenais, and performed by Hugg's session band under the name Highly Likely. It made the lower reaches of the UK Top 40 in 1973. Mike Hugg also wrote the theme tune to the spin-off 1976 feature film, entitled "Remember When". The complete first and second series of the 1970s show (including the Christmas special) are now available in the UK on Region 2 DVD, as two BBC releases: "Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?: Series 1" (Catalogue No.

BBCDVD1957) and "Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?: Series 2" (Cat. No. BBCDVD1991). The 2006 BBC release, The Likely Lads Collection (a 5 disc box set: cat. no. BBCDVD2110), contrary to certain reports, does include both the final episode of series 2, entitled "The Shape of Things to Come", and the 1974 Christmas Special (as an extra feature).

Contents Edit Cyril Collier (Terry and Audrey's dad) Leslie Ferris (Bob's dad) (Note: It was established in the 1960s series that Bob's father was in fact deceased) Linda Collier (Terry and Audrey's sister) Frank Clark (Bob's original choice for best man) Nigel "Little Hutch" Hutchinson (a sex-mad pal who always has a racing tip ready for Terry) Hugh and Janey (Bob and Thelma's new middle-class friends) Mr Clough (Cloughy to the Lads, played by Barlett Mullins; he was their workmate in the original 1960s series, and now runs a newsagents) Jutta Baumgarten (Terry's German wife, from whom he's separated) Maurice 'Memphis' Hardaker (a member of a skiffle group called Rob Ferris And The Wildcats, he was also mentioned in the original 60s series as work colleague Morrie Hardaker) Deirdre Birchwood, an ex-girlfriend of Bob's, frequent references to her became a running gag in the first series Wendy Thwaite, another ex-girlfriend of Bob's with whom he had his first sexual experience.

Radio series Edit The 13 episodes of Series 1 were adapted for radio, with the original television cast, and broadcast on Radio 4 in 1975, from 30 July to 22 October. This series is periodically re-broadcast in the "classic comedy" hour on digital radio channel BBC Radio 7 . Edit Before the Seventies series was made, the cast had already been re-united twice, in 1967 and 1968, to record sixteen of the original television scripts for two series (of eight episodes each) on BBC radio, the scripts for which were adapted for radio by James Bolam. To emphasise continuity, the opening section of the title credits at the start of each Seventies episode includes a short montage of black-and-white stills photos of Bob and Terry in scenes from the 1960s series, presented as if in a photograph album. The leather-bound photo album which Bob gives Terry before the wedding, in the episode "End Of An Era", is also the one seen in the opening credits.

To avoid bad feeling over billing, Rodney Bewes and James Bolam were alternated in the opening credits, so that one week Bewes was billed first and the following week Bolam was. In the closing credits the billing was reversed, with whoever had been billed second in the opening credits being billed first. At recordings of the show Bolam was clearly irritated at times by the fact that Bewes did not always know his lines, and he did not trouble to conceal this irritation from the studio audience. The problem may have arisen because the lads always drank real beer in the pub scenes. Frequent re-takes meant they would sometimes have downed eight pints by the end of a recording. Bewes maintained his connections with The Likely Lads, appearing in a cameo role as the old newspaper seller in a 2002 ITV re-make of the series' most popular episode, "No Hiding Place", starring Tyneside presenters/actors/entertainers Ant and Dec , which aired under the title "A Tribute to the Likely Lads". Bewes wrote an autobiography, "A Likely Story", which was published in 2005.

He is currently touring in his various one-man theatre shows, one of which is based upon the works of Jerome K Jerome. In 1995 and 1996 the series was repeated in its entirety on BBC 2 . It went on to become a short-term staple of cable channels, and was again shown on satellite and cable tv in 2008/9, but has not featured on terrestrial TV in the UK since 2000. It has, however, been released on DVD. And the movie spin-off usually appears at least once a year on TV, around Christmas. One of the most notable continuity points about the show is that Terry has been away in the Army for "five years". However, there was a real-life gap of seven years between the end of the original series in 1966 and the sequel in 1973. Also, there are numerous references in the Seventies show to the Lads' shared adventures in 1967, plus citations of that year as the time when Terry was last in town.

