BOB: It’s amazing how character shows at such an early age. Even at five you were trouble, a hazard to other children. 'Don't talk to Terry Collier' - that was like our school motto.
TERRY: I was your first friend. I was the first person who stole your tricycle pump, the first person who split your head open with a brick. Frank Clarke can't claim things like that in his wedding speech. He can't recall colourful anecdotes from the past.
BOB: I don't think many colourful anecdotes from our past are fit to go into a wedding speech.
For what very little its worth, Whatever
Happened To The Likely Lads? is my favourite comedy programme. There are
several reasons why. It’s the milieu and very specific sense of time and place.
Its the avoidance of sentimentality, while remaining a warm and friendly
programme to watch - not knowing or cruel humour, but very acute about people
letting you down. It has a wonderful credits sequence and theme, that tells its
own story about then and now and time running out. Within a light and
pleasurable context its quite profound about a number of anxieties - ageing,
employment, masculinity, marriage, etc. - which feels true in a way that many
serious dramas labour to achieve. It has two perfect leads (one of whom was a
great actor and the other who is great in this) with a real depth of casting
for supporting characters.
Above all, it’s the dialogue that I keep on coming back to. This episode is virtually a two-hander for Terry and Bob (save for Gertan Klauber's waiter, there are no other characters for the first 25 minutes) but there's almost no overt plot in their dialogue together. The only thing that the viewer needs to register is that Thelma's sister has been living in Canada, but that's rather skillfully seeded into the friends' general conversation. The rest of the dialogue - reminiscences, plans for the future, reflections about changing social mores, irritation with each other - seems formless but is actually as intricately arranged as it feels organic and free-flowing. Both characters make observations which are funny at the time they are spoken, with memorable imagery and with cadenced rhythms, which are then get referred back to much later on in the episode paying off other jokes and reversing expectations. I've seen these episodes loads of times, but there are always little lines and nuances that I think I'm registering for the first time. The scenes' long, theatrical, continuous takes help the dialogue, with Bolam and Bewes' occasional fluffs and stumbles giving the more elaborate passages the idiom of actual speech.
Two other things that strike me in this particular episode is the thoughtful direction that shows Bob and Terry reflected in the mirror together during the most sensitive part of their conversation (choosing the best man), so that we can see both men's reactions in a discussion where there might be little eye contact. And how very good the set of the high quality new restaurant is.
Above all, it’s the dialogue that I keep on coming back to. This episode is virtually a two-hander for Terry and Bob (save for Gertan Klauber's waiter, there are no other characters for the first 25 minutes) but there's almost no overt plot in their dialogue together. The only thing that the viewer needs to register is that Thelma's sister has been living in Canada, but that's rather skillfully seeded into the friends' general conversation. The rest of the dialogue - reminiscences, plans for the future, reflections about changing social mores, irritation with each other - seems formless but is actually as intricately arranged as it feels organic and free-flowing. Both characters make observations which are funny at the time they are spoken, with memorable imagery and with cadenced rhythms, which are then get referred back to much later on in the episode paying off other jokes and reversing expectations. I've seen these episodes loads of times, but there are always little lines and nuances that I think I'm registering for the first time. The scenes' long, theatrical, continuous takes help the dialogue, with Bolam and Bewes' occasional fluffs and stumbles giving the more elaborate passages the idiom of actual speech.
Two other things that strike me in this particular episode is the thoughtful direction that shows Bob and Terry reflected in the mirror together during the most sensitive part of their conversation (choosing the best man), so that we can see both men's reactions in a discussion where there might be little eye contact. And how very good the set of the high quality new restaurant is.
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