The Likely Lads
The Likely Lads is a British sitcom created and written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and produced by Dick Clement. Twenty episodes were broadcast by the BBC, in three series, between 16 December 1964 and 23 July 1966. However, only ten of these episodes have survived. Although it was never actually confirmed on screen, the sitcom was generally assumed to be set in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England.
This show was followed by a sequel series, in colour, entitled Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, broadcast between 9 January 1973 and 24 December 1974. This was followed in 1976 by a spin-off feature film The Likely Lads.
Some episodes of both the original black and white series and the colour sequel were adapted for BBC radio with the original television cast.
Premise
The original show followed the friendship of two young working class men, Terry Collier and Bob Ferris, in Newcastle upon Tyne in the mid-1960s. Bob and Terry are assumed to be in their early 20s.After growing up at school and in the Scouts together, Bob and Terry are working in the same factory, Ellison's Electrical, alongside the older, wiser duo of Cloughie and Jack. The show's humour derived largely from the tensions between Terry's cynical, everyman, working class personality and Bob's ambition to better himself and move to the middle class.
Bob and Terry were two average working class lads growing up in the industrial North East, whose hobbies were beer, football and girls. They were street-wise, yet they stumbled into one scrape after another as they struggled to enjoy the Swinging Sixties on their meagre incomes.
At the end of the third and final series in 1966, a depressed and bored Bob attempted to join the Army but was rejected because of his flat feet. Terry, who decided at the last minute to enlist to keep Bob company, was accepted and shipped away for three years.
It was gradually revealed that Terry and Bob's full names were Terence Daniel Collier and Robert Andrew Scarborough Ferris. According to the later feature film, made in 1976, both Lads were conceived during the same wartime air raid and were thus born in the same year, 1944.
Although in the colour sequel much was made of Thelma, who was said to have been Bob's childhood sweetheart, she appeared only once in the original show, in which Bob had no steady girlfriend and was forever seeking one, though she was mentioned in some episodes in series three, including "Rocker" and "Goodbye to All That".
Etymology
The word "likely" in the show's title is somewhat ambiguous. In some dialects in Northern England it means "likeable" but it may be derived from the phrase the man most likely to, a boxing expression in common use on Tyneside, hence, in Geordie slang, "a likely lad". Another possible meaning is the ambiguous Northern usage of "likely" to mean a small-time troublemaker.Cast
- James Bolam as Terry Collier
- Rodney Bewes as Bob Ferris
- Brigit Forsyth as Thelma Chambers
- Sheila Fearn as Audrey Collier, Terry's older sister
- Bartlett Mullins as Mr "Cloughie" Clough, a workmate
- Don McKillop as Jack, another workmate
- Olive Milbourne as Mrs Edith Collier, Terry and Audrey's mother
- Alex McDonald as Mr Cyril Collier, Terry and Audrey's dad
- Richard Moore as Blakey
Episodes
Only ten episodes survive in the BBC's archives, as a result of its wiping policy of the time. However, the BBC Archive Treasure Hunt, a public campaign, continues to search for missing episodes. Of the ten remaining lost episodes, only 'Brief Encounter' and 'The Razor's Edge' were not recorded as part of the radio adaptation series.Series 1 (1964–65)
Series 2 (1965)
Series 3 (1966)
Surviving episodes
| Series | Episode No. | Surviving Episodes | Broadcast | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | Entente Cordiale | 16/12/64 | |
| 1 | 2 | Double Date | 23/12/64 | |
| 1 | 3 | Older Women Are More Experienced | 30/12/64 | |
| 1 | 4 | The Other Side of the Fence | 06/01/65 | |
| 1 | 6 | The Suitor | 20/01/65 | |
| 2 | 2 | A Star is Born | 23/06/65 | Previously lost, found in 2018 |
| 2 | 4 | The Last of the Big Spenders | 07/07/65 | Previously lost, found in 2001 |
| 2 | 5 | Faraway Places | 14/07/65 | Previously lost, found in 2018 |
| 3 | 3 | Rocker | 18/06/66 | |
| 3 | 8 | Goodbye to All That | 23/07/66 |
Lost episodes
| Series | Episode No. | Lost Episodes | Broadcast | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Chance of a Lifetime | 13/01/65 | |
| 2 | 1 | Baby, It’s Cold Outside | 16/06/65 | |
| 2 | 3 | The Talk of the Town | 30/06/65 | |
| 2 | 6 | Where Have All the Flowers Gone? | 21/07/65 | |
| 3 | 1 | Outward Bound | 04/06/66 | |
| 3 | 2 | Friends and Neighbours | 11/06/66 | |
| 3 | 4 | Brief Encounter | 25/06/66 | |
| 3 | 5 | The Razor’s Edge | 02/07/66 | |
| 3 | 6 | Anchors Aweigh | 09/07/66 | |
| 3 | 7 | Love and Marriage | 16/07/66 |
''Christmas Night with the Stars''
Additionally, an eight-minute episode of The Likely Lads was broadcast on 25 December 1964, as part of a 90-minute Christmas Day special on BBC 1 called Christmas Night with the Stars 7:15 p.m. to 8:45 p.m., in which Bob and Terry have an argument over Bob's encyclopaedic knowledge of "Rupert the Bear" Annuals. This recording still exists in the BBC Broadcast Archive. An edited version, which included 'The Likely Lads' sketch, was screened on BBC2 over Christmas 1991.Radio adaptations
Sixteen of the television scripts were adapted for radio by James Bolam, and broadcast in two series during 1967 and 1968.Produced by John Browell, the radio adaptations were recorded at the Paris Studios in Lower Regent Street, London using the original television cast.