James Bolam

The Likely Lads has lasted because the characters struck reality. People could identify with them. Mothers could identify with sons, and sons could identify with themselves. The series works so well because there's an underlying truth about it all. That's why classics are classics. When you watch Laurel and Hardy, there's a fundamental truth about them, a believability which I never find with Chaplin. In the same way, you can believe in Bob and Terry. Show less «

One should be judged not by what one is, but by what one does. Also, the media encourage the notion that you are like your parts. Does that mean that you can't play Macbeth unless you go out and murder someone, or that you can only play Hamlet if you don't like your mother? It's just acting. Show less «

I'm having some new track rods fitted on my car. I don't want to know anything about the man who's doing it. Why should he want to know about me? Show less «

In this business, you do one job and then move on. You wipe everything else out - you have to. You can't live in the past.