This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Please don't spend money on this.

One of my all time favorites.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

(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.

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!

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.