TO southerner Dick Clement, penning The Likely Lads was like a crash course in Geordie culture.

While he never went to university, Clement said his partnership with Whitley Bay-born Ian La Frenais was an education in itself.

After the success of the hit show starring James Bolam and Rodney Bewes, the pair moved on to create Porridge, Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

Of the tale of builders plying their trade in Germany, featuring North-East stars Jimmy Nail, Tim Healy and Kevin Whateley, Clement said: "That was like doing a post-graduate course in Geordie. People tell me I can't understand what Oz (Jimmy Nail) is saying. I tell them: 'I can't and I wrote it'."

The pair's latest project, D-Notice, is a film about a bank robbery at Lloyds Bank in Baker Street, London in 1971, and has been in pipeline for some years.

La Frenais said the press was gagged at the time of the robbery because MI5 were recovering sensitive information from safe deposit boxes.

It stars Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels star Jason Statham and filming started yesterday - the same day as the the film's writers received honorary doctorates of civil law at Northumbria University in Newcastle.

"We have spent the past four decades working closely together and we feel very fortunate to have found a working relationship that has lasted longer than most marriages," said La Frenais.

"It is a great honour for both of us to be back in Newcastle to receive the honorary degree because I have strong ties with the area and I am very, very grateful for the honour.

"It is amazing that I am getting a degree for doing something I enjoy so much while there are 400 kids in front of me who have worked their behinds off for theirs."