(This review is based on the first series.)'It Takes a Worried Man' seems to have attracted some good reviews from people who remember it from back in the early eighties. I'm almost certain that those reviews would change if those same contributors had seen this sitcom again more recently.Unfortunately, this series seems to come off as a flat 'stand-up' routine that's been re-written for a six-part TV show. It revolves around Philip Roath (Peter Tilbury) who is a selfish, lazy man in his thirties. The weak gags bounce off the one- dimensional characters in his life which include his boss, a colleague, a secretary, a girlfriend and a shrink... none of whom are allowed to develop enough to engage our attention and affection.Particularly annoying is the late (and otherwise talented) Andrew Tourell doing his impersonation of the brilliant Doc 'Feeling a bit chesty?' Morrissy from the Reggie Perrin sitcom.It isn't clear who the main character is trying to relate to as he's too young to be complaining about being bald and losing his teeth... especially as he has a full set of both! This makes the stodgy script come off as disingenuous.Finally, there's nothing happening in between the monologues and there's no story arc to cling to. The entire series' premise is just Roath's ramblings which soon get wearisome because there's nothing else to maintain the interest of the viewer.The writer (who also plays the main role in this) had better success with another sit-com, 'Shelley', but even that was due mostly to the enormous talent of the lead, Hywel Bennett.

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.

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?

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.