Daily Record, 28 February 2002, by Annie Brown.
"TV with Annie Brown. Sex and a dose of pity - sad to see 
blokes have the same hang-ups as the girls."
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If *Manchild* teaches anything, it's that men don't improve 
with age and what a major disappointment that is.

But it's refreshing, if a tad disconcerting, to step in to 
the world of the crisis-ridden male for a change.

*Manchild* is the same comfort zone for men in their late 
40s as *Sex and the City* is for women in their 30s.

Part escapism and part reaffirmation of all the same old 
insecurities, it has a fixation with age, sex and love and 
the loneliness of marriage or the frustrations of freedom. 
*Manchild* follows four men knocking on the door of 50, but 
behaving like they're on the right side of 30.

They're solvent, predatory and self-obsessed and never 
really grew out of the playground ritual of who can pee the 
highest.

It's superbly cast, slickly written and women of all ages 
should watch and learn that although men holiday in Venus, 
they will always live on Mars.

Terry is *Manchild*'s Carrie, our host, who, freed from the 
manacles of marriage, now views life as his "fat juicy 
oyster." He is a firm believer in "you're as young as the 
woman you feel" (circa 25) until you talk to her and then 
you just feel old.

Terry, played by the still dishy Nigel Havers, has learned 
just one thing from his painfully disillusioned ex-wife - 
"always cleanse, tone and moisturise." Yes, he is that skin 
deep.

Then there's James (Anthony Head), the orthodontist who can 
pull the girls, but whose balloon deflates before he can fly 
them to dizzy new heights of ecstasy.  He enlists the help 
of a surgeon who increases the balloon's size, but fails to 
give it enough fire for take off.

Only Gary (Ray Burdis), the Essex boy with loadsa money, is 
married, to Cheryl, played by ex-EastEnder Lindsay Coulson.

Cheryl is a different kind of monster - an Essex girl who 
got old.

"You need to get the chemicals in the pool checked - you've 
got eyes as red as a baboon's a**e," is a typical communique 
with Gary.

After a shaky first part, *Manchild* is now as fresh as the 
faces of the characters' nubile conquests.

[.....]



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