Neil Morrissey has never been able to shake of his role as boozy Tony in 'Men Behaving Badly'. Even the adverts he appeared in for Homebase with Leslie Ash still had a feel of Simon Nye's earlier creation to them. In 2004, Nye tried to creating a vehicle for Neil which cast him as London cabbie Barry who lives in bliss with his timid yet fiery wife Carrie. It came about at the same time as the second series of 'Eyes Down'. Seeing the trailers for the show, I eagerly tuned in to the first episode with high hopes. However, all hopes were sadly dashed, and dashed good and proper at that! I have never watched the show since its first broadcast so I have no real recollection of the plots as such but one thing I do remember was that the show was a stinker. It was like watching 'Men Behaving Badly' without Gary. Neil looks lost without Martin Clunes to bounce off and Claire Rushbrook is no Leslie Ash. Even Michelle Gomez comes across as a cardboard cut-out of Dorothy. Mark Williams, who played Barry's friend Kirk, has been in better shows than this such as 'Red Dwarf' and 'Alexei Sayle's Stuff'.Only two series got made, the first of which somehow managed to appear on DVD. It seems highly unlikely that the show will ever be recognised as a forgotten comedy classic. Nye should have instead spent more time making more episodes of 'Men Behaving Badly'.
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