Here’s a most welcome release for the first series of a sitcom that ran for three series between 1981 and 1983 (the first two on ITV, the last on Channel 4), and which seems pretty much forgotten now. A pity, as this acerbic, dead-pan comedy with a somewhat bleak world view feels very much like the missing link between traditional Seventies sit-coms and the overly self-aware stuff that Channel 4 now regularly trots out.

The show was written by Peter Tilbury (who also created and wrote the best series of another cynical sit-com, Shelly), and he also stars as Phillip Roath, a thirty-five year old, Guardian-reading, psychiatrist-seeing, work-hating divorcee. His employers despair of the fact that he rarely does any work (but would be too difficult to fire), his love life is in tatters (a new girlfriend appears in the first few episodes, but even this remarkably world-weary woman soon tires of his bleak outlook on life), and his therapist is more interested in discussing his own problems that dealing with his patient.

It Takes a Worried Man… is surprisingly biting for a mainstream ITV sit-com – not just in the dark comedy, but also in some of the language. Even today, you’d probably have complaints about a character calling someone “a little shit” pre-watershed, and I’m fairly certain that this was a mid-evening show (no doubt someone will tell me if I’m wrong). It’s also quite progressive for the time – given that shows like Are You Being Served? were still on air at the time, it’s interesting and refreshing to see that Roath’s psychiatrist, Simon (Nicholas le Provost) is a gay man who isn’t camp and who’s sexuality isn’t played for cheap laughs – in fact, it’s entirely unremarked on, and his difficult relationship with boyfriend Gerald is treated as no different than anyone else’s life of misery and depression.

This is a very verbal show – there are no sight gags, just long bouts of verbal jousting in a limited number of locations. This gives the show a rather unique feel. Its smart, cynical humour holds up rather well (if you disregard the laughter track) and Tilbury is perfect as the self-absorbed, lazy and depressed main character – you certainly can’t say he’s given himself a glamorous role!

It Takes a Worried Man… deserves to be better remembered than it is. In the absence of TV repeats, this DVD is much appreciated, and whether you remember the show from the first time around or are simply looking for a good dose of black humour, it’s well worth checking out.

DAVID FLINT

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