James Bolam has denied a feud existed with his Likely Lads co-star Rodney Bewes, who has died at the age of 79.
Best known for his role as Bob Ferris in the sixties BBC sitcom, Bewes starred alongside Bolam in the hugely popular TV show.
However the pair had a spectacular fall-out when Bewes revealed Bolam’s wife was pregnant in a 1976 newspaper interview.
The actor rang to apologise to the New Tricks star, but Bolam hung up and the pair reportedly never spoke again.
Even when Bewes’ wife Daphne died following a stroke two years ago, Bolam did not get in touch.
Insisting there was ‘no fall out’, Bolam today claimed the pair didn’t talk for 40 years because of their busy schedules rather than resentment.
James Bolam has denied a feud existed with his co-star Rodney Bewes, who has died at the age of 79
The two most famous on-screen pals in Britain were no longer on speaking terms — and, despite Bewes’s repeated pleas, there was never to be a reconciliation. The pair are pictured with Brigit Forsyth
He told BBC Radio Sussex: ‘There was no fall-out at all, as far as I was concerned.
‘We worked together very happily and very well, enjoyed each other’s company and when we finished, we finished.
‘This is what happens in acting. You work with people, you get to know them, you like them, we have a great time and the job finishes and you go off and it all starts again with other people and you can’t keep contact with everybody that you know.
‘I think that Rodney wanted to do some more Likely Lads and I never did, I felt that what we had done was to me so perfect and so right that to try and bring it back.
‘After we finished it the writers went on to do Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and then they went off to America and the success of that series lay in the strength of those scripts.
‘There was some suggestion that we had other writers come in and I just thought ‘well, I don’t think it will work’ and so I didn’t want to do it, I was busy doing other things.’
Bolam said he had nothing but fond memories of Bewes, adding: ‘I just remember him with great warmth and with great happiness and the time we had when we actually did the shows, that’s the greatest memory of all.’
He added the death had hit him hard because it follows so soon after the death of Duty Free star Keith Barron last week.
He said: ‘It’s been quite a depressing week for me because another actor that I worked with a lot, Keith Barron, died as well recently and I’ve been thinking ‘Oh god, they’re all going’ and it is a bit depressing.
‘All one thinks at a time like this is their families and my thoughts are with them and my sympathies and I just wish them well.’
Bewes played earnest social climber Bob Ferris, a humourless, but kindly, soul who was henpecked by his wife Thelma (Brigit Forsyth) and who sometimes yearned for his carefree teenage days in the Sixties
In one of his last interviews before his death, Bewes said he wanted to rekindle his relationship with his co-star on the hit show.
He told the Daily Mirror: ‘I would love to be friends with him [Bolam] but he doesn’t want to be friends with me.
‘I can’t be like Jimmy, I can’t be that angry.’
When asked why the pair hadn’t spoken since 1976, he added: ‘It’s this actor’s ego thing: he thinks he is important. Actors aren’t important. I’m not important; I have fun. I think Jimmy takes himself very seriously as an ‘actor’.’
Bolam did not respond to a request for a comment on Bewes’s death.
Bolam was the feckless Terry Collier, a scrounger and a ladies’ man, always on the lookout for a free pint and the chance to taunt Bob over his middle-class aspirations. The pair are pictured with the late Wendy Richard and the late Mollie Sugden
In 2010, Bewes claimed Bolam had prevented the BBC from showing repeats of The Likely Lads.
He said: ‘I’m very poor so I have to tour one-man shows because Jimmy has buried The Likely Lads. You have to sign a waiver for them to repeat it and he stopped it while he did New Tricks [where he spent eight years as the former chief superintendent Jack Halford}.
‘Well, New Tricks has been on so long, and is so repeated, that he must be very wealthy; me, I’ve just got an overdraft and a mortgage.’
He added: ‘He should let it be repeated on BBC2 or BBC1; to stop other people earning money is cruel.’
Bewes also never gave up on the idea of a revival of The Likely Lads, feeling that the characters were still relevant 40 years on.
‘Instead of being the Likely Lads, we’d have been the Unlikeliest Granddads,’ he said.
‘We would have been sitting on a park bench in a pair of grubby grey anoraks, feeding the pigeons and grumping about youngsters.’
Bewes is pictured with his wife Daphne and their daughter Daisy and triplets Joe, Tom and Billy
In 1964, Bewes was cast in The Likely Lads as Bob Ferris, an electrician and later a civil-engineer, who was anxious to mask his working class roots, often ridiculed by pal Terry Collier, played by Bolam.
The first programme aired on BBC2 in December 1964. It ran for three series until 1966 and was watched in nearly 14 million homes.
The idea was revived in 1973 and short-lived sequel Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads hooked in up to 27 million viewers.
Even when Daphne died following a stroke two years ago, Bolam did not get in touch. Bewes is pictured with his wife in 2013
His agent Michelle Braidman described him as a ‘true one-off’, in a statement.
She added: ‘We will miss his charm and ready wit.’
Ant and Dec, who starred in a one-off Likely Lads tribute, last night hailed Bewes as a ‘fine comic actor’.
Joe Bewes, 41, said that his father had remained upbeat throughout his illness.
He said: ‘He was young at heart and such a good-time person who would love telling funny stories surrounded by his friends.
‘He would always say to me that he felt exactly the same as when he was 26.’
Rodney Bewes’ children, Billy, Joe, Tom and Daisy, have said they will remember their father as ‘full of laughter and fun’ following his death aged 79.
In a statement, they said of the former The Likely Lads actor: ‘It is a sad time for us all but we will always remember Dad as full of laughter and fun.
‘He will be much missed by his many friends in London, Henley, Edinburgh and Cornwall. We are very touched by all the warm messages people have left.’