And, from the audience's point of view, Terry was last seen in the radio series which was broadcast during 1967 and 1968. Taken all together, it suggests Terry's army service lasted for the five years from 1968 (i.e. the end of the radio series) to 1973. Terry's full name is Terence Daniel Collier, born 29 February 1944. Bob's full name is Robert Andrew Scarborough Ferris, born a week earlier. These dates can be worked out from dialogue in the episode "Birthday Boy". The 'Scarborough' in Bob's name comes from the fact that he was allegedly conceived there, but this is contradicted in the opening flashback sequence in the 1976 feature film. Terry's 'silver tankard' joke in his best man's speech at the end of Season 1 (in the episode "End Of An Era") also seems to imply that he, not Bob, turned 21 first. Terry is younger than his sisters Audrey ( Sheila Fearn ) and Linda (who is never seen). Their parents are Edith and Cyril Collier.

Terry's father is not featured in either series of this show; neither is Bob's father, Leslie. Bob's mother, Alice, occasionally appears. Bob's father had died 12 years previously (as established in the Sixties episode "Friends and Neighbours"), so wasn't around when Bob - an only child - was growing up. Terry's dad is neither dead nor absent: he is continually referred to in the Seventies series, and also in the feature film, but is never actually seen (although, in the opening flash-back in the film, a back view of him is briefly visible, which is clearly James Bolam; and Bolam also provides the voice-over dialogue in that scene). Thelma's full maiden name is Thelma Ingrid Chambers. Thelma's father, played by Bill Owen , is George Chambers. Her younger sister is Susan, who lives in Toronto, Canada with her accountant fiancé Peter. The lads attended Park Infants School, Park Junior School, and Park Secondary Modern. Thelma was with them for infants and juniors, but then went to the grammar school.

Notable school romances for the Lads included the revered (but sadly never seen) Deirdre Birchwood, who was the basis of a running joke in Series 1, where any mention of her (or of any other former girlfriend of Bob's) was guaranteed to upset Thelma. (A Deidre Birchwood actually appears in an episode of the Bewes vehicle, Dear Mother, Love Albert. She is referred to in many episodes of that programme. Her name derives from a real-life person Bewes knew - according to his memoir.) The lads also were in the Scouts together. Bob lost his virginity to Wendy Thwaite, according to the Series 1 episode "I'll Never Forget Whatshername", who scored 8 stars (out of 7!) on his scoring system. Terry's never-seen German wife is called Jutta (pronounced Uta) Baumgarten. They married in November 1969, but split up seven months later, in June 1970, when West Germany defeated England in the 1970 FIFA World Cup .

Confusingly, Terry later says they were married for two years "on and off", which further clouds the continuity issue of Terry's time away. She was due to appear in the episode "End Of An Era", played by April Walker, but the scenes featuring her were omitted from the broadcast version. Terry's address is given in the dialogue as 127 Inkerman Terrace ("No Hiding Place"); but external shots (in "The Ant and the Grasshopper") clearly show a different house number. Bob and Thelma live at Number 8 of an unspecified avenue on the Elm Lodge Housing Estate. Bob's immediate neighbours at his new house are the Lawsons and the Jeffcotes, again never actually seen in the show. A couple called the Nortons are also later referred to as living next door. It is revealed (in the episode "Storm in a Tea Chest") that the boys used to be in a skiffle group called Rob Ferris And The Wildcats. Other group members included Maurice 'Memphis' Hardaker, named after a real-life friend of the show's co-creator and co-writer Ian La Frenais .

