Folk Memory And The Likely Lads 

Thanks to everyone who makes these videos possible ko-fi.com/morgoth1

I'm a 54 year old Geordie lass who lived through all this.. had to walk to work from Benwell to Newcastle because of the riots the buses refused to go through it. But there were good times too. Thanks for the memories. This was an interesting take on it.

And yet here I was led to believe men prancing about in heels whilst the call to prayer echoes on in the background was all quintessentially British.

I'd offer you a beer, but I've only got six cans.

The only thing to look forward to is the past?

Born in 68 in Wallsend. Whenever I see the end titles its like pictures of my childhood. Playing on slagheaps and semi-demolished buildings, sitting outside the pub with other kids waiting for our dad's to come out. I still enjoy the show, it was pretty accurate of the attitudes of people of the time.

"The recognition of the *us* is the first step in solving the problem." Very true

The gospel according to Terry Collier, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you only do it first"!

West End of Newcastle/ Elswick road where the riots were, are migrant heaven, and have been since the 70’s. Drove through for the first time in ages a few months ago, and thought I was in downtown Karachi!!!!

People have asked me for a deep-dive on Our Friends in the North, it'd be a monumental undertaking to be honest but I'll give it a re-watch and see.

Grew up in Ashington in the 70s/80s. Joined the military straight from school as there wasn't much gan on back yem. After a decade of that I left the country. Barely recognise England today. It's like it's had its soul ripped out. Wonderful listening to you Morgoth - like an echo from the past.

The decline of industry, bureacracy, central planning, and replacing local councils with local government strangled working class communities in the 60s and 70s. The selling off houses, the collapse of industry and privatisation really shafted the working class. I grew up in a coal mining village in the 70s. Our fathers all worked together at the local pit. They drank together in the local miners' welfare. We did know our neighbours. As children, we lived next door each other, played together and went to school together. Our mums played bingo together. Our dads played cricket together on the local ground. But that old community had died by the 1990s after the coal mine shut and houses were sold off. Old families moved away. Those that stayed had less to do with the neighbours. Newcomers to the area weren't interested in the local community. Now it's all gone.... along with the long~term decently paid jobs. And Labour helped to kill off that way of life as much as the Tories did. Communities were replaced with fragmented groups of selfish individuals. The character of Terry spoke to millions of working class people who were frustrated that a peaceful, orderly society ~ that offered certainty and security ~ was being by a chaotic system of selfish individuals, crap jobs, consumerism, and horrible architecture

I'm not even from the UK and this made me nostalgic, a bit angry, but mostly depressed. The shire got bulldozed and the ring never found its way to Mt. Doom it seems.

One of Morgs best vids, no doubt. Shame we didn't get get a mournful panoramic synth outro, but even so, great stuff.

When you realise our politics are just arguments over whether the free market or social liberalism is the best way to a transhuman future

I'm American and have never seen or even heard of this show, but I found this video really fascinating nonetheless.

I'm from Russia and it's very interesting to compare your history and ours. How they molded and reshaped our societies culturally and societally. A lot of similarities and the same goals

Who remembers that the driver of the destruction of the Old Newcastle was jailed for corruption with John Poulson? T. Dan Smith, the mastermind of the destruction of so much, from terraced housing to some of the finest Georgian buildings in England, (Eldon Square anyone?) always bragged that you'd never find him living in one of the Tower Blocks he was putting up with Poulson. By a delicious irony, a few years after he was released from prison, he died in one.

The older you get, the more you will describe places by what used to be there.

Terry hated Christmas. Longed for Boxing Day and some sort of normality. "Newcastle against Carlisle". You Geordie buggers broke my heart when "Supermac" scored the winner in the last minute in 1974! 😂 This was my absolute favourite comedy show. Think it was on a Wednesday after Pot Black. You're right about the lack of a political message from the writers. Clement and La Frenais were truly great. Galton and Simpson did something similar with Steptoe and Son. They were Socialists but in their own words, "realistic Socialists". They always gave Albert (a Tory) the last word. Great review Morgoth.

In the chocolate box of life the top layer's already gone... and somebody's pinched the orange cream from the bottom

I live in the countryside, we have a similar but more distant lament for the old days, when the farming was more hands-on. The folk element in farming is all but lost.

