Rodney Bewes

Whatever happened to Rodney Bewes?

His hair fell out and his face went red

Don't look too good does he?!!

That he don't

The Likely Lads were good - whatever happened to them?

Likely lads were average imo

The Likely Lads was clearly the greatest sitcom ever made.

very good but ever decreasing circles best over here and cheers just different class over the water

He is 74 but looks 10 years older sadly

Well documented that he and James Bolam despised each other towards the latter stages of their career together.

Only caught a glimpse. Other half was watching it.
He did look very poorly

I don't think he looks all that bad for 74, I think living with Thelma and chasing so much spare for 40 years would take it's toll on any man.

She was a nag, no wonder he looks like he did. Oddie was on the verge of a mental and some of those has-beens didn't even get a caption telling you who they were because no one can remember

No wonder he looks like he does

Article from the Independent 2010

They were the best of friends – on screen at least. But now a feud that has simmered between the estranged stars of the BBC sitcom The Likely Lads for almost 35 years has erupted. Rodney Bewes, who played Bob Ferris in the series, has accused his former co-star James Bolam of condemning fellow cast members to poverty through his refusal to grant permission for the series to be repeated on network television.

"Jimmy Bolam's killed it, which is such a pity," he said: "I'm very poor so I have to tour one-man shows because Jimmy has buried The Likely Lads. You have to sign a waiver for them to repeat it and he stopped it while he did New Tricks. Well, New Tricks has been on so long, and is so repeated, that he must be very wealthy; me, I've just got an overdraft and a mortgage."

Bewes added: "He should let it be repeated on BBC2 or BBC1; to stop other people earning money is cruel."

Watched by some 27 million people – half the population of Britain at the time – the 1960s sitcom made the pair household names, giving them a level of success they have not matched since. Written by **** Clement and Ian La Frenais, The Likely Lads was about two best mates from the North-east. It spawned a second series in the 1970s and even a feature film. But its stars have not spoken since they made the film in 1976.

It was not always that way, according to Bewes: "We were great friends. When my babies were born, his was the first house I went to. I had a daughter first, Daisy, and then we had three boys who were triplets."

When asked why the pair haven't spoken since 1976, he said: "It's this actor's ego thing: he thinks he is important. Actors aren't important. I'm not important; I have fun. I think Jimmy takes himself very seriously as an 'actor'."

Bolam did not respond to requests to comment on his former colleague's remarks. However, in an interview to promote a children's TV series called Grandpa in My Pocket, he said: "It's irksome that people like you bang on about it as if it's the only thing I've ever done in my life.... When the series is over it's over and you move on to other things. You see, because one played great friends it doesn't mean that you are great friends."

What happened next?

James Bolam went from playing Terry Collier to a series of top TV roles, from When the Boat Comes In to New Tricks. He is an MBE.

Sheila Fearn played Terry's sister, Audrey. Also in George and Mildred, Sorry! on TV and Terry Gilliam's film Time Bandits.

Rodney Bewes had his own sitcom Dear Mother... Love Albert. Now, 72, he still takes his acclaimed one-man shows on tour.

Brigit Forsyth played Bob's wife, Thelma. TV roles span Boon and The Bill to Dr Who and Calendar Girls on stage. She is 69.

Have they made up now? Is show not being shown on Sky nowadays? I thought I saw it listed last week, but perhaps not?

I thought they fell out over Bewes letting something slip about Bolam to the press and that he's never forgiven him for it. Sounds pretty pitiful almost pleading to let Likely Lads be shown. Actors are a funny lot. I remember reading how Martin Shaw wouldn't let Professionals be shown (probably because he's justifiably ashamed of it) but relented only when it was pointed out that Gordon Jackson's widow was very hard up.

makes himself sound like he's one step from the dole queue, he was in a row over his cat being hurt by the fencing at friar park, houses round there probably cost 25+ years of a normal working mans salary

The other difference is that James Bolam is one of our best television actors and Rodney Bewes is a ham who got a lucky break and could not follow it up.

I've no idea the details of the long standing feud but Bolam always comes accross as an obnoxious pompous turd who thinks of himself as the De Niro of tv.So he played a comedy geordie then a serious one then has a long run in the "incontinence" prime timer New Tricks hardly makes him Olivier does it?

Sure he's had a long and v well employed career but very closely resembles another self important pompous odious luvvie Martin Shaw (who as mentioned above) deprived the whole cast and crew of repeat fees as "he'd moved on to more serious work"

Both a couple of one dimensional hams imo

btw Bewes looked ok for 74 surely?

Jack Nicholson same age,  Rodney looked quite frail imo

http://images.zap2it.com/images/celeb-1257/jack-nicholson-2.jpg

In fairness pumpers,Bewes was never exactly a match for Jack in his prime,ceratinly not in the god given biological stakes anyway

lol your not wrong

Bewes is the sort of baby-faced man who would kill you with miniscule doses of rat poison over a period of years, same as the rarely mentioned Hywel Bennet imo. Evil cherubic cowards, polar opposites of raging testosterone thunderstorms like Worral-Thompson.