The Lads' workmate from the 1960s series, Cloughie (originally played by Bartlett Mullins), does not feature, other than a passing mention in the first episode that he now runs a newsagents. Two running jokes in the show are never fully explained: Terry's supposedly injured leg, which he claims to have injured in the Army ("I never talk about it"), and his aggressive preoccupation with being referred to as 'wiry' rather than as 'thin' or 'slim'. The latter is, in fact, a continuation of a running gag in the original 1960s series, in which Terry was paranoid about being thought weedy. The pubs frequented by the lads include The Black Horse (which is their most regular 'local', featuring buxom barmaid Gloria), The Fat Ox, The Drift Inn and The Wheatsheaf. Others mentioned in passing include The Swan, The Ship, and the Institute. Friends of the Lads who are regularly spoken of but never seen include Frank Clark (Bob's original choice for best man, who had the same name as a Newcastle United F.C.

player of the time), and Nigel "Little Hutch" Hutchinson (a sex-mad pal, who frequently has a racing tip for Terry). Bob's new middle-class friends who we hear of but don't meet include Hugh and Janey; but a new pal we do meet (in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "The Ant and the Grasshopper") is affable Londoner Alan Boyle, played by Julian Holloway . Christopher Biggins makes several appearances as Podge Rowley, a friend of the Lads, including in the episode "Birthday Boy" and as an usher at Bob's wedding in "End Of An Era". He would reappear in the next big television hit for Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, Porridge, as would Brian Glover (Flint in "No Hiding Place"). The episodes "I'll Never Forget Whatshername" and "Storm in a Tea Chest" were based in part on elements in the 1960s episode "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" The titles for the 1974 Christmas Special call the show simply The Likely Lads. The opening scenes are set in late September, on the day of Terry's successful driving test.

Exterior shots were filmed on Tyneside and around the North East, while interiors were shot at the BBC Television Centre in London. The genuine affection held by Clement and LaFrenais for the golden age of Hollywood movies is reflected in the show. For instance, nearly all of the episode titles (from "Strangers on a Train" to "The Shape of Things to Come") are based on the titles of Hollywood films; and the script frequently features jokes about popular movies (such as Terry's dig at Bob, on learning that he's becoming middle-class, that his new friends include 'Bob and Carole, and Ted and Alice' - a reference to the 1969 film of that name). The BBC decided not to commission a third series of the show, partly because Dick Clement and Ian LaFrenais had written a pilot script for another 1973 series, entitled Seven of One, in which Ronnie Barker appeared in seven different situations from different writers, each of which was a try-out for a possible series. The BBC decided they liked best the one by Clement and LaFrenais, who found themselves suddenly offered a new series, starring Ronnie Barker, which became the television comedy Porridge.

Writing and production for the new show, which debuted in the autumn of 1974 and ran for three series, made it impossible to schedule a further series of The Likely Lads. Instead, Clement and LaFrenais began to develop a one-off script, which became the Likely Lads feature film, which was eventually made in 1976. Edit Main article: The Likely Lads (film) In 1976 a feature-length movie was released, written by Clement and La Frenais, which was directed by Michael Tuchner. By this time both lads had moved house (Bob and Thelma to a detached house, and Terry to a high-rise); and Terry now had a Finnish girlfriend called Christina ("Chris"), played by Mary Tamm . The movie opened with the Lads lamenting the demolition of their favourite pub, The Fat Ox. It then did what so many film spin-offs in the Seventies did, taking the regulars out of their normal environment and sending them off on holiday. The result is a caravanning holiday for Bob and Terry, accompanied by Thelma and Chris.

The complications resulting from the trip lead to Terry and Chris splitting up, as a result of which Terry decides to go away, signing on as a crewman on a cargo ship. Bob and Terry sneak one last late-night drink together aboard Terry's ship, anchored in the docks; but Terry has second thoughts the morning after and elects to stay at home. Bob, however, awakes - hung over - aboard the ship, as it sails for Bahrain. This was an ironic reversal of the ending of the original Sixties show (where Terry, missing Bob - who had joined the Army - joined up too, only to discover that Bob had been discharged with flat feet ). Ian McDiarmid , who went on to play the Emperor Palpatine / Darth Sidious in four Star Wars movies, made his film debut here, playing a vicar. Future 1980s sitcom icons Vicki Michelle and Linda Robson also made cameo appearances. Vicki Michelle had already appeared, as a different character, in the second series of the Seventies show (in the episode "The Ant and the Grasshopper").

