Whatever Happened to Bewes & Bolam?

[Lt Plonker]

I've been bothered by somethinig my dad said many months ago. Apperently, James Bolam never talks about Whatever Happpened to the Likely Lads? anymore in interviews and the such, and that he had a falling out with Rodney Bewes. Not wanting to perpetuate any vile rumours, does anyone know what actually happened?

Moving on, what is everyone's favourite moment in this programme? Do you think it's aged well? Conduct Unbecoming is a great episode. Bob discussing how 'violence appauls him' and how he is a 'man of peace' is just terrific. I'm very fond of the scene in the hairdressers, where Terry has just returned home and is shocked to see the changes that have occured. Great performance by Bolam.

I think it's a terrific programme. Top theme tune also.

[Silver SurferGhost]

I don't know about a falling-out as such, but Bewes is a bit miffed that Bolam won't even entertain the idea of a reunion.
Apparently Bewes had one all worked out with Clement and LaFrenais at one stage, but it fell through thanks to Bolam.
He says the past is the past and never look back, but he seems rather embarrassed about the programme
for some strange reason.
Very odd when you consider some of the shite he's been associated with since.

Top theme tune also

You really do like Manfred Mann, don't you? :wink:
.

[Lt Plonker]

Top theme tune also

You really do like Manfred Mann, don't you? :wink:
.

Most certainly. I was there in Bournemouth singing along to them and slapping my knees. :)

[TOCMFIC]

Great show. Classic. I had a mate who was the spitting image of Bewes.

Bolam holding out on a reunion... What a tosser. I mean really, what else of worth did he do? I still have nightmares about that god awful "When the boat comes in" shit. God my parents watched that all the time. Fucking hateful, evil show. (I have memories of his character dying in the show, and me being very pleased when did... May be the wrong show...)

[Bilko]

BBC7 are broadcasting What Ever Happened to the Likely Lads on Fridays at 2.30pm and 9.30pm.

I thought the series in the 70's is way better than the 60's series.  As good as Porridge/Fawlty Towers or any other Comedy made in the 70's.

[23 Daves]

I seem to remember reading a newspaper article not too long ago that ran along the lines of "Don't be too afraid if you're waiting for a train one day next week, and you see James Bolam go past your platform driving one - it's all being filmed as part of a series that's being filmed where he plays a train driver... etc. etc.".

Much as the idea of Bolam driving a train amused me ("That ghastly Terry Callier, I shall never commute into work by train again!") I never did catch the programme, if indeed it was ever shown anywhere.  But that's the last thing I remember reading about him being involved with.

It's also a little known fact that back in the sixties Rodney Bewes released a (now very collectable) psychedelic pop single.  TJ found a copy in a charity shop for 50p recently.  I'm sure he won't mind me telling you.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

Bolam holding out on a reunion... What a tosser. I mean really, what else of worth did he do? I still have nightmares about that god awful "When the boat comes in" shit. God my parents watched that all the time. Fucking hateful, evil show. (I have memories of his character dying in the show, and me being very pleased when did... May be the wrong show...)

I didn't see that, but I did see that godawful "sitcom" he did about car park attendants (not even traffic wardens) which I maintain is Britain's worst ever.

Edit: It was called "Pay and Display" according to imdb, which reminded me of some of his other "comedic" atrocities:

Remember "Andy Capp", or "Second Thoughts"?

[Bert Thung]

Got Series 2 of WHTTLL throught the post this morning. Here's some screenshots if you give a toss about that kind of thing.

[Bilko]

That first screen cap looks likes something from University Challenge, is that Alun Armstrong in the last cap.

[Lt Plonker]

"It's never not full in here, it's never not full."

Hooray!

There's no sign of that missing episode they forgot to put on the 'Likely Lads' DVD, so my dad says. What a shame.

[Bert Thung]

That first screen cap looks likes something from University Challenge, is that Alun Armstrong in the last cap.

