Putting aside the fact that this film is dissimilar in many ways to the great TV sitcom 'Whatever happened to...', this is my favourite TV sitcom spin-off. There's not really enough plot to fill the time and it is very episodic, and it is a little cruder than the TV version too. However, we still have Bob unsure about being tied down to Thelma and a dull suburban life and of course we still have lifelong friend Terry who is rather common but has a much more free existence and does many things that Bob now feels unable to. I think my liking for the film is down to personal reasons - I was a young man in 1976, about to get married and lived the 1970's life, much more open and less regulated than we are now. Gosh, I even drove a Chevette at the time! When I see the Lads out together, knocking about the countryside or in the pub I get all misty, and I think it must be this nostalgia that makes me love this film so much. The keyboard/synth music is pretty cheesy, but it suits the film and its period so well. Next time you see this film, forget the (better) TV series and enjoy it for what it is.
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g-hbe27 February 2015
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A big screen outing for likely lads Rodney Bewes and James Bolam, it's a spin off from the popular TV shows that the two made in the 60's and 70's. It's directed by Michael Tuchner and written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.
Plot sees lifelong friends Bob Ferris (Bewes) and Terry Collier (Bolam) finding that times are a changing very fast. When the street where they grew up starts to be demolished, the pair feel the pangs of nostalgia more than most, even bringing the onset of a sort of mid-life crisis. Bob has to face life in the normality of a marriage to the no nonsense Thelma (Brigit Forsyth), and Terry, recently divorced, takes on a new girlfriend whilst firmly ensconced at his parents high rise flat. When Thelma sees that Terry, once the bane of her relationship with Bob, is going steady and happy with Christina (Mary Tamm), she plans a caravan holiday for the four of them .Which surely will not go as planned?
Although taking the title of the first show that ran on British TV between 1964 and 1966, this film spin off is closer in tone to the sequel show, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? During the 70's, Britain was awash with situation comedies, many of which had the obligatory film spin off. Sadly, very few of them were any good, bogged down by trying to extend a half hour comedy formula into three times the running time. The Likely Lads movie is one of the rare successes, mainly because the writers were so in tune with the times, they were able to plant the much loved characters in the 70's time frame and involve the comedy as such. Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? Always carried an air of melancholy about it, but the comedy was still rich and prominent, so it be with this film version.
Bewes and Bolam were an excellent partnership, where Bob is a snob in waiting, borderline henpecked one at that, Terry is the slob, the boozy cynic always dragging Bob back to reality. But their bond is born from the days of hard drinking and chasing women, they hanker for those days again, it's almost as if they refuse to accept they are getting a bit too long in the tooth for such antics now. Here in the film, Clement and La Frenais play on this with much reward, you see, the modern world has not just caught them up, it's also winning the race between them. The answer is simple, take a holiday. But of course this too will be one for the miserablists to bemoan, it's a classic British holiday, small caravan, pouring rain, chance of nooky? Zero. Chance of great comedy? Very high.
The plot doesn't in truth quite cover the 90 minute run time, but there's enough here to warrant it being called one of the better film spin offs from the 70's. Great acting, not just the boys, Forsyth always a revelation, and writing as crisp as a winters day. God bless those Geordie boys. 8/10 -
whatsupboys13 May 2006Although the film is or was 1976,(released?) would anyone know if it was filmed in that year, as sometimes the actual filming of movies takes place the year before?,it was a great film in my view, and summed up the era very well,its amazing that is about thirty years since its making,i think it was also the best thing they did, as the TV series of them seemed to get in to a bit of a rut, i wonder what other people think,was the rumour true that the pair never spoke to each other off screen and generally hated each other!i see Rodney was on TV the other day looking very much older, any info about the filming would be a great help, thanks, Geoff.
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heedarmy20 January 2000Based on a popular UK comedy series, this film concerns two men, former schoolboy friends now approaching middle age, living in the industrial North-East of England. One has "got on" and runs a small building firm, the other is a dissolute drifter. Though often extremely funny, the film, shot in wintry North-East landscapes, also conveys a sense of wasted lives and unfulfilled hopes.
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StephenPSmith10 December 2014It's always tough job to make a half hour show into feature film length and this title loses something of the TV series where there is audience laughter to keep the mood jolly c.f. slipping into the actual mood of the characters.
Any sexually frustrated young man will emphasise with the plot and as a viewer I did feel a twinge of sadness as opposed to the out and out humour of the original TV series. The 'send up' of the characters of the TV series became empathy with the characters themselves.
In places the plot feels a little like a series of subplots that the writers then weaved a story through. Some great lines though.
