Sunday Express, 24 February 2002, by David Stephenson.
"Review Television: Arresting Times Ahead With This All-Star Jury"
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[.....] So the verdict on *The Jury*? Stay in on Sunday 
nights.

The same cannot be said for Tuesday nights. If you can't 
stomach *Footballers' Wives* on ITV1, you are now offered 
*Manchild*, a new series on BBC2. It's about four middle-
aged men having a midlife crisis - although it's a pretty 
happy crisis.

Three of the quartet are free and single and putting it 
about like it's their last day on Earth. It's a solid cast - 
Nigel Havers, Don Warrington and Anthony Head - but all are 
trying very hard to make an almost-comedy, almost-drama, 
almost work. In the end it doesn't.

The main plotline involved Anthony Head "entertaining" a 
young woman in his converted railway carriage, but failing 
to perform. This was tedious rather than funny, as was his 
visit to the doctor for an implant. And why is everybody 
riding a motorbike?

This is such a cliche.

The language too is very ripe, but quite why we needed to 
hear this sad stuff is beyond me. If the suggestion is that 
because these men are now free from the shackles of wives 
and children and can revert to juvenile language, it's a 
desperately simplistic one. And who would have ever thought 
that nice Nigel Havers, whose father was an attorney 
general, would utter an F-word on national television? Well 
done, Nigel. You can now be talked about in the same breath 
as Ali G. You must be very proud. But don't worry; most of 
us were using similar language to describe *Manchild*.

[.....]



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