James Bolam Biography, Age, Wife, Net Worth, Family, Illness, Movies and TV Shows

James Bolam Biography

James Bolam (James Christopher Bolam) was born on 16th June 1935 in Sunderland, United Kingdom. He is an actor known for his role as Terry Collier in The Likely Lads and its follow-up Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads?. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours.

He attended Bede Grammar School, Sunderland. Bolam then attended Bemrose School in Derby. Bolam trained as a chartered accountant, before becoming an actor, and formally trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, London.

Bolam first appeared on screens in the early 1960s, initially in television shows such as Z-Cars and the Northern social realist films A Kind of Loving and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, both in 1962, and with John Thaw in the Granada serial, Inheritance in 1967.

It was The Likely Lads, with Bolam as Terry Collier and Rodney Bewes as Bob Ferris, which made Bolam a star during its 1964 to 1966 run. James Bolam is best known for his roles as Terry Collier in The Likely Lads and its sequel Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Jack Ford in When the Boat Comes In, Roy Figgis in Only When I Laugh, Trevor Chaplin in The Beiderbecke Trilogy, Dr Arthur Gilder in Born and Bred, Jack Halford in New Tricks and the title character of Grandpa in the CBeebies programme Grandpa in My Pocket.

James Bolam Age

• He was born on 16th June 1935 in Sunderland, United Kingdom.

James Bolam Wife

James Bolam is married to Susan Jameson who is an English actress popularly known for her role as Esther Lane in the BBC crime drama New Tricks between 2003 and 2013.

Susan Jameson and James Bolam acted together in several series including an early episode of The Likely Lads as well as When The Boat Comes In, New Tricks, Grandpa in My Pocket and an ITV legal drama entitled Close and True (screened in 2000).

James Bolam Daughter

• James and Susan has a daughter, Lucy, and two grandchildren.

James Bolam Net Worth

• He has an estimated net worth of $300,000.

James Bolam Family

James Bolam is married to Susan Jameson and they have a daughter Lucy.

James Bolam Illness

This information will be updated soon.

James Bolam and Rodney Bewes

James Bolam and Rodney Bewes co stared in The Likely Lads but they later fell off when Rodney revealed Bolam’s wife was pregnant in a 1976 newspaper interview. Rodney called and apologized but they never talked again.

‘I’m very poor so I have to tour one-man shows because Jimmy has buried The Likely Lads. You have to sign a waiver for them to repeat it and he stopped it while he did New Tricks [where he spent eight years as the former chief superintendent Jack Halford}.Well, New Tricks has been on so long, and is so repeated, that he must be very wealthy; me,
I’ve just got an overdraft and a mortgage.He should let it be repeated on BBC2 or BBC1; to stop other people earning money is cruel.’

James Bolam claimed that they never talked due to their busy schedules and not because of resentment. In 2010 Rodney claimed that Bolam had prevented the BBC from showing repeats of The Likely Lads.

‘There was no fall-out at all, as far as I was concerned.We worked together very happily and very well, enjoyed each other’s company and when we finished, we finished.This is what happens in acting. You work with people, you get to know them, you like them, we have a great time and the job finishes and you go off and it all starts again with other people and you can’t keep contact with everybody that you know.

‘I think that Rodney wanted to do some more Likely Lads and I never did, I felt that what we had done was to me so perfect and so right that to try and bring it back.After we finished it the writers went on to do Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and then they went off to America and the success of that series lay in the strength of those scripts.There
was some suggestion that we had other writers come in and I just thought ‘well, I don’t think it will work’ and so I didn’t want to do it, I was busy doing other things.’

