Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads - No Hiding Place

Terry and Bob

I been digging around on YouTube all afternoon on a memory road trip sparked off by a post by a friend Jo on Facebook. She dodged a result, be it a game of rugby to watch the game later, just like in ‘No Hiding Place’ one of my all-time favourite episode of ‘Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads’ first broadcast back in 1973.

A short lesson on who are the Likely Lads. It is about two main characters James Bolam as Terry and Rodney Bewes as Bob. They are life-long friends from Newcastle who had been separated for five years. This was comically due to Terry (mistakenly) joining the Army. Bob had joined before Terry but he was kicked out for bad feet leaving Terry who joined to be with his mate left in. They meet again on the train to Newcastle after Terry returns after he is demobbed but that is a whole other episode.

The lads (Terry and Bob) try to avoid learning the result of an England v Bulgaria football match before the TV highlights are shown that evening. Bob takes Terry to the hairdressers where he feels uncomfortable in the surrounding of a unisex hairdressers where the blokes who work there must be gay according to Terry. Enter Flint (Brian Glover) who asks if they had heard what happened in Bulgaria. Upon which Terry and Bob bolt out of the shop with Flint following them out shouting 2-0.

They take refuge in the pub where they quickly figure out the game was about to kick-off meaning Flint was winding them up. He (Flint) then turns up at the pub with the lads begging him not to spoil their day. He tells them they would not be able to go the rest of the day would out finding out about the result. Where upon a bet is made £10, a fiver each. Flint then switches on the radio and Terry and Bob run for the door.

There next stop was Terry’s sisters but a phone call soon had them out the door as they guess it was Flint. There next hiding place was a church but again they are tracked down by Flint. Has he is about to tell the lads a priest walks in giving Bob and Terry the opportunity to make a quick exit leaving Flint to explain what they were doing.

After a day of near misses including a run in with one legged news vender, they reach Bob’s empty new house about 20 minutes before the game. We find out Terry had seen a newspaper headline that says "England F...". When Flint tracks them down to Bob's new house, an angry Terry agrees to pays him off it they don’t tell them the score.

Duly they stump up the £10, Terry borrowing £5 his part of the bet from Bob. Has they sit back to watch the game the announcer says we are off the international ice-skating championship after the England v Bulgaria game was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch: "England – flooded out..."

A classic and has they say ‘they don’t make them like that these days’ which is so true indeed.

See - No Hiding Place