It Takes a Worried Man

IMDb rating system is beyond baffling - how can an arithmetic mean of 8.6 and a median of 9 possibly equate to a weighted average of 4.2?!

This was a fantastic series. If any aspiring comedy writers take the trouble to watch this, they will see that Peter Tilbury's technique defies every single piece of received wisdom on sitcom writing. The plots are wafer thin, Philip Roath seldom finds himself up a tree that he has to get down from, there is precious little conflict to be resolved and it is all tell and no show: most of the laughs come from the characters we never see: Gerald, the analyst's boyfriend, the boss's Mohican son-in-law, and Napley's delinquent sprog.

Tilbury's central performance is workmanlike; the comparison with Hywel Bennet who took the part he had written for himself in Shelley, is interesting. ITAWM demonstrates the advantages of having the writer deliver his own lines; Tilbury knows exactly what he is trying to achieve. But Shelley shows how a great actor can lift a script with a performance that exceeds the writer's vision.

The supporting performances, particularly from Benjamin and the wonderful Le Prevost, are excellent.

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.

This series was incredibly literate and funny. It's a tragedy that it hasn't been seen since. With so many tired repeats aired, surely it can't be difficult to get the necessary clearances for this to be seen again.

Peter Tilbury is impressive as the intelligent worker who'd rather not (work that is ) and whose intelligence prevents him from taking his desk bound duties seriously, Christopher Benjamin compelling as the boss who's unable to do more than harbour the suspicion that his employee does as little work as possible. A gem of eighties comedy based on disengagement from society.