I used to watch this at my Aunties, she had a colour telly, then cycled home past half demolished houses in the rain. It looks nostalgic now, but it was just a reflection of what was happening and how people were. I didn't fancy working in the drawing office in an engineering factory, that's what my Dad wanted. I left town and joined the army. Ah, it's time for a Vesta Curry and a bottle of Blue Nun.

Sending love to the North East from Lancashire in the North West.

The worst part at around 9:10, the way the corporate media pretend to be unfamiliar with the crass slang of the youth-hotting. While for years beforehand their own think tanks and academics were manipulating the language and terminology necessary for their social engineering projects in this instance providing ready made categories for social divisions, in language, dress and addresses

Thought provoking as always. I live in Lockport NY 20 miles east of Niagara Falls. The history of so many places especially in the Northeast US is so shockingly similar to Newcastle. The industrial age faded away along with the buildings from thr prior ages. In many cases, the buildings were either replaces with brutalist architecture that was a failure from the begining or nothing at all. Nearby Buffalo once produced more steel than Pittsburgh and was one of the largest industrial powerhouses in the world. Ironically, my great great grandmother was born in England in 1865, and her family moved directly to Buffalo. In the 1970s most Rustbelt cities were in utter ruins and looked just like Newcastle at the time. The same processes took place in Buffalo and Niagara Falls. You could have easily substituted Newcastle with Pittsburgh, Cleveland etc. I can empathize with Terry. So many places that I knew as a child were long gone decades ago. Nothing beside remains round the decay of the colossal wreck. The only thing we have left here from the Industrial Age is the waste from the Manhattan Project which depended largely on the heavy industry of Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Lockport to build the various components for the atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan. There is still an unremediated site 1 mile from my house from said waste. Other than that nothing is really left. Nothing.

Bloody Hell that theme tune took me right back to being a kid, sitting on the living room floor drawing while my folks watched the telly. It always made me sad that song but never could really appreciate why at that age.

This video meant more to me than anything else I've ever seen on yt. I'm long gone from Newcastle but hearing your voice and seeing those pictures put a lump in my throat. Thank you.

Wonderful stuff again Morgoth. I'm Welsh, but The Likely Lads was one of my favourite shows growing up, and it's probably given me a soft spot for the Geordies ever since. There was a genuine warmth and humanity to both the two main characters and the wider community portrayed, sadly missing in today's productions. As you point out so well, there was a collective sense of loss in the series. But also a wider collective sense of friendship, authenticity and realness which seemed to make up for this loss in a sense. Now in 2021, we feel the loss of these elements in modern life more than ever before.

Ferris; as in wheel. Collier; as in pit. The setting of the show isn't specifically named as Newcastle until the movie version made after the series ended. In fact apart from James Bolam most of the cast have Yorkshire accents. I pulled the plug on my TV last year and don't miss it one bit; I have loads of shows like this on DVD which are so much better than anything made under the BBC's Diversity strategy.

i remember saying to my parents when i was teenager --- " thats a bit DARK " while watching the likely lads and they did not know what i was talking about ? thanks for bringing back an odd memory !

10:20 Easington Colliery during the miners strike. Great fun as a kid stoning the scab bus and removing the tyre valves from the cops transit vans. Place is fucked these days and I go back there as little as possible. It's also where they filmed Billy Elliot.

Even Owen Jones (yes I know) made the point that WHTLL portrayed working class people positively. It’s great social history as well as good comedy. Want to know about 1970s Britain? just watch it. Nothing on tv today tells you anything about normal peoples lives.Great video Morgoth.

Only really remembered the intro as a kid, when Terry was metaphorically left behind by the bus.

It might shock everyone to know of the ethnic background of Warren "Mitchell" (real name "Misell") who plays dyed in the wool Cockney Alfie Garnett... or maybe it won't...

In regard to James Bolam - his performance in 'In Celebration' is nothing short of magnificent - he more than holds his own alongside Brian Cox and the great Alan Bates. Also - Bill Owen's turn as the father - utterly marvelous. Anyone who has never seen it - I'd wholly recommend it. Brilliantly compelling, sublimely written and superbly acted.

Terry today lives o the State Pension in a council flat, fearful of the night, drinking 99p pins daytime in the Weatherspoons.

Excellent video. The genius of the series was always the duality. Unlike Garnett, the lads are both sides of the coin and their identities are irrevocably connected. There's real warmth too. They are joined, no matter what.

I love that show, can't wait to hear what you have to say about it.

My favourite ever video of yours . You’re doing God’s work. Well done mate.