Yes, as Dougie Scaife, who's been in a pub brawl with Terry. He turned up in the film as their milkman.

[Boing]

I hated the Likely Lads then and I still hate it.Rodney Bewes makes me want to strangle a kitten.Same with anything written by Carla Lane.

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

Why?

[Bert Thung]

Oh ignore him, I think he's having a nervous breakdown. At least its just a classic sitcom he hates this time, not jews

http://chilled.cream.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=539670&highlight=#539670

[Divnee Gan]

What's wrong with having a nervous breakdown?

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

Oh ignore him, I think he's having a nervous breakdown. At least its just a classic sitcom he hates this time, not jews

http://chilled.cream.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=539670&highlight=#539670

Hmm. Actually, he just appears to be a tedious 'character' poster.

[Bert Thung]

What's wrong with having a nervous breakdown?

In this case, anti-semitism

[Boing]

Rodney Bewes.......................

[Marty McFly]

according to Bewes' memoirs (serialised in the Daily Mail ;) ) , Bewes had passed on to some other BBC folk that Bolam's wife had got pregnant, Bolam found out that he'd been telling people, and  flipped out.

Something like that, anyway.

The only episodes of WHTTLL I've seen are the ones on the  "Best Of" disc, and I thought they were great. Very witty stuff, reminded me in a way of a sort of 70s Men Behaving Badly at times.

And yes, one of the best theme tunes ever. (clicky)

[Boing]

Listen,according to Rodney Bewes memoirs James Bolam would have to drink a gallon of raw sewage and fondle a typewriter before he went on set.Often there was no typewriter available.This annoyed Bewes to the point where his fibreglass hair would fly off his ugly mole ridden head and electrocute Bolam in the testicles,causing Bolam to apply his BIONIC LEG to Bewes' solar plexus.All good fun,and fine,but is there any need for either of them to behave in such a childish and irresponsible way for a crappy,dated sit-com?Porridge is the same.Richard Beckinsale wrote that Porridge was "fucking crap."Apparently Ronnie Barker had a clause whereby in a percentage of episodes he had to stand in front of Godbers lower bunk in his underpants with his dick in Godbers face saying:
"I'll look after you,boy."
Barker wanted it to be more like Oz than Porridge.And Mr Mackay was to be cornholing the bejazus out of Ives,while Lukewarm masturbated nonchalantly over Grouty's tits.

[ccbaxter]

My brother (well, actually, really, my mother) called upon us all to join him and his intended for the first declaration of the banns of their imminent marriage a few months back.

It had no connection to any of the names mentioned, but I did feel sorely tempted to suddenly cry out, at some point, "Scarborough???!!"

[Boing]

My brother (well, actually, really, my mother) called upon us all to join him and his intended for the first declaration of the banns of their imminent marriage a few months back.

It had no connection to any of the names mentioned, but I did feel sorely tempted to suddenly cry out, at some point, "Scarborough???!!"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH........................AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA..........................AHAHAHAHAHAH..............Ahahahahaha......................ahahahah.I don't get it.

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

Oh God, you're so dull.

[Steve Thompson Dance Mix]

Bolam also played Dr Harold Shipman of course. That's the last thing I really remember him in.

[Bert Thung]

I've been bothered by somethinig my dad said many months ago. Apperently, James Bolam never talks about Whatever Happpened to the Likely Lads? anymore in interviews and the such, and that he had a falling out with Rodney Bewes. Not wanting to perpetuate any vile rumours, does anyone know what actually happened?

I got a pretty detailed answer about this from author Keith Topping a few months back.

"It's a bit more complicated than simply Jimmy being an old crouch though (although, that's certainly the way I felt in 1993 when his agent stopped Paul, Marty and myself from using a photo of Bob and Terry in the pub in the first edition of Classic British TV because "Jimmy doesn't want to be associated with that role anymore.").

