Rodney Bewes

Bewes was born in Bingley in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to Horace, an Eastern Electricity Board showroom clerk, and Bessie, who was a teacher of children with learning difficulties. His family lived for a few years in the Crossflatts district of Bingley, before they moved to Luton, where he attended Stopsley Secondary School. Because of his early ill-health (he suffered from asthma and bronchitis), one of the reasons the family moved, his mother tended to keep him off school. At 14, he moved to London to attend RADA's preparatory school. After two years of national service in the RAF, Bewes attended RADA. He was working nights in hotels, doing the washing-up, to finance his studies at RADA during the day, and hence was frequently to be found asleep in class. He was expelled during his final year. ==Early career==

Bewes began appearing in repertory theatre and obtained parts in the television drama series Dixon of Dock Green (1962) and Z-Cars (1963). Between his two spells as a 'Likely Lad', Bewes also appeared in Man in a Suitcase (1967), Father, Dear Father (1968) and as "Mr Rodney" on The Basil Brush Show (1968–69). He starred in his own ITV sitcom Dear Mother...Love Albert (later known as Albert!, 1969–72), which he created and co-wrote with Derrick Goodwin. Bewes appeared in the 1969 theatrical production of She Stoops to Conquer as Tony Lumpkin. He also appeared in the film Spring and Port Wine (1970) which starred James Mason, and played the Knave of Hearts in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972). Bewes and Bolam reunited for the sequel that continued the Bob and Terry saga, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (1973–74). The original series was adapted for radio (1967–68) as was the sequel (1975), and a cinema spin-off (The Likely Lads'', 1976) also followed. Bewes's later film roles included Jabberwocky (1977), Unidentified Flying Oddball (1979) and ''The Wildcats of St Trinian's'' (1980). Although better known for his comedy and light entertainment roles, viewers were given an opportunity to see Bewes's serious acting ability in a made-for-TV film adaptation of John Ford's 17th century play, '''Tis Pity She's a Whore (1980). Despite a guest role in the Doctor Who serial Resurrection of the Daleks'' in 1984, his television career had largely ended by the mid-1980s. ==Later career==

On the West End stage, Bewes appeared in the play Middle-Age Spread and Funny Money, a farce by Ray Cooney. Bewes remained active as a stage performer in the 1990s and later with one-man versions of Three Men in a Boat and Diary of a Nobody, both of which shows he toured extensively in the UK. Bewes final appearance on television was in 2009 when he played retired bank manager Edward Walton in the Heartbeat episode Ties That Bind. In July 2013, he was The Marshal (Philippe Pétain) in the Southwark Playhouse production of Peter Ustinov's The Moment of Truth. He was back in Edinburgh again in 2015 for an autobiographical show, An Audience with Rodney Bewes... Who? Bewes's autobiography, A Likely Story, was published in September 2005. It was reported that Bolam had never got on that well with Bewes, due to their different personalities. In 2010, Bewes also claimed his former co-star had refused to allow The Likely Lads to be repeated on network television, preventing him from earning anything from the repeats; "He must be very wealthy; me, I've just got an overdraft and a mortgage". Shortly before he died, in an interview with the Daily Mirror, Bewes once more lamented the loss of his friendship with Bolam. Bolam, however, denied such a rift ever existed, stating after Bewes's death that they "didn't talk for 40 years because of their busy schedules rather than resentment", and he had "nothing but fond memories" of Bewes. Bolam denied he had the ability to block repeats of the TV series. ==Death==

Bewes died on 21 November 2017, six days before his 80th birthday, in his seaside home at Cadgwith in south Cornwall. He is survived by a daughter and three sons. ==Filmography==

Film Television ==References==