The Likely Lads

The Likely Lads (1976)

Emotion blazes across the big screen as Bob and Terry knock down the frontiers of human knowledge and Newcastle ale.

With the destruction of their previous neighbourhood has inevitably come the destruction of the lads’ favoured watering hole The Fat Ox. Again, it’s Bob rather than Terry who is visibly distressed by this. Upset and much the worse for free alcohol, Bob then storms into the library to seek sympathy from Thelma - who is, predictably, unimpressed. So when Thelma finds out that Terry has been getting semi-serious with glamorous Finnish shop assistant Chris, she takes it upon herself to try and pair them off for good via planning first a dinner party and then that mainstay of 70s comedy, a camping expedition. Of course, things don’t go quite according to plan and before you can say ‘I can see the way this is going’ we are set up for japes, larks and embarrassing incidents aplenty, which culminate in the lads getting rather fed up with their partners’ attempts to inflict the rugged outdoor lifestyle upon them and trying to hitch up and drive off with the girls still asleep in the caravan.

Date of release
1976-02-01
TMDB
6.3 / 10 (20)
Runtime
1h 30m
Genres
Comedy
Director
Michael Tuchner

Casting

Interesting facts

The Likely Lads is a 1976 British comedy film directed by Michael Tuchner, starring James Bolam and Rodney Bewes. It is a spin-off from Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, although it has the same title as the earlier 1960s British television series The Likely Lads, of which Whatever was the sequel.

Production

The film had been planned even before Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?.

The film was greenlit by Nat Cohen of EMI Films. Cohen had enjoyed a deal of success making films of popular British TV series. EMI had an arrangement with Thames Television. It was announced in 1975 as part of a slate of films worth £6 million including adaptations of The Likely Lads and The Sweeney plus Aces High, Spanish Fly and Evil Under the Sun. Bewes claimed that Cohen called him to announce that finance was in place for a film version.

Clement and La Frenais had to remain in the United States during filming and so were unable to visit the set. They said there were extensive rewrites on the insistence of James Bolam.

The film was made at EMI's Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire and on location on Tyneside, in and around Newcastle and Whitley Bay. Locations used include the Spanish City funfair at Whitley Bay, the Beehive public house, the Coast Road (A1058) flats and Tynemouth Pier.

Terry's fictional employer, "Extralite" washing powder, was filmed at Greggs Christon Road Dept in Gosforth

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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