Ian La Frenais and
Dick Clement have enjoyed a long and successful career embracing films, television and theatre. Their partnership began in the mid-1960s with the hit television show
The Likely Lads, and by the end of the decade they had also written three feature films:
The Jokers,
Otley (directed by Clement) and
Hannibal Brooks. In the early 1970s, they worked on two other features:
Villain,
Thick as Thieves and
Going Straight. There were big-screen versions of both
The Likely Lads and
Porridge, and
The Prisoner of Zenda, a feature film starring
Peter Sellers. In the 1980s, their work included most of the TV series
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, which was voted
ITV's Favourite TV Programme of all Time in a
Radio Times readers' poll to celebrate the network's 60th anniversary, and uncredited writing work on the
James Bond film
Never Say Never Again. La Frenais produced the films
Bullshot (1983) and
Water (1985), both directed by Clement; and
The Bank Job. and the Rose D'Or award-winning
Henry IX for
UKTV Gold, starring
Charles Edwards. They have written the books for two stage musicals in development,
Juke Box Hero and ''Victoria's Secret''. They have also featured in documentaries -
Porridge: Inside Out on Gold TV in 2014,
Comedy Classics: Porridge on Channel 5 in 2022 and Joe Wilkinson & David Earl's Magical Sitcom Tour in 2026 In 2019 he and Clement published their autobiography:
More Than Likely: A Memoir (published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson) and La Frenais is currently writing a novel.
Other credits In addition to his long-running collaborations with Clement, La Frenais has created, co-created, written and/or contributed to many other TV series, including
The Two Ronnies, several episodes of the BBC's
Comedy Playhouse, ''
The Other 'Arf (1980–81), the long-running series Lovejoy and the hit 1990s BBC detective series Spender'' (co-written with actor and singer
Jimmy Nail). Like Clement, La Frenais was made an
OBE in the
Queen's 2007 Birthday Honours list. ==Personal life==