Category: North
East & Cumbria TV
Date: 06.09.2004
Printable version
A new series
of Inside Out returns to 成人论坛 ONE with a tribute to one of the
most popular and endearing British comedies of the last century.
Actor Rodney Bewes, who played Bob in the Likely Lads, makes
an emotional return to the region to mark the 40th anniversary of the
series.
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The first episode was broadcast on 成人论坛 TWO in 1964.
He says: "When I came up on the train and it goes across the bridge
over the Tyne it always gives me a buzz. I always think I am back...
and I'm not even from here.
"The Likely Lads I starred in was very much a product of the old
North East of the Sixties and Seventies.
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"A story of two northern blokes set against a background
of grind, grit and huge social upheaval."
Inside Out also talks to the series' writers, Whitley Bay-born Ian La
Frenais and Dick Clement, who together went on to pen other viewers'
favourites such as Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen Pet.
Dick Clement says: "The public picked up on it because they felt
the lads were real. One of the very earliest letters to the Radio Times
said you can meet Bob and Terry anywhere.
"We were always a little vague about where Likely Lads was set.
James Bolam is from Sunderland and Rodney is from Bingley. Rod doesn't
even sound like a Geordie.
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"We said it was set in Middlesbrough at one point.
The truth is there were only about four professional actors who were
Geordies so we could not have cast it in Newcastle because there weren't
enough actors."
But by the time Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads was screened in
1973, the series was set in Newcastle.
Ian La Frenais tells Inside Out, to be transmitted on 成人论坛 ONE at 7.30pm
today (Monday 6 September): "I think males liked it because it
was about friendship and they like nostalgia about lost friendship and
lost times.
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"There were more social references in Whatever
Happened and a bit more context. The area did become more important
and it became a character itself."
Peter Flannery, writer of Our Friends in the North, tells Inside Out:
"I can't remember anybody before the Likely Lads that spoke to
me about where I actually lived and about the North East.
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"It was a series that said we are reflecting your
lives. It was about two blokes being the best of mates."
But what would the Likely Lads make of Newcastle in 2004?
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Ian La Frenais says: "Terry is going on a bit
now. He will probably be appalled by the Quayside and Bigg Market on
a Saturday night and completely forget that he would be there if he
was younger and would be one of the people arrested most frequently.
"He would find something to moan about, but like most North East
people, he would see how the city has changed architecturally and culturally.
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"He would be proud, particularly when talking to
southerners."
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And Bob's real-life persona, Rodney Bewes, adds: "Tyneside
has changed. Even if the images linger, I believe the show did the region
the power of good. It gives Newcastle a pride.
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"When you see the bridges now, the art galleries,
caf茅 bars and social life, it's progressed a lot and I hope we
have, a little bit."
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Notes to Editors
Inside Out is broadcast on 成人论坛 ONE in the North East & Cumbria and
across the UK on digital satellite channel 945.
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Please credit 成人论坛 ONE's Inside
Out if any of this story is published. Pictures are available by contacting
成人论坛 North East & Cumbria Press Office.
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