Any future plans for the lads were never announced; but if they existed they were scuppered by Bewes and Bolam falling out. Edit In 2008, The Gala Theatre in Durham staged the world premiere of "The Likely Lads", adapted for the stage by Dick Clement and Ian LaFrenais and directed by Simon Stallworthy. The title roles of Bob and Terry were played by David Nellist and Scott Frazer respectively. In May 2011 The Tynemouth Priory Theatre, in Tynemouth, Tyne and Wear, were granted the rights to become the first non professional company to stage the production. It became one of the theatres most attended productions selling out well in advance for all performances. Terry was played by Brendan Egan and Bob by Stu Bowman. now they back as Ant and Dec Look back in anger: Whatever happened to The Likely Lads? | The Independent Media Look back in anger: Whatever happened to The Likely Lads? It was one of the biggest shows of its day, part of the North's cultural revival. But an attempt to bring it back has failed &ndash; due to the animosity between the two stars.

By Andy McSmith Wednesday 7 November 2007 00:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Online It really would have been a nostalgia fest if The Likely Lads had got back together – again – a full 43 years after they first hit the small screen, in the days when all televisions were black and white and only a few had more than two channels. Rodney Bewes, who played Bob Ferris, the sensible put-upon likely lad, was up for it. So were the scriptwriters Dick Clements and Ian La Frenais. But James Bolam, who played the rebellious, cynical Terry Collier, would not hear of it. And even if the revival had happened, they would surely have had to remove the word "lads" from the title. Bolam and Bewes are not 26 any more, as they were when they made the first episode. In fact, Bewes will be 70 this month, and Bolam next June, so they could invite all their friends to a 140th birthday... if only they were on speaking terms.

Sadly the two actors who played close friends in the series and who first brought northern angst to small-screen comedy are in that category of brilliant comic pairings – like Tony Hancock and Sid James, or Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, or Rob Newman and David Baddiel – who gelled on screen, but just could not get on in private. From what Bewes says, he and Bolam stopped speaking to each other 32 years ago. Even John Lennon and Paul McCartney, or Simon and Garfunkel, or Margaret Thatcher and the great sulk-master of British politics, Sir Edward Heath, did not go that long without exchanging a single word. The froideur has kiboshed every attempt to reassemble the team that made up one of the most successful television series in the BBC's history. For years, it even prevented the repeat-addicted BBC from repeating one of its greatest successes. Three years ago, when the BBC1's Inside Out programme decided to screen a tribute to The Likely Lads, on the 40th anniversary of the first episode, they took Bewes back to Newcastle to revisit some of the series' old locations, minus Bolam.

This was ironic because Bolam was the genuine northerner, born and brought up in Sunderland. Bewes's home ground was 100 miles south, in Bingley, near Bradford. He was drafted in because in those days the number of professional actors with screen experience from the North-east could be counted on one hand. Television viewers in the North, of course, instantly noticed that the two Likely Lads spoke with different regional accents, although they had supposedly grown up on the same street. For that reason, the exact location of the original series was always kept a bit vague. It was hinted that the action might all be located in Middlesbrough, or somewhere between Sunderland and Bingley. Such geographical imprecision in no way damaged the show's phenomenal success. Nor was it hurt by the fact that it began life on BBC2, then a very new channel that was assumed to be for southern intellectuals only. At its peak, the show was watched by 27 million people. It was part of the cultural revival of 1963-64 which seemed to turn the old, decaying industrial north of England into the most vibrant source of entertainment in the world.

A few weeks before The Likely Lads went on the air, a new rock group called the Animals had burst into the charts with a single called "The House of the Rising Sun", which kept the Rolling Stones off the number one slot. They were working-class youths from Tyneside, who might normally have been apprenticed to the shipyards, who looked for a while as if they were to become an international phenomenon to rival the Beatles, until the group disintegrated in another great showbiz feud, which persists to this day, between its lead singer, Eric Burdon, and its keyboard player, Alan Price. In the same year, every arts cinema in the UK was showing gritty northern dramas such as Billy Liar, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, or A Taste of Honey, all of which explored what it was to be like to be young, restless, and full of vague hopes in a northern town that seemed to be dying on its feet and where the older generation had given up. The Likely Lads used the same themes, but made them softer, funnier and more popular.