If it was made today, Terry would be gay, and Thelma would be black. Bob of course would be Terry's ex lover.

I loved watching this because it was my area, and I could recognise certain places. I was disappointed when James Bolam said he hated Newcastle though. He said, "I get the last possible train to go there, and I get the first possible train to get out again. I hate the place"

Really looking forward to this! My all-time favourite sit-com. Excellent!

It was a great sitcom a classic, still funny 50 years later. I've got no idea what the current sitcoms are.

Watch the box set a couple of times a year, it's like time travel.

The truck driver having a pint during "The Great Race" and getting back behind the wheel.

You have been killing it recently! Looking forward to this.

Fascinating discussion; those brutalist buildings are staggering, one would need to seek a psychiatric explanation for why anyone should ever thought it desirable to house people (other people of course) in such horrors.

Fascinating. Thanks, Morgoth. A lot to consider. (I too am old enough to remember the endless repeats too.) A different world indeed.

Fantastic piece of RU-vid! Nice to keep it on Tyneside too. I bought the Viz of late and was happy that the old stereotypes of Tyneside have not been erased from there, that would be a sad day.

I'm a young man from the North-east and I can't help but see this place as remains from a far better time I never experienced. It's just tragic.

What a take. Particularly superb this one Morgoth 👏👏👏

Looking forward to this! My favourite sitcom and my favourite dissident commentator. Clement and La Frenais brilliantly chronicled post war working class life.

I used to love working out the different locations when I watched this. It's amazing how much some places have changed even in my lifetime.

You're describing yourself there, saying "a good storyteller tells you what you already know."

"The recognition of the 'us' is the first step in solving the problem " brilliantly said it is something thats been eroded by design

Fantastic stuff Morgoth. This episode has turned me from a casual fan to an ardent fan, Would love to see you give a similar treatment to Risgby and Rising Damp at some point. Post-war British sitcoms are rich fertile vehicles for your analysis and social commentary because, as you mention, rather than propagandize, they actually told stories from the culture.

Having family from Gateshead/Durham this was a homely series to me but it was a bizarre program really, set in Newcastle, starring a Bradford lad and a Mackem with a cockney mum and a scouse sister

Perfect choice for a video, mate! What a great series - funnily enough, I've just written to Mark and Laura at PA to ask them if they'd consider reviewing the outstanding Likely Lads film from after the series, in 1976. The series was good, but the film was an absolute corker, very funny all the way through - and from a 21st century perspective - awash with nostalgia, the streetscapes, the cars, even the yellow Tyne and Wear buses. I have all series and the film on DVD and never tire of watching them. The next time Mark and Laura are doing their PA movie review, I appeal to all reading to upvote my suggestion of the Likely Lads film (if they field it) - it would be interesting to hear their take on the film. Also @Morgoth, would you consider reviewing that other great production of La Frenais and Clement - Auf Wiedersehen, Pet? That was another very funny series with a very apt take on things at the time but from a 1980s (rather than a 1970s) perspective and is a favourite in my DVD collection. Cheers.

I would recommend in Peter Hitchens book; the Abolition of Britain anyway but he makes a very similar point to you and Terry about how yes okay the slums were garbage. But they had made those places what they were and by destroying them, the town planners destroyed the soul of the place with it.

Profound thought. Morgoth is in a class of his own.

Fantastic stuff Morgoth. This made me feel very nostalgic. I'd say more but well... you know.

Any thoughts on Peep Show? I feel those two are the dual face of the millennial archetype.

always a double pleasure seeing a new Morgoth vid pop up, bc we know this also means a new KW video is right around corner for us to consoom.. and vice versa..

Excellent TV series and social comedy that is still very funny to watch. Terry was old before his time. I well remember the beginnings of aspirational modernism in the 70s and the flight to the suburbs. . My favourite scene is the 1974 Christmas special and the forklift screen (full version is on YT: Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads Christmas Special 1974). BTW: @1:58 "dating girls" - we didn't use to say that. That's the creeping American influence, "change," as they say.

Very deep morgoth I loved both till death and the likely lads i didnt know at the time but it was a taste of what we would become I'm 67 so I see much worse for us yet I dont think I will be around to witness it I might just be at the recieving end of abuse in some care home by a friendly African how depressing is that ? I hope my countrymen wake up soon not for me but the kids yet to be born sod it I'm going fishing tomorrow 🤣🤣🤣

Not the likely lads, but have been watching When The Boat Comes In recently also starring James Bolam.

