Set in Newcastle upon Tyne in north-east England, the show follows the friendship, resumed after five years apart, of two working-class young men, Bob Ferris (Rodney Bewes) and Terry Collier (James Bolam).

The humour was based on the tension between Terry's firmly working-class outlook and Bob's aspirations to join the middle class, through his new white-collar job, suburban home and impending marriage to the prissy librarian Thelma Chambers (Brigit Forsyth).

Since the ending of the original series in 1966, Bob has left factory life behind and now works for his future father-in-law's construction firm,[3] something which makes him even more desperate to curry favour with Thelma and her family.

This results in Terry viewing Bob as a class traitor and believing his own army experience and solid working-class ethos gives him moral superiority.

As implied in the lyrics to the programme's theme song, the 1970s series plays on both lads' feelings of nostalgia for the lost days of their reckless youth.

Reflecting the distinctions now separating the two young men, the opening credits show Terry waiting for a bus in the older and more industrial parts of the city, with Bob seen outside his new home with his own car in the modern surroundings of the Elm Lodge housing estate.

Bob usually blamed his drinking, poor diet and reckless behaviour on Terry, a view with which Audrey and Thelma only too willingly agreed.

Terry lives with his parents (his father is never seen) in a 19th-century terrace, which he claims has far more character than Bob's new house, where "the only thing that tells you apart from your neighbours is the colour of your curtains".

The show's theme song, "Whatever Happened to You", was written by Mike Hugg (of Manfred Mann) and La Frenais and performed by Hugg's session band, with session singer Tony Rivers supplying the lead vocals; released as a single under the name Highly Likely, the song reached number 35 in the UK Singles Chart in 1973.

used much subtler humour, derived from the dialogue and characterisation, often interspersed with sentimentality and even touches of pathos as the lads mourned or reflected on their lost past.

This episode was remade by Ant & Dec for ITV in 2002, featuring a cameo appearance by Rodney Bewes as the old newspaper seller (see below).

To emphasise continuity, the opening section of the title credits at the start of each episode includes a short montage of black-and-white stills photos of Bob and Terry in scenes from the 1960s series, presented as if in a photograph album.

She was due to appear in the episode "End of an Era", played by April Walker, but the scenes featuring her were omitted from the broadcast version.

Terry's address is given in dialogue as 127 Inkerman Terrace ("No Hiding Place"); but external shots (in "The Ant and the Grasshopper") clearly show a different house number.

It is revealed (in the episode "Storm in a Tea Chest") that the boys used to be in a skiffle group called Rob Ferris and the Wildcats.

Other group members included Maurice "Memphis" Hardaker, named after a real-life friend of the show's co-creator and co-writer Ian La Frenais.

The lads' workmate from the 1960s series, Cloughie (played by Bartlett Mullins), does not appear, but it is mentioned in the first episode that he now runs a newsagents.

The pubs frequented by the lads include The Black Horse (which is their most regular "local", featuring landlord Jack and barmaid Gloria), The Fat Ox, The Drift Inn and The Wheatsheaf.

Friends of the Lads who are regularly spoken of but never seen include Frank Clark (Bob's original choice for best man, who had the same name as a Newcastle United player of the time), and Nigel "Little Hutch" Hutchinson (a sex-mad pal, who frequently has a racing tip for Terry).

A new friend of Bob's, affable Londoner Alan Boyle (Julian Holloway), appears in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "The Ant and the Grasshopper" with his wife Brenda.

The BBC decided they liked one by Clement and La Frenais, who found themselves suddenly offered a new series, starring Barker, which became the television comedy Porridge.

Instead, Clement and La Frenais began to develop a one-off script, which became The Likely Lads feature film, which was eventually made in 1976.

By this time, Terry had moved to a high-rise flat and also has a Finnish girlfriend called Christina ("Chris"), played by Mary Tamm.

The film opened with the lads lamenting the demolition of one of their favourite pubs, The Fat Ox, before they go on a caravanning holiday with Thelma and Chris.

In 2002, the episode "No Hiding Place" was remade by Ginger Productions for ITV, featuring Declan Donnelly as Bob and Ant McPartlin as Terry, and Rodney Bewes in a cameo role.

Reception was lukewarm: most critics agreed that, on paper, the pair were perfectly cast, but that they seemed too young to play Bob and Terry at that point in their lives.