Zwei nette Früchtchen

Based on a popular UK comedy series, this film concerns two men, former schoolboy friends now approaching middle age, living in the industrial North-East of England. One has "got on" and runs a small building firm, the other is a dissolute drifter. Though often extremely funny, the film, shot in wintry North-East landscapes, also conveys a sense of wasted lives and unfulfilled hopes.

It's all too easy to get lost in the trend for sitcom films that ran through the 70's and 80's in the UK. But The Likely Lads will always stand out to me, as the finest example of it's type. Its cheerful 70's sitcom trappings hide a wonderfully written journey that captures that moment everybody goes through in life. When we question our entire existence. Then realise the only sensible solution is to put a frozen lasagne in the oven and pour a Newcastle Brown Ale into a dimpled pint glass with a handle.

"In the chocolate box of life, the top layer's already gone. And someone's pinched the orange creme from the bottom."

A big screen outing for likely lads Rodney Bewes and James Bolam, it's a spin off from the popular TV shows that the two made in the 60's and 70's. It's directed by Michael Tuchner and written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.

Plot sees lifelong friends Bob Ferris (Bewes) and Terry Collier (Bolam) finding that times are a changing very fast. When the street where they grew up starts to be demolished, the pair feel the pangs of nostalgia more than most, even bringing the onset of a sort of mid-life crisis. Bob has to face life in the normality of a marriage to the no nonsense Thelma (Brigit Forsyth), and Terry, recently divorced, takes on a new girlfriend whilst firmly ensconced at his parents high rise flat. When Thelma sees that Terry, once the bane of her relationship with Bob, is going steady and happy with Christina (Mary Tamm), she plans a caravan holiday for the four of them….Which surely will not go as planned?

Although taking the title of the first show that ran on British TV between 1964 and 1966, this film spin off is closer in tone to the sequel show, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? During the 70's, Britain was awash with situation comedies, many of which had the obligatory film spin off. Sadly, very few of them were any good, bogged down by trying to extend a half hour comedy formula into three times the running time. The Likely Lads movie is one of the rare successes, mainly because the writers were so in tune with the times, they were able to plant the much loved characters in the 70's time frame and involve the comedy as such. Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? Always carried an air of melancholy about it, but the comedy was still rich and prominent, so it be with this film version.

Bewes and Bolam were an excellent partnership, where Bob is a snob in waiting, borderline henpecked one at that, Terry is the slob, the boozy cynic always dragging Bob back to reality. But their bond is born from the days of hard drinking and chasing women, they hanker for those days again, it's almost as if they refuse to accept they are getting a bit too long in the tooth for such antics now. Here in the film, Clement and La Frenais play on this with much reward, you see, the modern world has not just caught them up, it's also winning the race between them. The answer is simple, take a holiday. But of course this too will be one for the miserablists to bemoan, it's a classic British holiday, small caravan, pouring rain, chance of nooky? Zero. Chance of great comedy? Very high.

The plot doesn't in truth quite cover the 90 minute run time, but there's enough here to warrant it being called one of the better film spin offs from the 70's. Great acting, not just the boys, Forsyth always a revelation, and writing as crisp as a winters day. God bless those Geordie boys. 8/10

Recently I've watched both seasons of Whatever Happened to Likely Lads followed by this feature film. Although the antics of Bob and Terry did seem to start losing their edge after the first half of S2 (not unusual for long TV series), overall it was a very enjoyable and a refreshing experience. The movie, however, turned out to be a disappointment.

First, the scenario itself was quite weak - it lacked direction, there was no central storyline and as a result, the film didn't have a build-up and a climax - the two things that made the majority of TV episodes work so well.

Secondly the humour was by and large recycled - the jokes, innuendos and the typical Bob/Thelma tug o' war were all just the twitched versions of various TV scenes. And given the movie goes on for longer than a TV episode, watching the same thing over again, coupled with the absence of a coherent plot, made me feel bored halfway through.

Onto the characters. Brigit Forsyth's Thelma got a bigger part to play in the film than she would've had in a typical TV episode. But given that in the show the character was (deliberately) kept one-dimensional, being "your stereotypical suburban wife", the enhancement of her role in the movie just made the scenes more dull and cliched. James Bolam's character, on the other hand, for some reason seemed to have lost a lot of the natural wit and charm that in the past would stir up the setting and enthrall in the viewer. Here we see Terry being somewhat lost both in his love life, as well as in his housing estate.

The film also portrays a great deal of philosophical midlife-crisis-dialogues between the main characters, (reckoning in places where the pub banter would have normally been instead). As for me those scenes not only fail to blend in with the usual light-hearted manner of Bob and Terry's adventures, but also, they contributed little to the storyline, if not distracted from it. Perhaps it was just unexpected, (and hence, quite odd), to observe the "lads" from this angle, not least because the characters have never been developed in that direction in the first place.

Overall, the film felt like an enmeshment of several of the less successful TV episodes and didn't add anything new to the story and the relationship of Bob and Terry as we know it.

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!