One of the lads aspired to be middle class, the other wanted to cling to his northern working-class roots in a world which no longer required great armies of working men to fill the coal pits and arms factories. In 1973-74, after a five-year gap, there was a follow-up called Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, which critics thought was even better than the original. In this series – shot in colour, and located in Newcastle upon Tyne – Rodney Bewes's character, Bob, had achieved the middle-class stability he craved by finding an office job, and was preparing to marry the relentlessly bourgeois Thelma, while his old friend Terry was as adrift as ever, still believing that he was morally superior to his friend because he had not sold out. The last episode was broadcast in Christmas 1974. For years afterwards, it was assumed that Bolam and Bewes were on friends off screen as well as on, a pretence they kept up because their public expected it. It was finally blown in 2005, when the ageing Bewes published his memoirs, in which he revealed that they had comprehensively fallen out 30 years earlier and had not spoken since.

He blamed Bolam's fear of having his privacy invaded and of being eternally typecast. The final breach, as Bewes told it, occurred after Bolam's wife, Sue, announced to her husband, while he was driving, that she was pregnant. He almost crashed the car. Bewes repeated this story in a newspaper interview, thinking that it was already public knowledge, then got a frosty reaction when he rang Bolam to forewarn him. "There was this dreadful silence. He put the put the phone down. I called him back, He didn't answer. He hasn't spoken to me since," Bewes claimed. The silence from Bolam suggests that at least two elements of this story are true: he guards his privacy carefully, and he despises his old co-star. The underlying reason may be less flattering to Bewes. In real life, the actors were the opposites of the characters they played. Bolam, supposedly the proudly working class cynic, was actually a deeply serious actor who shook the dust of Sunderland off his feet and went south to pursue exactly the sort of lifestyle that his fictional character was determined to avoid.

Having no wish to be a professional northerner forever linked with one comedy series, he has consistently refused to be interviewed about The Likely Lads. Instead, he has taken a series of demanding roles, playing characters as diverse as Harold Wilson and Harold Shipman. Other big names associated with the series also found new pastures. The scriptwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, who were novices when they wrote the first sketch on which The Likely Lads was based as a training exercise, went on to create other monster hits such as Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen Pet, and to form their own production company, as well as intermittently pursuing separate careers. Brigit Forsyth, the Scottish actress who played Thelma, has enjoyed a long career on stage and television. Like others associated with The Likely Lads, she finds Bolam's refusal to talk about or revisit the old show rather odd. But he still has the cheerful air that once made him one of the nation's favourite actors and has never been out of work for long. "He vetoed repeats of The Likely Lads for 18 years," Bewes told the Daily Mail.

"He justified it by saying, 'It's a retrospective step in my career.' But eventually they did show the series again, and I'd love to have asked Jimmy: 'Did you send the repeat cheque back because of your principles?' It's all terribly sad." Artistic differences The Professionals The British-made crime series starring Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon Jackson ran for 57 episodes from 1977 to 1983. The show was criticised for its extreme violence, which was one of the reasons that Shaw, who played the curly-haired Ray Doyle, did not like it despite the fame it brought him. By the third series, he was criticising the show in the press and wanted to get out, but his four-year contract obliged him to carry on. He went on to be a highly respected actor, whose roles include Adam Dalgleish in the television adaptions of PD James's novels, but greatly annoyed his former co-stars and fans of The Professionals by allegedly using a dispute over royalties to block repeat screenings of the programmes.

Starsky and Hutch For four years between 1975 and 1979, the adventures of the two southern California cops were America and Britain's favourite weekly fare of mildly far-fetched adventures in which the good guys always won, usually after tearing through the streets of Bay City in an outlandish, red and white, two-door Ford Gran Torino. Paul Michael Glaser played the dark-haired, streetwise David Starsky; David Soul played the blond, reserved Kenneth Hutchinson. Glaser never really liked the role, or that ridiculously garish Ford Gran Torino, and quit after four series. A plan to kill off Starsky and have Hutch team up with his kid brother was dropped and there was no fifth series.

Question: Who played Thelma in The Likely Lads
Answer: Brigit Forsyth