Don't Forget to Write! (1977–1979) User Reviews

Totally excellent series which NEEDS to be a DVD

[snouty · 9/10 · 6 May 2007]

I also remember this show very fondly. George Cole's character was perpetually blocked and his best friend Francis Matthews was always very successful and prolific. George Cole and Francis Matthews were VERY good in this show, but I adored the late great Gwen Watford as his wife.

I can't remember what her catch phrase was exactly, but every time George Cole's character explained WHY he'd gone to such lengths to avoid any work and cause huge upset in the household, she's deliberately under-react. "Yes, I see" she would say, very angry and about to explode, but not till she got out of earshot. She put over the exasperation very well. Wish I could remember the exact phrase but it was priceless...

I do miss Gwen. She was very sexy in this role, despite being middle aged. All around wonderful show. PLEASE put it on DVD as soon as possible.

Great comedy series!

[redmondson15 · 8/10 · 9 August 2006]

I remember this as a really enjoyable comedy series, with some lovely performances by skilled actors, such as George Cole, Gwen Watford, Francis Matthews, and Daphne Heard, to mention just four.

Light comedy at it's best! Series of this quality are just not made any more - too civilised, I suppose, and not sensational enough...

Another aspect of the series was it's uniqueness - I don't recall any other comedy series that was centred around a writer's inability to write, set within a family context!

I noticed that a previous reviewer said that it should be released on DVD - well, I, for one, would buy it!

Dry and erudite comedy too good to be so long unseen

[HillstreetBunz · 8/10 · 16 June 2014]

I remember in the brief time that this show aired it was quietly posted and disappeared in much the same way. I don't think I saw it all, but I remember that I found it unusually adult for the times (1970s era of Man about the house etc) witty and droll. In those days there was far less air time available in the UK, and we hadn't adopted the 'syndication' system favoured by our multi-channel watching American cousins. So many shows came and went and were never seen again, with no home video much less DVDs that was the end of that. I would love the chance to see this again, Gwen Watfords intelligent confident warm middle aged woman, not there to make up the numbers nor to provide decoration... Such a character would sadly still be unusual today. George Cole as good as ever...I can't imagine why it didn't last other than maybe it was gone before we knew it was there. Like another reviewer, BBC4 should unearth some of these high class lost gems before they are lost forever.

I know the recordings still exist.

[imdb-2624 · 10/10 · 24 August 2003]

In my time as a BBC Video Tape engineer I managed to find several Phillips VCR recordings of episodes from both series. I made copies and lent them to a play writer friend - now famous - who loves them. I have been told by contacts that all the episodes do still exist in the BBC archives, but I failed to find them when I did a search many years ago. It was the Video Tape editor who told me they existed, so I expect they do! No reason not to release or repeat them then is there? I believe that this series is a favorite of Mr. Cole too!

The recordings do exist.

[Lackary · 16 May 2005]

The recordings of this series do exist and I believe they are in the archives of York University. In spite of the wonderful performances by George Cole and Gwen Watford the BBC didn't like this series at all for some reason best known to them. They played the usual trick of putting the second series out later and later at night - why they play this game is beyond me but play it they do once it has been decided, presumably by the Drama Controller (if there is such a thing) that they wish to be disassociated. I doubt if anything can be done about getting them to change their minds and show it again and it would probably not find favour with present day audiences. Perhaps the University of York could do a special showing but I think it is unlikely for copyright reasons. It would in itself make a very good episode. Of course Gordon Maple (George Cole) would find that he was refused admission while his friend would be a guest of honour.

The last intelligent TV comedy ever

[graemebeswick · 10/10 · 15 June 2014]

The most wonderful thing about this wonderful series is that it was broadcast with no moronic audience soundtrack - neither real nor manufactured. There was no canned laughter. The real live audience was allowed to listen for itself and react accordingly. Was this the last time on British television that this happened ? I rather think so. I must confess to being very depressed that only one of the preceding comments mentions this - but on the other hand I am reassured that at least one other person remembers. I was starting to doubt my own memory. I confess that I only saw the first series - thankfully all of it, devotedly, despite working swing shifts at the time which made any TV watching very difficult. However for the same reason I was totally unaware until half an hour ago that there had ever been a second series. Maybe that did have a laughter track - who knows?

brilliant comedy - very much missed

[tbaggs-36322 · 10/10 · 6 August 2015]

