This was an absolutely super comedy that the BBC made 2 series of in the 1980's. It centres around a schoolteacher, John Lacey, played brilliantly by Ralph Bates, who comes home from work one day to find out his wife has left him. To add to his woes, in the divorce settlement his wife gets the house and car which he still has to pay for and then installs a new bloke. John settles down in a pokey little flat and sees an ad in a paper for the 1-2-1 club, a meeting group for singles and divorcees. He attends where he meets an assortment of characters, wimpy Ralph, Kirk St Moritz who reckons he is a spy, and the very pretty Kate who confesses to being frigid. All of these meetings are chaired by nymphomaniac Louise whose opening question to any new member was always: 'Were there any sexual problems ?' and when Kevin Lloyd replied yes she nearly jumped with excitement. While sad in some ways this wonderful piece of writing shows that top comedy can be written and acted on a very low budget. This was vastly superior to the US version that came out afterwards and watch the VHS that is around if you can. 9/10
Review of Dear John....
