The Likely Lads

What 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!

A 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

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.

I 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 !!!

Although 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.