It Takes a Worried Man

In reply to another posting, no you are not on your own remembering this series, As well as starring Peter Tilbury, it was written by him as was the dead pan humour of "Shelley" with Hywel Benett.

The last series saw him find a soul mate in Sue Holderness who also fitted just perfectly with the idea that everyday, everything was going to go wrong

Brilliant Sitcom with good old British sense of humour and I wish that someone would release this and the early Shelly on DVD or Video as I would love to see them again, comedies like these were always shown at varying times as sport etc would always take precedence over a good laugh, so much for English producers sense of entertainment.

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.

I certainly remember this series. Though I saw only a few episodes, the series sticks in my mind because in most of them, it was essential to the script that the elegant Sue Holderness strip off to her undies.

Another series, Chance in a Million, with Simon Callow, was memorable for the same reason (as well as for being very funny), though in that one it was the Oscar-winning Brenda Blethyn who couldn't keep her clothes on.

Cheers

Nick

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?

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!