During the late '70's and early '80's, Diane Keen cornered the market on playing either dizzy debs or harassed wives in sitcoms such as 'The Cuckoo Waltz', 'Rings On Their Fingers' and the now forgotten 'Foxy Lady'. It would not be until the late '80's and the arrival of 'You Must Be The Husband?' that she would finally shake off that persona.Here Keen was the feisty and independent Alice Hammond, a housewife turned best selling novelist. Her marriage to the insecure Tom ( played by former 'Goodies' star Tim-Brooke Taylor ) was happy yet somewhat strained by not only Alice's success ( he works for a failing toilet making company run by the dour-faced Gerald which, pardon the pun, by the end of the series goes down the pan completely ) but also by the constant burdening presence of Miranda, Alice's harridan of an agent who Tom does not get on with at all, as is evidenced by his gesturing a crucifix towards her when she isn't looking.Tom's only friends are darts obsessed Pat ( who is also Tom and Alice's postman. Postman? Pat? Get it? Oh, never mind! ) and Don ( played excellently by Michael Stainton ), the repugnant barman of Tom's local pub, where the beer is as flat as Miranda's personality.Colin Bostock-Smith specialised in writing predictable, unreal, unexceptional sitcoms such 'Me & My Girl', 'Trouble In Mind' and this, but he is more than capable of writing lines that bring a smile to the face. Tim Brooke-Taylor gelled with the gorgeous Diane Keen and in my opinion, was funnier here than he was in 'The Goodies' ( which personally I am not a big fan of ). Sheila Steafel also did full justice to her role as the snooty Miranda. Garfield Morgan specialised playing dull authority figures in sitcoms while the late Brian Hall ( who played Terry the chef in the excellent second series of 'Fawlty Towers' ) was hilarious as Pat, whose skills at darts matched Don's pint pouring skills.'You Must Be The Husband?' ran for two seasons. It was popular at the time but apart a re-run on UK Gold in the early '90's it has now been forgotten. Not a classic sitcom by any means whatsoever, but harmless fun.

Now that the 'traditional' sitcom has been pretty well killed off in favour of spoof docusoaps, sketch shows and character comedies, it's easy to knock this kind of programme, but having watched it at the time I can honestly say that YOU MUST BE THE HUSBAND really wasn't as bad as some people have said it was. The cast worked well together, there was a nice thread of surrealism running through the scripts and nobody does farcical panic quite like Tim Brooke-Taylor. I later saw him in a stage production in a similar role and he stole the show, in fact, there is a certain 'stagey' quality to this series which might not have helped its cause as far as the critics were concerned. Although the chances of this being repeated are slim, if you enjoyed Tim's patriotic coward persona in THE GOODIES, you'll have a fun time. Sheila Steafel, Garfield Morgan and Terry Hall lent memorable support in the later episodes.