It Takes a Worried Man

To my mind, Peter Tilbury is one of the unsung heroes of UK TV script writing, His scripts were always funny, erudite, moving and, above all, intelligent. Some of the monologues written for the Shelley series, as well as the characterisations, were stunning. A dry downbeat humour that always hit the spot.

In the "worried man" series I still remember his visits to his psychiatrist where he ended up acting as counsellor rather than the counselled (the psychiatrist was always having problems with his partner Gerald and his love for muesli - "trudging through all those oats").

The very fact that I can remember so much from the series and Shelley pays tribute to the excellence of his writing.

Then of course, a few years later, was the Chef series, with Lenny Henry. Equally stunning. I always wondered if Peter was a genuine foodie or if he carried out meticulous research (e.g looking for the one unpasteurised Stilton still being mad Now, thank heavens, a reality in Stichelton).

Where is he and writers like him these days?

Peter Tilbury is not unlike a (very, very) British version of Woody Allen, endlessly complaining about life, death, the universe, his love-life, his boring job and vanishing hair. Nicholas Le Provost is his alleged therapist, who doesn't listen but instead complains to him about his own love-life and his other patients. Christopher Benjamin is his boss, who ought to sack him but grudgingly admires his lack of work-ethic and complains to him about the modern world and his daughter's awful boyfriend.

Struck by memories of people quoting lines at school I've just watched the first series and found it hilarious. I don't know why; it just has an alchemy. The dialogue is great and Tilbury, Benjamin and Le Provost are brilliant in delivery but I still can't say why often relatively ordinary lines cracked me up quite as much as they did. Somewhere online I once found someone who'd worked on the show reminiscing about the very cameramen cracking up, the only time he'd seen professionals do that, so it isn't just me.

It shouldn't work! It's just people sitting around yakking! But it does.

The good news is that Network DVD are planning to issue all 3 series of "It Takes A Worried Man" on DVD, with Series 1 already available. The even better news is that - having just watched Series 1 again for the first time since it was broadcast - it's still as witty and as literate as I remember it being. Peter Tilbury never dumbs down his writing, paying his audience the compliment of assuming that they're intelligent and cultured enough to enjoy even the cleverest of his characters' witticisms, much as he did when he wrote the marvellous early episodes of "Shelley".

I just wish someone could explain to me why a comedy show as brilliant as "It Takes A Worried Man" currently only has an IMDb rating of 3.8/10. An injustice that inexplicable ought to be enough to make worried men and women of us all!

I remember this series very fondly. Great performances all round, not just Peter Tibury but also Christopher Benjamin and Nicholas Le Prevost. I was probably much too young for this show when it first aired - I was a teenager and it was all about a mid-life crisis if I remember correctly, but somehow it struck a chord. Fans of this show probably also enjoyed Agony, Shelley and Reginald Perrin. (Well I did anyway.) I would love to see this show again - I wonder how well it has held up after all these years. I think the closest thing to this type of comedy more recently was Paul Whitehouse's Happiness which I also loved. His new series HELP has just started and that looks very promising.

I remember this series very fondly. I'm pretty sure it was written by Peter Tilbury as well as staring him although IMDb doesn't say who wrote the series, perhaps someone out there knows? As ITV have never repeated the (two?) series I can't tell! And by the way, what has happened to Peter Tilbury since 1993? The early Shelly episodes were written by him and Shelly must rate as one of the funniest British comedy series ever. It Takes a Worried Man doesn't sound like the subject of a comedy, being the story of a man recently divorced a worried about every thing from losing his hair to losing his job, but somehow it worked and it helped that the main character was actually likable and you wanted him to succeed. Come on ITV / Granada / whoever, how 'bout some repeats?