James Bolam Movies and TV Shows

James Bolam Movies

• 1999: The End of the Affair
• 1962: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
• 1964: Murder Most Foul
• 1976: The Likely Lads
• 1982: The Plague Dogs
• 2003: To Kill a King
• 1962: A Kind of Loving
• 1997: The Missing Postman
• 1996: Stella Does Tricks
• 1975: In Celebration
• 1997: The Island on Bird Street
• 1971: Crucible of Terror
• 1972: Straight On till Morning
• 2009: The Last Days of Lehman Brothers
• 1995: Clockwork Mice
• 1968: Otley
• 1967: Half a Sixpence
• 2002: Harold Shipman: Doctor Death
• 2000: It Was an Accident
• 1983: Clash of Loyalties
• 1999: Midsomer Murders: Death of a Stranger
• 2000: Dirty Tricks
• 1998: The Stalker’s Apprentice
• 2012: Unconditional
• 1994: Seaview Knights

James Bolam TV Shows

• 2003 – 2015: New Tricks
• 1964 – 1966: The Likely Lads
• 1976 – 1981: When the Boat Comes In
• 1973 – 1974: Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?
• Since 2009: Grandpa in My Pocket
• 1985: The Beiderbecke Affair
• 1979 – 1982: Only When I Laugh
• 2002 – 2005: Born and Bred
• 1988: The Beiderbecke Connection
• 1987: The Beiderbecke Tapes
• 1991 – 1994: Second Thoughts
• Since 2000: Close and True
• 1988: Andy Capp
• 1967: Inheritance
• Since 1986: Room At The Bottom (1986)
• 1985 – 1988: The Beiderbecke Trilogy
• Since 1987: Father Matthew’s Daughter
• 2000: Pay and Display
• 1977 – 1991: The Channel Four Show
• Dirty Tricks

James Bolam and Rodney Bewes Feud

James Bolam and Rodney Bewes co starred in the classic BBC sitcom The Likely Lads and its follow-up Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads?. The show is considered as a classic of British situation comedy.

James Bolam and Rodney Bewes had a fallout in 1976 which lead to the killing of the show and resulted in them never speaking in the 40 years before Bewes’ death.

The rupture came in 1976 when Bewes told a radio reporter about the Bolam’s wife’s pregnancy, including the fact she had told her husband: “You know how Daphne [Bewes’s wife] has had three? Well I’m just having one.”

Bolam was a very discrete man and kept his personal life private. Bolam was shocked by the indiscretion and nearly crashed his car when he heard the interview broadcast.

He could not be consoled when Bewes phoned him up to apologise, claiming he thought the story was already public.

James Bolam hung up the phone and that was it: no more episodes of Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads?

In 2015 Bewe’s wife Daphne died but James never reached out to Bewes.

“I got letters from people from all over the world but there’s not a letter from Jimmy about Daphne dying.I didn’t expect him to get in touch. It would have given me a dreadful shock if he did. He knew her
very well. We were all great friends when we worked together.” Bewes said.

James Bolam also withheld his permission for TV repeats of Likely Lads episodes, leading many to wonder if it was deliberate ploy to prevent Bewes from earning royalties. Bolam publicly stated that he did not want there to be TV repeats because he had “moved on” as an actor.

“Now he doesn’t want to talk about The Likely Lads at all. He hates it. He thinks it’s beneath him. It’s not beneath him – it’s what made him.Terry was the best part he could ever be offered. That’s what he’s remembered for. He thinks it affected his career as a great actor. That’s the trouble with actors – they get egos.” Bewes said in 2015.

After the death of Bewes, James Bolam denied any feud between him and Bewes.

“This is what happens in acting. You work with people, who get to know them, you like them, we have a great time and the job finishes and you go off and it all starts again with other people and you can’t keep contact with everybody that you know.”

“I think that Rodney wanted to do some more Likely Lads and I never did, I felt that what we had done was, to me, so perfect and so right that to try and bring it back… There was some suggestion that we had other writers come in and I just thought, ‘Well, I don’t think it will work,’ and so I didn’t want to do it. I was busy doing other things.”

Bolam insisted that he had nothing but fond memories of their work together. “I am very sad to hear about Rodney’s passing and my thoughts are with his family,” he said. “What I will always remember is all the happy times we had making the show.”

James Bolam Video