A good film adaptation of a sitcom. -
smeet-299-5664526 December 2017A great fun movie capturing the characters we all know an love. The serious Bob and the fun loving and fancy free Terry, both bouncing off one and other perfectly. A great feeling of nostalgia ensues with the changing landscape of North and the idea that things will never be the same again - with Bob still trying to adjust to married life and Terry with yet another girlfriend - the four take a caravan trip together full of hapless adventure. Highly enjoyable
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anne-bolger4 September 2006These 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. -
rogertaylor194719 September 2017An uneven though interesting film still watchable for the most part with sharply observed dialogue especially between the two protagonists contrasting with occasional bouts of Carry On voyeuristic titillation & Whitehall farce humour & oddly misappropriate parachuting of crude language all of which I found excruciatingly embarrassing in 2017 (though wonder if I would have done in 1976).
Carry on films despite the crudity can still produce good one-liners (Infamy Infamy they've all got in in for me) and this one has a brilliant one delivered most amazingly by Thelma Bob's wife the most "respectable" character in the film but to be worth a review the film does have a life at the crossroads where do we go from here in a vastly changed world from our youth feel that makes it interesting and is sustained despite slipping into cul-de-sacs of crudity both visual and verbal at times which spoil the film.
I was quite amazed at something else I saw in this film which would never be allowed these days and that is the car pulling the caravan for the winter wonderland holiday (was it a deliberate decision to shoot the film in winter or did it just happen to be convenient/necessary at that time) had no wing mirrors and yet the characters were shown on the open highway driving a car from the block of flats where Terry Collier and his girl friend lived over the Tyne bridge onto duel carriageways and into the countryside.
The most poignant scene in the film is the drinking session the two Likely Lads characters have near the end of the film before Terry's departure on board a ship he had signed up to sail in which reflected well each of the personalities depth or lack of it with Bob searching his soul for a meaning to his life which he hadn't found (nor ever will) quoting from the John Masefield poem "Cargoes"
Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack, then Bob goes on
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
recalling school days of "recitation" where pupils had to recite chunks of poetry (which needless to say Terry doesn't relate to or remember) though strangely considering the location no further quote
With a cargo of Tyne coal, Road-rails, pig-lead, Firewood, iron- ware, and cheap tin trays.
Trying to find meaning to his life which Middle-Class respectability had not brought to it and trying to find orientation whilst the physical fabric of his childhood and youth was physically being destroyed from the graphic shots earlier in the film of districts of their old neighbourhood being destroyed.
Terry as ever non reflective but a survivor on his wits very much the live for today as yesterday has gone and you can do nothing about it and tomorrow will bring pretty much what yesterday brought so live with it. Terry isn't a rebel but sees himself as a realist in a world which only gives what you can make out of it which isn't in his working class case amounting to very much so make what you can of what you have and take pleasure where you can find it which in his case is very much booze and women. In the case of women he will always be adrift like Bob attempting to find meaning beyond respectability in that his short term selfishness will always eventually trump the restraint required to keep a long term relationship alive and always worth saving (like Bob's with Thelma)
The characters were both supposed to be born in 1941 though I see that James Bolam was born June 1935 and Rodney Bewes in Nov 1937 so both were supposed to be 34/35 when this film was made in 1975/6 which for Bolam was stretching it a bit though as no one said very much at the time he could obviously carry it off back then. -
voyageruk17 March 2006What a brilliantly funny film,sharp script,great acting and a glimpse of north england in the mid 70's.Its up there with other TV spin-off movies like On the buses trilogy,Steptoe and Son,Are you being served and of course Porridge. Funny Moments- The Trip to Northumbria in Thelma's dads caravan being towed by a Vauxhalle Chevette,Bob getting stuck up a chimney trying to retrieve a football,and of course Thelma and Chris getting out of the caravan at the traffic lights unaware they have driven miles and terry and bob have picked up a pair of stunning female hitchhikers! Nostalgia moment-Tesco in the 70's,and cooking bacon in a frying pan with a fag hanging out of your mouth! All in all I've seen this film 2 times since Christmas,the 1st time was at Christmas on BBC1 and loved every minute of it and wished i had recorded it.2nd time was yesterday on DVD given away free with a national newspaper,i couldn't believe it when they advertised the 6 films they were giving away this week.I got Are you being served? the movie too but thats another review!
