Sitcom great was 79

Likely Lads star Rodney Bewes has died at the age of 79.

His agent issued a statement saying: ‘It is with great sadness that we confirm that our dear client, the much-loved actor Rodney Bewes, passed away this morning.’ 

The statement added that he was a ‘brilliant storyteller… He had a funny anecdote for every occasion. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this sad time. We will miss him terribly.'

Born in Yorkshire in 1937,  Bewes attended RADA after two years of National Service, doing the washing up in hotels at night to  finance his studies. However, it meant he was dozy during the day and was expelled during his final year.

But he joined  repertory theatre and in the early 1960s landed parts in the likes of Dixon of Dock Green, Z-Cars and the Billy Liar film of 1963 alongside his flatmate of the time, Tom Courtenay. 

The following year was to be his big break when cast as  working-class hero Bob Ferris in The Likely Lads opposite James Bolam.

The series ran for two years until 1966, with the sequel Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? running in 193 and 1974, and a film version in 1976.

However the pair had a falling-out, and Bolam never allowed the hit sitcom to be repeated. The pair did not speak since for more than 40 years because Bewes revealed in a newspaper interview that his co-star’s wife was pregnant - which the private Bolam took as a terrible breach of confidence.

In 2010, Bewes called his former co-star ‘cruel’ for his ban on repeats, stopping Bewes getting residual fees. ‘He must be very wealthy,’ he complained. ‘Me, I've just got an overdraft and a mortgage.’

Between his two spells as a Likely Lad Bewes appeared in shows such as Man in a Suitcase, Father, Dear Father  and as Basil Brush’s sidekick Mr Rodney, He also had his own ITV sitcom Dear Mother...Love Albert, which ran from 1969 to 1972. And later he appeared in the 1984 Doctor Who story Resurrection of the Daleks just before his TV career dried up.

But he remained active as a stage performer, with one-man versions of Three Men in a Boat and Diary of a Nobody, as well as ‘audience with…’ storytelling shows.  He published his autobiography, A Likely Story, in 2005.

Stars paying tribute on Twitter tonight include Jack Dee, Danny Baker and David Baddiel.

Annabel Giles recalled: ‘I was in a pantomime with Rodney Bewes. He was brilliant, naughty, very funny, and adored his children and the sainted Daphne. His stories were wonderful. He was a bad but adorable influence on all who knew him, and I'm so sorry he's gone xxx’

Howard Goodall, the composer of so many great comedy theme tunes, said: ‘I know it's not quite Prince or Victoria Wood or Bowie passing on but my youth was so enriched by the hilarity, guile and dry Geordie wonderfulness of The Likely Lads that I'm sad to hear #RodneyBewes has died. Howay, lad.’

And comedy writer Daniel Mair paid tribute to one of the Likely Lads best-known storylines when he tweeted: ‘I’ve been trying to avoid the news about Rodney Bewes all day. :(‘

Richard Herring retweeted one of his Metro newspaper columns regarding an encounter with Bewes at the Edinburgh Fringe. The actor was known for embellishing his stories, but he had everyone convinced Jimi Hendrix really did play the theme tune to one of his sitcoms, 

He is survived by his four children - Billy, Joe, Tom and Daisy - and his two grandchildren, Oscar and Eliza.

Here is a scene from Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads:

Published: 21 Nov 2017