Whitley Bay Film Festival: The Likely Lads (1976) 40th Anniversary screening (cert PG)
THE LIKELY LADS introduced by Film and Music historian Chris Phipps
“In the chocolate box of life the top layer's already gone. And someone's pinched the orange creme from the bottom”
It’s been 40 years since Bob Ferris & Terry Collier first hit the silver screen and how fitting that the feature film spin off from the highly successful television series about two Geordie mates should be shown in “The Bay” on its anniversary. Penned by festival patron Ian La Frenais with his writing partner Dick Clements and filmed around Newcastle, the coast and specifically Whitley Bay, the movie version has all the trademark sharp wit and pathos of the small screen situation comedy and was the last time the British public got to see Rodney Bewes and James Bolam’s highly successful comedy partnership. The film follows the further misadventures of Terry Collier and Bob Ferris. The old friends are once again reunited. After a calamitous caravanning holiday in Northumberland, the pair end up stranded in Whitley bay for an evening. What could possibly go wrong?