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son_of_cheese_messiah25 March 2013Whatever happened to the Likely Lads is one of the best remembered British sit-coms of the 70s delighting in strong characterization between two friends, one a somewhat nostalgic but still feral working class man Terry, the other a domesticated and married aspiring middle class man, Bob. Alas, this dynamic is all but abandoned for this spin-off, one of the poorest of the 70s. The spin-off genre itself is notoriously bad, but there really was no excuse for this. The writing duo had 'taken advantage' of the cinematic version to insert crudities which would never have been allowed on TV. So many punch lines end with "I couldn't give a s**t" or "b*****cks", yes the script really is this witty, Elsewhere the usual interplay between Bob and Terry is allowed to flourish only infrequently, crammed into a plot which forces them both to act out of character through out. One really wonders what the writers were thinking of.
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glenn-aylett7 June 2011An interesting film to watch if you feel nostalgic for Tyneside locations that have now gone. The flat where Terry lives in Howdon was part of an ambitious high rise scheme that was built in 1961 but by the eighties had become run down,vandalised and prone to lift failures and damp on the higher floors. By the early nineties these three blocks of flats which were a landmark from the Coast Road had been demolished as they had become unpopular with tenants. Maybe Terry, who was so keen to move out of the old terraces to the new world of high rise living, would have been the first on the list for a transfer. Also seen near the end is the Spanish City fun fair. This was once a very popular attraction for families and teenagers until foreign holidays and computer games took over and attendances went into decline. Eventually the fair was closed down in 1999 and turned into housing, although the Dome remains as this is a listed building. Also look out for things you never see now such as Bob's Vauxhall Chevette, once a popular small car in the seventies, yellow buses( I think they're all Stagecoach now) and, of course, flares, kipper ties and men with long hair.
As a sitcom spin off, one of the best, but not quite as good as the television series as predictably it involved a holiday that goes wrong( typical of the genre) and would have been made better with the presence of Bill Owen as Thelma's dad and wisecracking Podge Rowley. However, Lads still makes me laugh as the characterisations stay true to the television series and the melancholy humour that was present in the sitcom is even stronger on here, with the lads harking back to the past ansd the miserable weather making the humour more bitter. Also Terry seems to have mellowed during the film, the aggressive politicised character from the sitcom has seemed to have settled down with a job as a sales executive( in reality selling washing powder from a van), but true to form he loses his job during the film.
The Likely Lads isn't a comedy great, like all sitcom spin offs it has its slow bits, but this is more than made up for by the top quality acting by James Bolam and Rodney Bewes and some hilarious scenes such as Bob and Terry's visit to a guesthouse and the end scene where Bob ends up on a tanker going to Bahrain. -
Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads? is a classic TV series. I bought this film as it is the equivalent of three further episodes as well as being Terry and Bob's final appearance. Unfortunately, it doesn't work quite so well as any of the TV episodes. A lot of the jokes are recycled from the series (and writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais' other works) and the story feels a bit directionless.
Personally, I think Clement and La Frenais learnt a lot from this picture though. A few years later they made probably the best ever TV sitcom to movie transfer with the Porridge film- which actually has an effective plot to provide it's humour. The Likely Lads film is interesting to see what finally became of the lads. There are some great moments- Terry announcing "The end is nigh, Ferris!" and "Not my fault" on the megaphone, Bob and Thelma's last very public row, Terry getting hit by the vase thrown from his flat window and the cinema format allowed more classic comedy swearing than the BBC would have.
As I say though, the whole thing just seems kind of forced and aimless. But it's still worth seeing for completists and- like all of the writers' work- is valuable as a great document of British social history. Interestingly, they again end with someone leaving the country for an uncertain future- just as in the original '60's Likely Lads series, the first ending of Auf Wiedersehen Pet and the ending of the recent Auf Pet revival. For the best of Terry Collier and Bob Ferris though, get the "Whatever Happened To" series on DVD. -
jeffscrivener-8119323 July 2019I thoroughly concur with all the positive reviews of the film , however my main love is the very evocative background music ? where oh where can this be obtained , was there ever an album release at the time ? plenty of other mid-seventies series/films had the music available . To obtain the music from the film is the holy grail for me !!!
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brexitstageleft3 August 2020It's all too easy to get lost in the trend for sitcom films that ran through the 70's and 80's in the UK. But The Likely Lads will always stand out to me, as the finest example of it's type. Its cheerful 70's sitcom trappings hide a wonderfully written journey that captures that moment everybody goes through in life. When we question our entire existence. Then realise the only sensible solution is to put a frozen lasagne in the oven and pour a Newcastle Brown Ale into a dimpled pint glass with a handle.
"In the chocolate box of life, the top layer's already gone. And someone's pinched the orange creme from the bottom." -
Dorothy_North14 April 2020Recently I've watched both seasons of Whatever Happened to Likely Lads followed by this feature film. Although the antics of Bob and Terry did seem to start losing their edge after the first half of S2 (not unusual for long TV series), overall it was a very enjoyable and a refreshing experience. The movie, however, turned out to be a disappointment.