This I rate as the best TV sit-com ever. Since finding out about the parallel with reality, a re-run would be most interesting. The quietness, dryness and intelligence of the wit made this stand above anything else at that time. It is difficult to compare against later TV programs (time/memory) and there have been only one of two good contenders for best situation comedy; the rest, I find, range from just bearable to simply unwatchable. The most mediocre seem to be repeated ad nauseam. We Missed the 2nd series. I didn't know there as a 2nd series until now, after reading the other reviews. This makes it more important for me, to get access to the series. Surely after George Coles sad demise a rerun should be broadcast or, at least, a DVD. Someone at BBC wake-up, PLEASE

Memorably original

[heardn · 10/10 · 5 July 2015]

I can only echo the other comments. Don't know how I stumbled across this when it was being broadcast as it didn't seem to be promoted. It was genuinely funny, intelligent, and engaging. It was unlike anything else being broadcast at the time, and I cant really think of anything else that resembled it, so it was unique then. The recent Metal Detectorists resembles it insofar as there was much rich humour in dialogue without jokes. Superb cast: it gave George Cole a chance to shine in something other than the Arfur Daley character for which he had become so well known. I couldn't believe that it wasn't repeated as I certainly didn't get a chance to see all episodes. I have never forgotten it and certainly agree that it should be available on DVD.

Terrible....awful....pointless...pathetic waste of time.

[Pizzaowner · 3/10 · 23 January 2016]

What a waste of George Cole!! Pathetic pretentious artsy sorta-comedy about a dysfunctional under-talented writer and his not-as-crazy-as-him family. The writing is typical wannabee art writing with entire scenes consisting of the actors asking questions and answering the question with another question and so on.....once is funny....MAYBE but 15 in a row is just stupid. In episode 4 of the second series the phone rings....LOUDLY...for an astounding 9 minutes......and THIS IS COMEDY?......TO WHOM? I really like Cole and although the other actors are not terrible....except the wife who overacts like a 1st year drama student....together they fail to 'click'. There is no connection and more and more we care less and less about his ridiculous life and the people who are part of it. It is absolutely astounding how this piece of cr*p got such high scores....but for me is is BY FAR the worst thing I have ever seen George Cole in.

BBC repeat it please....

[Krustallos · 16 July 2003]

I remember this very fondly, not least because my friends thought George Cole's family in it resembled my own. It also appeared in the Financial Times' TV critic's list of the 10 best sitcoms ever made. Apparently it's pretty strongly autobiographical, with George Cole playing the 'Charles Wood' character and Francis Matthews Wood's real-life neighbour Peter Nichols.

There were some exceptionally droll setpieces in it, including a scene where George Cole goes through all the motions of shaving while trying to hold a conversation but entirely fails to get the razor onto his face. I also remember the son having a probation officer who was about 19 and would just go to his room and listen to records with him.

Cole's character spends much of the two series with writer's block and at one point bemoans the fact that he is forced to make ends meet by knocking out episodes of a sitcom based on his own family.

It was also (along with Alan Plater's "Middlemen") one of the best showings by Francis Matthews who seemed set to become a big comedy star but dropped out of view somewhat after this.

I agree the BBC should repeat this series without delay (ideal for BBC4), or better still put it out on a DVD.

Don't forget the series.

[richards-5 · 7 June 2002]

This was a TV comedy series, but it was produced by the BBC's drama department, not its comey department; hence, each episode ran 50 minutes, not half-and-hour, and there was no audience or laugh track. Charles Wood wrote it, and part of the fun lay in our wondering how much of it was based on his own life, as the hero, Gordon Maple, described as a "lesser-known English dramatist", makes most of his money by writing screenplays for films which are never made. Throughout the first series, he was toiling away at a script called "Thundering Hooves", whilst coping with his near-hysterical wife (Gwen Watford) and oddball children, not to mention his neighbour, best friend and deadliest rival, a very successful playwright indeed, allegedly based on Wood's real-life neighbour and friend Peter Nichols. The friend (Francis Matthews) is said to be the author of a play called "Soldiers In Spurts" - Nichols had recently written "Privates On Parade"; Gordon is said to be the author of plays called "Elephant" and "Dog" - Wood had written a play called "Dingo". The first series also featured a famous actor-knight clearly based on John Gielgud, who had starred in Wood's script for "The Charge Of The Light Brigade". By episode six of the first series, Wood seemed to have deliberately written himself into a corner to avoid a second series, but a second series nonetheless appeared in 1979. It was very nearly as brillaintly funny and original as the first, but the BBC have never repeated either. Why not? More people should know it.