THE burning question "Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?" has been answered by one of the classic show's stars - but fans will never get to see it played out on screen.

The last TV episode of the Tyneside-based show was recorded in 1974 but, despite a new storyline being produced, it will not make to the small screen again.

Star Rodney Bewes, who played the gullible Bob Ferris, revealed writers Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement were keen to do another series.

But the reluctance of James Bolam, who played lovable rogue Terry Collier, to take part - or even talk about the role which made his name - means it will never happen.

Mr Bewes, 66, said: "Ian had a great idea a couple of years ago. We're both pensioners and I'm still married to Thelma, going deaf and suffering with a bad knee and we're like the middle-class poor.

"Like so many people, we can't manage in retirement. But Terry is driving around in a Rolls Royce and is rich as anything, having been in the scrap trade all his life. That's exactly where we'd be now."

Mr Bewes' autobiography, A Likely Story, is due to be published on September 1.

The Likely Lads isn't the only sitcom to have had a new ending written for it.

Two years ago, when Radio Times asked what happened to popular sitcom characters, the creators revealed how they would have carried on.

Steptoe and Son's Harold killed his miserable dad and fled to Rio.

Porridge character Norman Stanley Fletcher got a job as a handyman on a country estate belonging to an ageing rock star.

Sleazy landlord Rigsby failed to woo Miss Jones. Instead, the eternal spinster had a fling with fellow Rising Damp character Alan - who later dumped her.

Minder's Terry McCann lived a happy life in Australia where he became a dad before returning to work as a security guard in the Millennium Dome. Dodgy Arthur Daley hoped to sell the Dome but his plan came to nothing (again).

Published: 09/05/2005