Our recent features marking 50 years since the debut of the classic BBC sitcom Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? have sparked plenty of interest.
The series, first broadcast across 1973 and 1974, was an all-colour sequel of the original black-and-white 1960s Likely Lads. It starred James Bolam and Rodney Bewes as Terry Collier and Bob Ferris, two lifelong pals now approaching middle age and doing their best to navigate the changing world of the 1970s.
Purportedly set on Tyneside, the show had special appeal for TV viewers in our region. The memorable title sequence - backed by the nostalgia-packed theme song Highly Likely - depicted Newcastle under transformation and showed scenes in Byker, Ouseburn, Cruddas Park, Newcastle city centre, and the West End, as well as further afield in Killingworth.
READ MORE: When Newcastle's legendary La Dolce Vita nightclub was home to the stars - 10 photos
Other memorable scenes were captured on location around wider Tyneside and Northumberland. Our recent feature recalled one of the show's best episodes, The Great Race, which was first broadcast on January 29, 1974. After a game of football sees Terry and Bob back in the pub and very much out of shape, the pair unwisely challenge each other to a cross-country bike race to Berwick to prove they are still as fit as they were in their younger days.
As the race progresses, all sorts of cheating takes place - including tampering with each other's bikes and hitching rides on the backs of lorries - until the exhausted pair find themselves finally in Berwick, but stranded at the railway station for the weekend, with no trains back to Newcastle.
We recently revealed that the starting point for the bike race - outside Audrey's (Terry's sister) house on an unnamed Tyneside housing estate - was actually filmed in Lawrence Avenue, Blaydon, looking down to the Tyne and across the river towards Lemington and Newburn. Half a century later, the location remains largely unchanged.
Fans of the show might also recall that during the race, the pair stop off for a break at an unnamed country pub, from where Terry (unbeknown to Bob) hitches a ride of the back of an open-top lorry. For anyone interested in such TV trivia, we can reveal that the pub, sitting in the heart of Hadrian's Wall country in rural Northumberland, is the Robin Hood Inn on the West Military Road, East Wallhouses.
The good news 50 years later is that it's still going strong if you want to visit. Tripadvisor reports: "The pub sits amidst the wild, stunning countryside of Northumberland, adjacent to Hadrian’s Wall and close to the historic towns of Corbridge and Hexham. The pub offers fresh, local produce, roaring fires, and both bed and breakfast accommodation and camping. This is a typical Northumbrian pub, with log fires, cask ales and seriously good food, served in an informal and friendly environment."
No wonder Terry and Bob stopped off...
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- A lost world of 1970s Tyneside pubs is recalled in 10 gritty photographs from Jarrow
- Back to school on Tyneside in the 1980s - 10 classroom photographs
A new bridge over the River Tyne - and nerves of steel 100 feet above the water
A now-vanished Newcastle record store was getting ready to open its doors
Tyneside 70 years ago: 10 photographs from around our region in 1953