Great programme. The pub was called the 'fat ox'!!!!!

I love the theme tune to this programme. It's on my playlist. The film is very good as well.

The truth has now become the impossible story. The truth is soul destroying .

It's a rare gift to be able to communicate such themes and subject in the way Morgoth does.

I’m a soft Southern shite, However about 12 years ago I worked up in Newcastle for 10 weeks staying in the city centre working alongside Newcastle lads on road gangs laying special jet fuel resistant Tarmac at the airport and at One of Tarmac’s own aggregate compounds….The lads were harsh with me coming from Essex at first but once I earned their respect and trust we had an excellent time and I got to go out drinking with them all over Newcastle’s great working men’s watering holes. Even went to the football one weekend…They looked after me while I was there and we still stay in touch….Tough guys and lovely people, I shall never forget the comradeship and good fun we all had working together……However after the first 3 weeks I found myself really picking up the geordie accent which was good because up until then I could only understand every third word they spoke…lol…Great lads n lasses..

Why have I not seen your videos before! Excellent work Sir. (Delingpod sent me)

I remember loving "Our Friends...", we loved it here in Dublin. Watched it a couple of months ago, it was god awful. Writer's were mired in "right on" culture and weren't shy about ramming it down our collective throats. As a teen in the early 90s we thought it was Oh so clever & yer Ma (cos your Da wasn't there) sort of liked it, but she didn't get the new way of thinking, us young people were cool with. " the Gays", The New Arrivals" and whatever assholery yer having yourself! I actually fell for that weak propaganda shite back then.

What became of the people, we used to be.

Is It Just Me ? Or Is This One Of Your Deepest Vids ....... Realy Hit A Spot .

Exceptional analysis and threading of multiple strands together. Thank you Morgoth.

Excellent video, thanks!

more profound insights from the master

Best scene is when he’s on his stagg-do in the restaurant and he doesn’t realise he’s chatting up his to-be wife’s sister

A very moving video M. Being an early 80's kid all this stuff was the historical backdrop that I was born into. The theory seemed sound. Times change and people with them. You seem wistful but not maudlin and sorrowful. Like the bit in 'Once upon a time in America' when DeNiro looks at himself in the store front window.

4:00. I actually like brutalist architecture to the subtle soulless $h1te built today.

Superb as always.

We’ve couldn’t have dream,t of a world it has become

Great as always.

I always found the show melancholic

Very good analysis 👍🏼✨✨

Sick handbrake turns.

As insightful as articulate. Great stuff, as always.

It would of been interesting to see what of would happened to Bob and Terry if James Bolam and Rodney Bewes had never fell out. I think the programme could of continued into the 80’s and 90’s as occasional specials, catching up with where they are at different points of their lives. I’ve always got the impression that the actors who played Bob and Terry were actually playing the opposite to their characters. Rodney Bewes never got away from being Bob Ferris, but James Bolam wanted to be taken seriously as an actor and move on to different roles, become part of the acting establishment.

"Tomorrow's almost over, today went by so fast - is the only thing to look forward to the Past?

Great observations and well explained

Brilliant summary Morgoth

Well over here in Ireland, a lot of of the new developments and mass-density "housing" projects that are going up look very similar to the monstrosities constructed in the UK in the 70s. Make you wonder eh.

i'm a Terry,i know quite a few bobs today..

Blimey - fantastic analysis: spot on! We were asleep for far too long.

I remember the likely lads reruns when I was a kid in the 90s, I never watched them ('boring old show' to me then), but the theme music certainly stuck in my head. 'Oh what happened to you, whatever happened to me'... definitely more bitter than sweet these days! I'm certainly a lot more interested in watching those shows now as an adult, as it's the only way I can see my country (which doesn't exist any more). the cynic in me expects sometime in the next 20-30 years an 'accidental' fire will wipe out the archive footage to destroy the evidence of how things were...

I found Terrys diatribe about conformity odd since he was nostalgic for the conformity of the rows upon rows of the same back to back houses .they all went to the same jobs at the same time and eat the same food and watched the same tv .you were cogs in the same machine .The new estates atomised the community .you had to bus to get to the shops .if you had a car you had no parking space at your home

Great observation on the history of the working class in Britain

I bet Becky from Carlisle watches whatever happened to the likely lads