I’m only ever remembered for one thing ... at least I’m remembered for something
LIKELY LADS LEGEND RODNEY DIES AT 79 - RODNEY BEWES ON HIS CAREER
LIKELY Lads legend Rodney Bewes died yesterday, aged 79.
The actor had a career spanning six decades but was best-known for playing Bob Ferris in the classic sitcom.
He saw the show’s appeal as a doubleedged sword, once joking: “Actually it is the only thing I am remembered for. But at least I’m remembered for something.”
After early success, his later life was tinged with regret following a rift with his co-star James Bolam as their careers went in opposite directions.
In the show, Bob was the aspirational lad, full of optimism, but the hit shows seemed to dry up for Bewes as Bolam, who played chippy sponger Terry Collier, flourished in a string of TV successes.
But his private life was a happy one, he said, often speaking fondly of his wife and four children.
Confirming Bewes’ death, his agent Michelle Braidman said the actor – who would have turned 80 this week – was a “true one-off ”. She said: “It is with great sadness we confirm the much loved actor Rodney Bewes passed away this morning.
“We will miss his charm and ready wit.”
Leading tributes, I’m A Celeb presenters Ant and Dec said: “We are very sad to hear of the passing of Rodney Bewes, a fine comic actor who we had the honour of working with. He will live on through Bob Ferris and the brilliant Likely Lads.”
Comedian Jack Dee added: “RIP Rodney Bewes. Likely Lads one of THE great sitcoms.”
BANTER
Bewes became a huge star in the 60s and 70s as Bob in The Likely Lads and its sequel, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? And, with Bolam’s Terry, he formed one of TV’s most memorable and enduring double acts.
The sitcom, set in Newcastle, drew audiences of 27 million at its peak.
His success was something Bewes, a real-life working-class likely lad, could never have dreamed of as a boy growing up in Bingley, Yorkshire. His father Horace was a clerk with the electricity board and his mum, Bessie, a teacher for mentally handicapped children.
But Bewes, who moved with the family from Bingley to Luton aged six, barely went to school before the age of 12. Crippling asthma meant his mum kept him at home and taught him there.
He loved books and after seeing an advert asking for child performers for Children’s Hour he wrote to the BBC and won a role at 14. Two years of national service followed but that success eventually led to a place at RADA – although he never really fitted in.
He did not like the “posh kids” and had to work nights washing up in the Grosvenor House hotel kitchens to pay for lessons. Later, he recalled Prince Philip being snuck out the back exit one night.
“As he went by, he said, ‘All right?’ I thought, ‘No, it’s not all right’, he once joked. “I’m not a washer-up, I’m an actor, the next Laurence Olivier. Years later, I
sat next to him at a banquet and told him all this. He roared with laughter. People asked what he’d found so funny. I said, ‘We were talking about washing up’.
So tired from work he fell asleep in lessons, he was expelled.”
But opportunity came knocking. He appeared in Dixon of Dock Green and Z Cars, and in 1963 won a role in best pal Tom Courtenay’s Billy Liar. In 1964, he landed The Likely Lads and from then until 1976, he said he remembered the series as “one big party”. He was even Basil Brush’s co-star Mr Rodney in 1968.
He admitted being a ladies’ man in those days, saying: “Young, posh drama students from Chelsea used to say, ‘You’re so young to have done all you’ve done!’ I was something different for them.”
Bewes had a brief marriage to Nina Tebbit, saying: “I was too busy being a household name to see much of her.” His second wife, Daphne, was the love of his life. They wed in 1973 and were together until her death in 2015.
They had daughter Daisy in 1973, then triplets Tom, Billy and Joe in 1976 – a bit of a shock as they were expecting twins.
Meanwhile, the Likely Lads dominated his career. But Bewes, unlike co-star Bolam, always said he never minded. “People still stop me to discuss The Likely Lads,” he said. “Some even ask me whether I mind talking about it after all these years. If I minded, I’d deserve a swift kick because it was a great show and provided my 15 minutes of fame.”
Fifteen years ago, he and Bolam starred in a remake of the most famous Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads episode, No Hiding Place, where Terry and Bob try to avoid learning the result of an England match.
ANGRY
But while they were always buddies on screen, their friendship fell apart after a remark from Bewes he always regretted. In a 1976 interview he told what he thought was a harmless anecdote about Bolam and his wife having a baby. He realised fiercely private Bolam, now 82, would not be happy and rang to apologise. But he put the phone down and, Bewes said, never spoke to him again – even when Daphne died. He told the Mirror in one of his last chats: “I’d love to be friends with him but he doesn’t want to be. I can’t be like Jimmy, I can’t be that angry.” By the 80s his TV career was virtually over. He admitted seeing a counsellor for low self-esteem, saying: “I had a session of talking about myself. At the end I felt like a used sock. I hated it.” Bewes sold his Bentley to pay the kids’ school fees and came close to broke. The 90s were mostly spent doing one-man versions of Three Men in a Boat and Diary of a Nobody. But the star, who lived in Henley-on-Thames, did not care about success. “I have such a lovely life,” he once said. “I keep busy. I have Daf, my four kids, my two houses, my boats and the river. I have fun. Success doesn’t matter too much when you’re as happy as I am.”