Don't Forget to Write

DON'T FORGET TO WRITE! stars George Cole OBE as Gordon Maple, a "lesser-known English dramatist" with some previous success but now plagued by self-doubt and a severe dose of writer's block as he struggles to support himself and his mildly dysfunctional family by writing unfilmable Hollywood movie scripts. The delightful (and sadly missed) Gwen Watford plays Gordon's harrassed, often exasperated but ever-supportive wife, Mabel Maple, trying to provide calm and harmony to counteract Gordon's unproductive angst and simultaneously fighting an increasingly desperate battle to deflect interruptions, mediate family tensions, cope with disasters and generally keep the wheels on the wagon! Undermining Mabel's efforts, the urbane Francis Matthews plays the Maple's prolific and successful playwright neighbour, best friend and rival, Tom Lawrence, who apparently seems to have no problems coming up with new material and whose every play is a resounding hit! This is a gentle, intelligent and witty comedy, written by Charles Wood and purportedly based on his own experiences as playwright by vocation and as a movie and TV scriptwriter by necessity. Produced by the BBC DRAMA department (NOT the comedy department) in two series of six 50 minute episodes each, aired in 1977 and 1979, DON'T FORGET TO WRITE! - unusually for the time and thankfully for us viewing it 34 years on - has NO studio audience and NO intrusive canned laughter track. Perhaps thanks to this, it has aged remarkably well and it is just as watchable and entertaining as I remember from our time in the UK long ago, with that slightly clunky, claustrophobic theatrical style so typical of 70's UK TV sitcoms - although the execrable 70's brown 'n' beige set decor is hard to accept!