More Than Likely: A Memoir

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.