Mail on Sunday, 24 February 2002, by Jaci Stephen. "Sex and the witty" ----------------------------------------------------------- Manchild - BBC2, Tuesday * (Dismal) Sex and the City - C4, Wednesday ***** (Excellent) The Vice - ITV1, Monday **** (Recommended) The Jury - ITV1, Sunday *** (Good) I Met Adolf Eichmann - BBC2, Friday ***** (Excellent) MTA Model Turned Actor - C4, Wednesday **** (Recommended) There are very few certainties in life, but one is that if you put a group of men in a room, the subject of sport will surface. Not just football or rugby, but any sport. Incredibly, during the Winter Olympics, men have even taken to discussing curling: a sort of ice-cleaning contest that makes synchronised swiming look like American basketball. Sport is the thing that stops men from having to discuss relationships, and the greater the proliferation of sporting events on television, the greater the emotional retardation of men. But who cares; the Six Nations rugby tournament is infinitely more interesting than a crowd of blokes namby- pambying about their latest floozie. "What I feel is..." Oh get out of that cave and bring me back a wild boar for tea. All of which are things the makers of *Manchild* should have been told before embarking on the painfully unfunny "comedy" (I use the word loosely) about four middle-aged men who have zilch interest in sport (honestly, not a word). Instead, they pontificate about women, marriage, sex and age, and talk about women's bits like prepubescent boys in a playground. The blueprint for the show is clearly *Sex and the City*, in which four women talk about exactly the same things, but with considerably more wit. In the American hit, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) delivers a voiceover that, each episode, has a central theme. This week's shows looked at SSB (Secret Single Behaviour) and the disparity between how relationships seem and how they actually are. But as well as the philosophising, there are still wonderful, comically poignant moments. For example, Trey's (Kyle MacLachlan) idea to bring his wife a cardboard display baby because he can't give her a real one was an inspired scene (he thought it was hilarious) in this desperate marriage. In *Manchild*, divorced Terry (Nigel Havers) delivers a monologue directly to camera, and not only is it distracting, it doesn't say anything. "It's just a matter of timing," he said, with regard to marriage, divorce, money, etc., etc. His friends, impotent James (Anthony Head), entrepeneurial Patrick (Don Warrington) and unhappily married Gary (Ray Burdis), join him in this philosophical desert, where the four flounder helplessly. Where *Sex and the City*'s women are real characters, Nick Fisher's creations are a collection of cliches; and where Carrie's monologue moves the emotional heart of the drama on, Terry's tries to flesh out what is lacking in the action. The result is a deathly slow pace that makes you just yell for the foursome to do what real men do and talk about the match. [.....] ----------------------------------------------------------- Bentley's Bedlam http://www.BetsyDa.com/bedlam.html This website is for information and entertainment purposes only and is not intended to infringe on copyrights held by others.