More Than Likely: A Memoir

by Dick Clement, Ian le Frenais

The TV comedies Porridge and The Likely Lads are Clement and La Frenais' best known work but in their long career they have also created scripts for films, plays and musicals such as The Commitments. This dual biography intersperses personal reminiscences with memories of their many productions and anecdotes about stars including Richard Burton, Sean Connery and Tracey Ullman.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

304 pages, hardcover

Published September 19, 2019

About the author

Dick Clement, OBE (born 5 September 1937) is an English writer best known for his writing partnership with Ian La Frenais. They are most famous for television series including The Likely Lads, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Porridge, Lovejoy and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. (Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Rob Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over their 50-year career Dick Clement and Ian Le Frenais amassed more than 60 IMDB credits to their name. These include The Commitments, Tracey (Ullman) Takes On, Flushed Away and The Bank Job, plus uncredited script doctor work on the likes of Never Say Never Again and theatre activities like Anyone For Dennis and the West End musical version of Billy Liar. They undoubtedly possess a gift for crafting words. Therefore my expectations were high.

But, unfortunately, I felt the style in this book was a little disappointing. Each writer narrates their stories in a kind of tag-team arrangement. They drop names liberally. The enthusiastic praise for yet another “lovely” and “talented” acquaintance becomes repetitive. Plus we don't get a huge amount of specific detail on their most popular creations. 'Porridge', 'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads' or "Auf Wiedersehen" for example. It's practically like a transcript of a chat show with a disjointed and slightly random narrative. And its scant on autobiographical details, even though these are often the best bits.

In summary, it's all entertaining enough but somewhat tepid.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais are best known as the writing team behind two of Britain's most loved sitcoms, The Likely Lads and Porridge but they also have a whole string of other TV and movie writing credits.

This joint memoir is a galaxy of star anecdotes - Brando, Best, Burton and that's just a few of the Bs - while these are entertaining and funny I really wanted to know a bit more about some of the projects Clement/La Frenais have been involved in and the creative process that went into them.

Still, this is a fun read and it's comforting to know that even very successful writers have a cupboard full of unsold and rejected scripts.

[Jon Bounds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining and funny. Those wanting real meat on the famous works - or lives - of the authors will be disappointed. Structured largely by star encounter: a football match with Ronnie Wood is all well enough, but not revealing of much at all.

[Andrew Foxley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dick Clement and Ian Le Frenais have had a long and successful career writing for TV and film, so there are plenty of stories to tell. 'More Than Likely' tries to cram in as many as possible, the telling of the stories told in each writer's voice in a kind of tag-team arrangement. They've met and worked with innumerable icons of stage and screen, so the names are dropped liberally, but there's usually a good tale attached to each, very entertainingly told.

It was in some ways a shame that there wasn't more detail on the writing of some of their most famous and enduring projects - 'Porridge' or 'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads' for instance - but given that there's a 50+ year career to cover here, it's hard to quibble, especially when some projects have already been well covered elsewhere. It's particularly nice to hear their thoughts on the projects that didn't make it big - either because they were made and flopped (it's nice to know they had great affection for 'Still Crazy', which I remember seeing at the cinema, which subsequently seemed to vanish into obscurity), or because they were never produced at all. There's a lot to enjoy in this book, and I raced through it.

[David R Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm surprised these two talented TV and film script writers are still alive after the vast quantities of fine wine and top-restaurant food they seem to have put away over the six decades since their brilliant creation, The Likely Lads, first hit the screens.

Clement and La Frenais take it in turn to reminisce as they air-mile their way through long and lucrative careers of writing, editing and directing some of the best-known TV comedies and films of the second half of the twentieth century and beyond. The result is wall-to-wall name-dropping as they work and hobnob with the rich and famous of the entertainment world. Their wide collection of opulent friends, associates and potential hirers of their services includes an unhealthy number of politically dubious characters.

Indeed, for two writers so adept at producing socially nuanced and grounded characters in their work, they appear largely untroubled by affairs of the world or by events and developments outside of their own environs. The book is readable, but I had expected so much more from the creators of the immortal Terry and Bob.

[Colin Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining read. I knew of Clement and Le Frenais work mainly from their TV comedies but they there is so much more than that. They have worked on a lot of films as well both producing their own work and doing rewrites for other scripts too.
It's full of anecdotes. I'd have loved to have read more about Porridge and particularly Auf Wiedersehen Pet (which was such a good show, my favourite work of theirs), but it's a good read all the same. Some of the reviews accuse them of name dropping but I can't blame them when they've worked with such a long list of people. Great book about one of the great writing partnerships. If you've ever enjoyed any of their work it's worth a read.

[Ben Baker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book and its authors. They've written so much I love, credited and uncredited, on TV and film - projects I'd love to know more about. And yet as they hit around 1975 this becomes "hey, and then I met this famous person and Im great pals with other famous person!", especially as they move from London to LA. There's also an increasing tone of how its audiences fault for not liking their flops, not theirs. One show is described in two words: "a sitcom".

There are interesting stories throughout but the rest - why is there a chapter on Ian liking The Rolling Stones? - utterly drags down the whole thing.

Recommend it? Not likely.

[Andy Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this memoir by two of England’s greatest writers, who were responsible for The Likely Lads, Porridge, Auf Wiedersehen Pet and many more. Both Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais have certainly lived the life over their years working in the entertainment business. They have also worked with some of the biggest names too - like Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, Billy Connolly, the list goes on. They tell their tale with panache, humour and insight and More Than Likely keeps the attention from first page to last.

[Philip Carman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really interesting - they have done so much more than TV sitcoms, (which I wasn't aware of until reading the book), and the anecdotes don't get boring at all.

[Ann Baxter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent duel autobiography of 2 of our finest writers. Some great stories

[Willo Johnston · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe it's my fault for assuming this would be an exploration of their writing process, lessons learned from their stellar career etc; but this was basically 277 pages of name-dropping.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too skimpy.

[Mark Potts · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like the Clement-Le Frenais cannon, you'll enjoy reading this.

[Ray Smillie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a mixed bag. Enjoyed some of the anecdotes but it could have done with more to entertain the readers. I expected more to be honest from two quality writers.

[Mick Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

a very good dual biography,plenty of behind ghe scene stores and anecdotes about the actors and celebrities they have met.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this from messers Dick Clements and Ian le Frenais as much as I enjoyed the programmes and films they created and wrote for, from The Likely Lads to Porridge, from Auf Wiedersehen, Pet to Lovejoy and films such as The Commitments and Never Say Never Again.

Set out as more of memoir, I particularly like the way the chapters were broken up into subjects and shared between the two writers and boy did these guy have some stories to tell. They are very much a couple of likely lads themselves.

A great read about the comedy programmes of my youth.

[Richard Luck · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a joy to spend time with your heroes and come away admiring even more than you did before.