First, the scenario itself was quite weak - it lacked direction, there was no central storyline and as a result, the film didn't have a build-up and a climax - the two things that made the majority of TV episodes work so well.
Secondly the humour was by and large recycled - the jokes, innuendos and the typical Bob/Thelma tug o' war were all just the twitched versions of various TV scenes. And given the movie goes on for longer than a TV episode, watching the same thing over again, coupled with the absence of a coherent plot, made me feel bored halfway through.
Onto the characters. Brigit Forsyth's Thelma got a bigger part to play in the film than she would've had in a typical TV episode. But given that in the show the character was (deliberately) kept one-dimensional, being "your stereotypical suburban wife", the enhancement of her role in the movie just made the scenes more dull and cliched. James Bolam's character, on the other hand, for some reason seemed to have lost a lot of the natural wit and charm that in the past would stir up the setting and enthrall in the viewer. Here we see Terry being somewhat lost both in his love life, as well as in his housing estate.
The film also portrays a great deal of philosophical midlife-crisis-dialogues between the main characters, (reckoning in places where the pub banter would have normally been instead). As for me those scenes not only fail to blend in with the usual light-hearted manner of Bob and Terry's adventures, but also, they contributed little to the storyline, if not distracted from it. Perhaps it was just unexpected, (and hence, quite odd), to observe the "lads" from this angle, not least because the characters have never been developed in that direction in the first place.
Overall, the film felt like an enmeshment of several of the less successful TV episodes and didn't add anything new to the story and the relationship of Bob and Terry as we know it. -
johnhaines20048 April 2006No, this did not transfer to the screen successfully at all. Just like most other sitcoms ( bar the 'Dad's Army' film, which is watchable when there's nowt else to do ), this starts off in the doldrums - and stays there. The trouble with trying to transfer something like 'The Likely Lads' from the small screen to the big one in the first place, is the pseudo-emotional baggage it inevitably brings with it. The series, which was good, has the perceived emotions behind the title, as its hook. 'What's happened to us? Who are we? Remember when?' This can be sustained for thirty minutes, fifty once a year ( the Christmas Special where Terry is a taxi-driver is brilliant ). But, just like Lancashire's worst ( and chuck in Yorkshire for good measure )the Tyne's very own version of 'Ay, Lass, remember when' soaps, comedies and films all fail when it's given a grander suit ( some even fail in their work clothes ). The nostalgia-cum-pathos comes across as sick-making, and if the central characters stare at the clichéd landmarks too much ( ie cobbled streets - Manchester, the Mersey - Liverpool, and the Tyne Bridge on this ), then the whole thing is just too depressing. The honest truth about 'remember when' stories, is, unless you had the busy season of Henley, Wimbledon, Ascot and the Opera to distract you, then you were more likely to be staring at the Tyne with a view to jumping in it, because the reality was/is there were no better days that have gone, just misery. OK, I haven't mentioned the actual plot in this but there's no need. The birds, booze, marital misunderstandings and a sometime interfering friend ( or threat to the ambitious wife ), are all overshadowed by this 'Ee lad, we used to 'ave a grand time, what happened to us?' malarkey. Sorry, but this film is very, very poor and does no justice to the sometime-brilliance of the series.
John Haines -
ygwerin122 August 2020The Likely Lads was one of my absolute favourite comedies from the 1960's, a great change from the usual more middle class shows.
For a change I saw people who were just like me and I have worked with blokes just like them.
The reprise series Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads was well worth the long wait, it was particularly good to catch up with the characters later in their lives.
Both of these shows, remain as all time favourite comedies to this day. I looked forward to the film and I wasn't disappointed, and unlike other TV Comedy Shows converted to films I think it worked.
For me it took the characters out of their comfort zones of the home and possibly work place, and out into the wider community.
It allowed the characters to develop, into fully formed three dimensional human beings.
We get the chance to see them interact with, friends and neighbours in real situations.
I really don't know why a subsequent film wasn't made I wanted to see all of the characters developed more.
To see Bob and Thelma with kids, and Terry baby sitting or trying to get off with the baby sitter.
I really wanted to see more of Terry's sister Audrey's home life and her kids, she talked about them in Whatever Happened but we don't see them. Audrey's kids were barely in the film, only really in a cameo.
Audrey's husband Ernie has turned into a real drunken slob, from the character we first saw dating her in the original show.
