Likely Lads on stage

In The Times, Chris Ayres talks to Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais about why they're bringing their 40-year-old sitcom, The Likely Lads, to the stage.

The plot follows that of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?: acts I and II are condensed versions of each season. Terry has come back from seven years in the army to find Newcastle changed beyond recognition. Bob is becoming ever more middle-class, while Terry tries to cling on to his youth through beer, birds and football. La Frenais says that the play remains set in the Seventies (“there won't be any mobile phones or Blackberries, none of that bollocks”) and has endured because “Bob and Terry are now considered part of the North East's culture”.

The Likely Lads runs at The Gala Theatre, Durham, from 11 June.