Rodney Bewes: Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? Edinburgh
In Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais’s much-loved sitcom Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?, Bob and Terry remained perpetually stuck in an increasingly purgatorial loop of Newcastle pubs, thwarted ambitions and unsatisfactory but inescapable male friendship. But Rodney Bewes, at least, was an eager participant in the salad days of swinging London. Bewes always seemed the cheerful, accommodating and outgoing McCartney to James Bolam’s surly, querulous Lennon. And, sure enough, this audience with Bewes promises tales of hijinks in old Soho with the likes of Laurence Olivier and Raquel Welch. In among the presumably laddish banter, it will also be interesting to get the lowdown on his fractured relationship with Bolam, to whom he apparently hasn’t spoken in 40 years. Might we have revisited the lads in their dotage had things been different?
The Assembly Rooms, to 30 Aug
PH
Hen Harrier Eve, Buxton
Guardian readers may be unaware of the “Glorious Twelfth”, the annual kick-off to the red grouse shooting season. While gamekeepers insist the countryside depends on the vast sums the season generates, conservationists argue that pre-season practices – including the illegal persecution of hen harriers to up grouse numbers – are destroying moorland ecosystems. Hen Harrier Day (held yearly on the Sunday before the 12th) raises awareness and urges greater protection of this iconic and once-prolific bird of prey which now faces extinction in Britain. Preceding tomorrow’s rallies across the country, Hen Harrier Eve – a night of raptor-friendly readings, films and talks – will feature presenter Chris Packham (who has designed an anarchic T-shirt logo for the cause), author and activist Mark Cocker and artist Jeremy Deller. It’s also worth keeping a beady eye out for 13-year-old ornithologist and blogger Findlay Wilde, potentially the next Packham in the making.
Palace Hotel, Sat
CB
The Shoes Talk: Clarks In Jamaica, London
It is one of the great mysteries of reggae that its musicians’ footwear of choice is – in its home country at least – more readily associated with sensible shoes loathed by schoolkids and loved by their dads. Yet Clarks, Somerset purveyor of the original desert boot, has been championed in tunes by Kingston stars from Ranking Joe to Dillinger, whose 1976 CB 200 is one of the “natty” brand’s earliest eulogies. This talk explores the 60-year love affair between Jamaica and the British high street, with four experts/enthusiasts in this very particular field. They include London-based musician Al “Fingers” Newman, who published a book on the subject three years ago, and Bunny “Striker” Lee, seminal Jamaican music producer, shoemaker’s son and one of the first fledgling stars to visit London in the 1960s. For those who want to literally get their dancing shoes on, it concludes with a Fingers Newman DJ set of historical Clarks-inspired tracks.
V&A, SW7, Fri
SS