I still really fancy Audrey and she deserves much more from a bloke, I would have loved to see her at least tempted to have a fling with someone else. -
Prismark1024 May 2016In the 1970s there it was fashionable to adopt British television sitcoms into feature length films. Dads Army, Man about the House, Are you being served, Steptoe & Son as well as others appeared in the cinemas with varying success.
The Likely Lads is regarded as one of the better film adaptations of a sitcom. I hate to see the worse ones as this one really is pants with actually no story-line.
Terry (James Bolam) is working class, divorced and prone to be a layabout. His childhood friend Bob (Rodney Bewes) is happily married and has middle class aspirations.
Both live in a Newcastle undergoing rapid change in the 1970s which is noted in the titles of the BBC series Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads, the sequel to the original series of the sitcom The Likely Lads.
The plot seems to be Terry has a new Finnish girlfriend and along with Bob and Thelma they go on a caravanning holiday. The duo pick up a few dolly birds, lose their spouses and end up in the doghouse. They stay at a guest-house as they have no homes to go and as you did in the 1970s, Terry chats up the landlady and dull Bob chats up her nubile daughter.
I almost laughed once. It was worth seeing for scenes of the north east in the 1970s which is the only recommendation. -
carthage-126 June 2005This was produced in the days of classic TV - Those Halcion days when television was at its best - The memorable episode was when they were going to watch England V Poland I am sure it was that game and they tried every way not to see the score - The episode went on in this vein and they succeeded - Ot thought they did - The game was postponed and they had gone through so much effort for so little I had a similar experience when England Played Austrailia in the Rugby Union World cup in 2003 - I had to work and I asked all my customers and colleagues not to tell me the score - I did better then they did - I managed to get to 9.15pm and not know the score - I saw it when it was repeated in the evening - But this was classic television
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resistancefitness31 May 2022I watched this as a kid with my family and couldn't wait to watch it with my young family when it was time. Well that time is now and imagine my surprise at the beginning when I realised the bellways new build would be where I raised a family!, so many glorious scenes in this movie, 'I couldn't give a shat' sums up every bloke with kids!. Beautiful locations which absolutely nails it regarding how life has changed in 2022. So glad the dome in whitley bay survived and has had a makeover. Brilliant.
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Terry is not a natural Bridge player.Arguably the funniest line in "The likely lads" is spoken by Thelma his despairing partner when he leaves the caravan and all too audibly begins to urinate against the side. Apart from that it's pretty desperate stuff.Mr James Bolam's lovable Geordie rogue schtick gets a bit wearing and Mr Rodney Bewes irritates no end as the whingeing social aspirant. This is a man with a Vauxhall Cavalier.....need I say more? These two make Ant and Dec seem like Fry and Laurie. Miss Brigid Forsyth plays Bob's wife Thelma , a woman of such thin-lipped ferocity as to render Bill Clinton impotent yet we are asked to believe that her husband,a man with all the charisma of a dried up tin of paint,would try to bed any woman who retains eye contact with him for more than 3 seconds. Miss Mary Tamm plays Christina,Terry's girl-friend who presumably sees behind the surface superficiality to the real superficiality underneath. She looks remarkably like the beautiful and talented Miss Sylvia Sims. Unfortunately that's as far as the resemblance goes. There is a scene where Terry unknowingly gets into bed with Bob,a scene where our heroes run around minus their trousers.So "The likely lads "is clearly aimed at a fairly sophisticated audience . Mr Alun Armstrong plays the milkman and his scenes with Mr James Bolam are thought-provoking for the more philosophical amongst us who see them doing more or less the same double act 30 years down the line in "New Tricks".
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petereed-5500129 May 2022OK it s of it s time and seems very old fashioned now, but just watched it again, probably about sixth viewing, and struck again by the clever dialogue and superb comic acting, not just the leads, briget forsyth is always good, nice simple plot, very believable. Terry and Bob the greatest sit com pair, Britsh comedy at it s best.
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ouzman-116 June 2021I am embarrassed about my review as the "likely Lads" were once my go to kinda comedy.
Time now makes this really dated.
Sure the actors are fine and the scriptwriters do a sound job. Locations and nostalgia abound but can that save the end product? No, not really .
I feel sad that the characters are so miserable, how could the girls ever find them attractive?
It is actually ALL pretty miserable throughout (nothing can save it from a 1/10) I am sad that my past memories expected more from this "comedy."
To watch and listen to the film is frankly appalling. So I want to give this 1/10 but my heart gives the lead characters a break and a bit of tea and sympathy so 4/10.
I feel very sad and old, dated and realise that, for a while, I was found within this grey, dull old vacuum called the 70s. The future is brighter without these guys. ;--)