Inside Likely Lads James Bolam and Rodney Bewes ‘feud’ | UK News

Likely Lads stars Rodney Bewes and James Bolam may need starred collectively for many years in the hit comedy show and its spin-off, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads, but in actual life issues had been apparently a lot more tense than they appeared on-screen. Rodney claimed he hadn’t spoken to his co-star in 40 years – leaving followers to marvel just what was going on.

The pair starred collectively in the unique collection from 1964 until 1966, then in its sequel in 1973 and 1974 – as properly as a characteristic movie in 1976. But in 1977, Rodney Bewes spoke about his co-star in an interview with the press in a transfer that would reportedly finish their friendship.

He instructed journalists that James’ spouse Susan Jameson was pregnant at the identical time as his own spouse Daphne, who was having triplets. She reportedly stated: “You know Daphne had three babies at once… Well, I’m just having the one.” Telling her husband in the car, he was so shocked he nearly crashed into a lamp post.

But when the story was printed in the papers, Rodney realised that James – who was intensely non-public – seemingly wouldn’t need it revealed to the world, and immediately phoned him to ask for forgiveness. According to Rodney, James listened silently and then slammed the cellphone down, never talking to him again.

Things went from dangerous to worse. In 2010, Rodney defined that their long-running feud meant James had refused to let repeats of the Likely Lads air, that means he didn’t obtain any money from charges – up to £4,000 an episode.

In his 70s, he was left with a mortgage and an overdraft, which he argued may have been cleared with a single run of the 26 episodes. He argued: “To stop other people earning money is cruel.”

It was only when Rodney died in 2017 that James broke his silence, stating: “There was no fall-out at all, as far as I was concerned. We worked together very happily and very well, enjoyed each other’s company, and when we finished, we finished.

“This is what happens in acting. You work with people, who get to know them, you like them, we have a great time and the job finishes and you go off and it all starts again with other people and you can’t keep contact with everybody that you know.”

He beforehand hinted in an interview: “Just because one played great friends, it doesn’t meant mean that you are great friends.” When followers would shout to him in the road, “Hey Terry, where’s Bob?” he reportedly “snarled” at them: “He’s dead!”