Wise words Ken

Wise words of "Plato-esque" philosophy by Masters,and who can argue with his synopsis of the beast that is AWT,one former lover described the aftermath of an ATW love making session as "like being savaged of a winged serpent"

*by

Bewes will make no friends on chit-chat with his "it's so unfair" routine

It's the colossal fk up that will haunt him to his grave imvhaho.

Bewes being wheeled out after swallowing a dodgy oyster on Masterchef

Bewes is the sort of baby-faced man who would kill you with miniscule doses of rat poison over a period of years, same as the rarely mentioned Hywel Bennet imo. Evil cherubic cowards, polar opposites of raging testosterone thunderstorms like Worral-Thompson.


If chit-chat was a stone tablet hewn from the rock of a mountain in a land that was soaked in the blood of peoples from 1000's of years and destined to remain in turmoil until the appearance of amysterious man from the east then this should be the writing thereon.

BonVivvy, that bloke still looks like the 'forgotten and not-mentioned at family parties' brother of the farmer off countryfile.

Two luvvies have a tiff........move along, nothin' to see here.

Wouldn't surprise me if Bewes is on here before long blaming Basil Brush for blacklisting him from children's TV.

As an ageing and bitter Brush commented to Yentob in a recent BBC2 tribute: "With what was going on under that table, it was hard to tell which of us was the glove puppet. Er, boom, feckin boom."

Brush could have destroyed Bewes career like he did Mr Derek. He had some big bbc bigwigs in his cape pocket

Brush was a fearsome partner for any luvvie to risk their career for,look at poor Mr Roy,only ever gig he got after Brushs sidekick was playing Ronald Macdonald ffs! While Mr Dereck eeeked out a living as the acne scarred desk sergant making cups of tea for Nick Berry to make ends meet.
I think "Mr Billy" ended up homeless doing favours for sailors.

If only Mr Rodney had known of the curse.

for fox sake!

Brush certainly took no prisoners.

There was the infamous incident in the BBC bar when he threatened to glass Ed 'Stewpot' Stewart for "stepping on my lines once too ****ing often, you floppy haired ****".

David 'Diddy' Hamilton stepped in as peacemaker, only to have Brush attempt to choke him with his own wig, until Bewes hauled the enraged fox off.

Brush was the wild man of the BBC Green Room

His legendary boozy, brawling benders with the likes of Reed, Marvin, Harris (Richard & Keith) are still told to this day by those who have been there 30 years or more ( Lenny Henry and Michael Fish)

That Allo Allo bird on masterchef would still get it

How about a comic relief pensioner boxing match Rodney'Bruiser'Bewes v James'Figgis'Bolam.I reckon Bewes would put grandpa in his pocket.

Bolam would end up in hospital... where he'd be attended to by Victor Meldrew for years.

I wondered what the fuss was about until I saw it last night,he does look frail. Looked a bit like a Dalek out of the shell.

Have to agree with the Crisp about the Allo Allo lady.

"Looked a bit like a Dalek out of the shell"

RoyClaytonsTash
09 Mar 12 10:12 Joined: 07 Feb 09 | Topic/replies: 7,523 | Blogger: RoyClaytonsTash's blog
How about a comic relief pensioner boxing match Rodney'Bruiser'Bewes v James'Figgis'Bolam.I reckon Bewes would put grandpa in his pocket.

I reckon Bolam would HUMILIATE dough boy Bewes with his fancy footwork and ready wit. Before the end of the fight Bolam would be taunting the famously touchy Bewes with a chorus of "Dance for the Daddy my little laddie" whilst prodding Rodney's paunch with an occasional stiff jab

ttt

What a relief! When I saw the words 'Rodney Bewes' as a topic, I feared the worst.

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads is one of the greatest comedies of all time. I even put "Happy birthday, Terry Collier - 69 today!" as my Facebook status on February 28 (he was actually born on February 29, 1944, but that's good enough for me).

Robert Scarborough Ferris was his full name.

Bolam was pretty good in The Beiderbecke Affair

strange that he was in very successful programmes but his career seems to have ended in 1980

England flooded out

Sica - it was Robert Andrew Scarborough Ferris

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP_mxRdtLT8

I watched an episode a couple of days ago. This scene from that episode (especially the wine-tasting) is fantastic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDSnlBXLFXI

I stand corrected ! lol was the pub called The Fat Ox?

The Fat Ox was one of the main ones. But there was also the Black Horse, the Drift Inn and the Wheatsheaf (and probably others).

I'm 36 years old and it's my go-to TV programme when I want to have a laugh. It's so well written (the first episode of the first series of Whatever Happened... is written so tightly, it's untrue).

I want to see Bewes at one of his one-man shows. Without wishing to sound so sad and slightly drunk, I'd quite like to shake his hand and thank him for his part in one of my favourite TV programmes of all time.

Is Bewes still married to Rusty Lee the chef ?

Likely Lads film just starting on ITV3