RIP Rodney Bewes
- Thread starter onyx(John)
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captain clutterbuck
LOTSW Fanatic
While Bolam went onto star in many great productions, Rodney Bewes ended up in relative obscurity, borne out by his "charge sheet" on IMDB . The fallout and grudge held by Bolam has now gone to the grave with Rodney Bewes. They never spoke despite pleas from Rodney Bewes over the years . Bolam is an intensely private man and Rodney Bewes betrayed a confidence , from that point on they never spoke . Despite Bolam gaining his big break from The Likely Lads and Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads he dislikes the work intensely , didn't want it repeated , believed he had achieved far greater levels of acting prowess and that the show was beneath him, all of which shows him as a very arrogant man in my personal opinion . Despite Rodney's career stalling he will always be Bob playing opposite his beloved but long suffering Thelma[absent for TV for some time but Brigit Forsyth is now part of the Still Open All Hours as Mavis's sister] blighted by Terry . A sad loss.
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captain clutterbuck
LOTSW Fanatic
To redress the balance there is an article today showing quotes from James Bolam after he was interviewed post Rodney Bewes death extract below:-
On not speaking for decades:-
“This is what happens in acting,” Bolam told BBC Radio Sussex. “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.”
“I think that Rodney wanted to do some more Likely Lads and I never did, I felt that what we had done was, to me, so perfect and so right that to try and bring it back .After we finished it the writers went on to do Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and then they went off to America and the success of that series lay in the strength of those scripts."
“There was some suggestion that we had other writers come in and I just thought, ‘Well, I don’t think it will work,’ and so I didn’t want to do it. I was busy doing other things.”
Bolam insisted that he had nothing but fond memories of their work together. “I am very sad to hear about Rodney’s passing and my thoughts are with his family,” he said. “What I will always remember is all the happy times we had making the show.”
The only omission is there is no rebuff from Bolam regarding his alleged refusal to sanction the repeats and in so denying Bewes repeat fees . It offers an interesting insight, can we assume that the surviving cast of our beloved show have been approached and agreed to the show being repeated ? Clearly it would imply are happy with their work whereas Bolam wanted to disassociate himself from the show .
I have to say I am confused and sceptical about this claim, how could an actor deny the repeating of a particular series , this is in essence not only lost revenue for the actors but also the writers and the Production company , in this case the BBC . I have watched Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads on Gold, Yesterday and Drama so either Bolam relented or Bewes's assertion is somewhat wide of the mark.
On not speaking for decades:-
“This is what happens in acting,” Bolam told BBC Radio Sussex. “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.”
“I think that Rodney wanted to do some more Likely Lads and I never did, I felt that what we had done was, to me, so perfect and so right that to try and bring it back .After we finished it the writers went on to do Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and then they went off to America and the success of that series lay in the strength of those scripts."
“There was some suggestion that we had other writers come in and I just thought, ‘Well, I don’t think it will work,’ and so I didn’t want to do it. I was busy doing other things.”
Bolam insisted that he had nothing but fond memories of their work together. “I am very sad to hear about Rodney’s passing and my thoughts are with his family,” he said. “What I will always remember is all the happy times we had making the show.”
The only omission is there is no rebuff from Bolam regarding his alleged refusal to sanction the repeats and in so denying Bewes repeat fees . It offers an interesting insight, can we assume that the surviving cast of our beloved show have been approached and agreed to the show being repeated ? Clearly it would imply are happy with their work whereas Bolam wanted to disassociate himself from the show .
I have to say I am confused and sceptical about this claim, how could an actor deny the repeating of a particular series , this is in essence not only lost revenue for the actors but also the writers and the Production company , in this case the BBC . I have watched Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads on Gold, Yesterday and Drama so either Bolam relented or Bewes's assertion is somewhat wide of the mark.
I thought The Likely Lads had been repeated fairly regularly.
There is a danger in over-repeating shows. People tire of them if they are over-exposed.
Would have been great if a follow-up series had been made, only if the high standard was kept up though, something which just isn't guaranteed nowadays.
Sad news about Rodney Bewes. Very under-used actor.