Leave It to Charlie

The history of television is strewn with bad programmes with 'Charlie' in the title - 'Charlie's Angels', 'Father Charlie', 'Charlie's Garden Army', and this. 'Leave It To Charlie' was originally a short-lived 1975 Granada sitcom entitled 'The Life Of Riley', starring Bill Maynard as Frank Riley, a happy-go-lucky agent for The Lancastrian Assurance Company. Someone at Granada must have liked it because back it came in 1978, starring 'The Cuckoo Waltz's' David Roper as Charlie Fisher, a happy-go-lucky agent for The Lancastrian Insurance Company. Roper was every bit as annoying here as he was in 'Waltz'. Peter Sallis was wasted as dithering Arthur Simister, Gwen Cherrell played his forgetful wife, Sally Kinghorn the scatterbrained secretary, and Jean Heywood as Charlie's easily amused landlady. Oh yes, there was also a bloke played by David Ross whose teeth fell out whenever he spoke. H.V. Kershaw, who created and wrote this, was a staff writer on 'Coronation Street' - an immeasurably funnier show in my view.