Jimmy, rightly or wrongly, is very much an actor who likes to look forward rather than back. My understanding is that his problems with the Likely Lads generally are threefold: Firstly, he signed a pretty ****ty deal in 1964 - when he was a very young and very inexperienced actor - and never felt subsequently that he'd had the proper recompence for his (very hard) work - that's one of the main reasons why, for many years, he was able to hold up any video releases of the various shows (although, ironically, his 1964 contract didn't give him any control over repeat broadcasts which is why the BBC kept repeating WHTTLL? as often as they could comfortably get away with for years).

Secondly, Jimmy apparently has (or, at least had) some problems with some of Terry Collier's character, attitudes and dialogue which he found to be out-dated and perhaps a shade sexist. I'd argue with him vociferously about that one but, after all, it is HIS performance and if he's unhappy with it - for whatever reason - ultimately, that's where the line in a sand is drawn. The third problem he has is that after the The Likely Lads first finished in 1966, Jimmy experienced a long period of unemployment when, he felt, he was highly typecast by the role. That was one of the main reasons why he accepted reprising it in the first place, because he was desperate for the work. At that stage,m in 1973, Rodney Bewes was by far the more in-demand of the two (having just come off the back of three very successful years in a now virtually-forgotten sitcom which he both created and starred in called Dear Mother... Love Albert).

Given that, in all the years since WHTTLL? Jimmy has managed to create several equally immortal TV characters in various other shows (Jack Ford, Royston Figgis, Trevor Chaplin, etc), this point is possibly less of a problem than it once was but, apparently, it's still something that he talks about whenever, once every couple of years, Dick and Ian manage to get him to sit down and talk about the even vague possibility of a third Likely Lads series.

Plus, of course, as noted elsewhere in the thread, he and Rodney had a very celebrated falling out some years back - something for which, apparently, Jimmy has never forgiven Rodney for.

Jimmy Bolam is a complex, occasionally difficult actor (I think he admits that himself) but he's also - and his TV record speaks for itself in this regard - a genius. Without him, there'd be NO Likely Lads so it's possibly a bit churlish to complain that he doesn't want to do any more - he did it (off-and-on) for ten years, that's a pretty decent commitment to the concept.

Dick and Ian have, in the past, talked about their ideas for a third Likely Lads series ("Whatever Happened to... Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads"?) in which the Bob and Terry roles would have been, essentially, reversed - Bob would have been a victim of redundency whilst Terry would have become quite wealthy as a result of various (never fully revealed) injuries sustained in a drunk-driving accident. "And", Ian la Frenais once noted, "Bob would go around all the time muttering 'So unfair, so VERY unfair!'" However, most of the best ideas that they'd saved up for the show ended up going into the third season of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (another thing they thought they'd never get to write) so it's arguable that, even if Jimmy ever did change his mind, the comedy might not be as cutting edge as it could've been ten years ago.

Still, if it ever did happen, I'd be first in the queue to watch it."

And as for the falling out with Bewes

"I've heard different versions over the years but I do remember Ian la Frenais once noting that the two hadn't been that friendly back in 1964!

I think that it's the Pete-n-Dud syndrome, you know? After you work with somebody for a while eventually you get sick of the sight of them and the slightest little thing can become the straw the broke the camel's back which, in Jimmy's case, seems to have been Rod telling tales out of school. But, as you rightly point out, Webber's book (which is excellent for anybody who hasn't got it by the way) suggests that they were never that close anyway."

[difbrook]

so, a very large part of it is simply familiarity-breeds-contempt? Fair enough. I imagine this is what eventually put the mockers on Corbett and Brambell's working  relationship as well.

thanks for that, Bert. Extremely informative!

[Toad in the Hole]

Thanks to Boing for making Bert Thung's fascinating post very very very dificult to read.

Cheers Bert for taking the time to up that.

[Lt Plonker]

Thanks Bert, very informative!

[SimonJT]

Yeah, can you edit boing's post please mods.

[Jemble Fred]

Or his whole existence?