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James Bolam (born June 16, 1938 in Sunderland, England) is a British actor, perhaps most associated with his portrayal of the lovable layabout Terry Collier in the hit BBC sitcoms The Likely Lads and Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?.

After attending Bede Grammar School, Sunderland, Bolam left the North-East. Much like his fellow Likely Lad Rodney Bewes, he was formally trained in London and first appeared on screens in the early 1960s, initially in popular TV shows such as Z-Cars and the gritty Northern movies A Kind of Loving and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. He appeared along with John Thaw in the 1967 Granada TV serial, Inheritance. He also allegedly roomed with future glam rocker Marc Bolan during this time, although this is disputed.

The Likely Lads made Bolam a huge star during its 1964 to 1966 run. Bolam himself adapted the shows for BBC radio soon afterwards, and then went on to appear in movies such as O Lucky Man!, Otley and Half a Sixpence before the lads returned, in colour, in 1973.

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads ran for two series, in 1973 and 1974 respectively. These were repeated/re-run in late 1974, and a new episode, a 45-minute Xmas special, was broadcast on Christmas Eve that year.

In 1975 Bolam appeared alongside the original cast in a further BBC radio series adapted from the 1973 TV series, and in 1976 there was a further reunion in a feature film spin-off from the series, simply entitled The Likely Lads. (Bolam's co-star Bewes revealed in 2005 that the two actors had not spoken in nearly thirty years, roughly the amount of time since that film had been made.) That year, Bolam made a return to straight drama in the BBC television series When the Boat Comes In, which ran until 1981.

Since then, Bolam has gone on to become one of the highest-paid stars on British TV, mostly in comedies, appearing in shows such as The Beiderbecke Affair, Only When I Laugh, Second Thoughts, Pay And Display, New Tricks, Midsomer Murders, Born and Bred (playing Dr. Arthur Gilder) and Andy Capp, where he played the title role.

In 1982 he provided the voice for The Tod in the animated film version of The Plague Dogs.

In 2002, he also played the notorious Harold Shipman in the ITV adaptation of Brian Masters book on the case, Prescription for Murder. He portrayed the eponymous Prime Minister in the 2006 BBC documentary The Plot Against Harold Wilson.

He also appeared in Frank Loesser's musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at the Chichester Festival Theatre during the 2005 summer season.

Fiercely private, Bolam lives in Wisborough Green, West Sussex with his wife, the actress Susan Jameson (who co-starred with him in the tv series When the Boat Comes In and the current series New Tricks). They have a daughter.

• James Bolam at the Internet Movie Database