Bolam denies any feud with Bewes

The Likely Lads actor James Bolam has denied any feud with his co-star Rodney Bewes, who has died at the age of 79.

Bolam played lovable sponger Terry Collier opposite Bewes’s Bob Ferris in the 1960s BBC sitcom and its 1970s sequel Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? but the pair did not speak for decades afterwards.

However, Bolam, 82, said this was down to busy schedules rather than any resentment.

Bolam said: “There was no fallout at all, as far as I was concerned.

“We worked together very happily and very well, enjoyed each other’s company and when we finished, we finished.

“This is what happens in acting.

“You work with people, you 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.”

Bewes’s four children said yesterday they were touched by “all the warm messages people have left” following his death on Tuesday, six days before his 80th birthday.

“It is a sad time for us all but we will always remember Dad as full of laughter and fun,” they said.

“He will be much missed by his many friends in London, Henley, Edinburgh and Cornwall.”