Eavesdropping led to comedy

Press, 28 July 1987, Page 19

Eavesdropping led to comedy

“Don’t Wait Up,” Television One’s new Tues-day-night comedy, came about through a spot of eavesdropping. “I got the idea after overhearing a conversation between a father and son,” says the writer, George Layton. “The father, a doctor, who was in his second marriage, was visiting the son to tell him of another impending divorce. The son’s first reaction was to ask, ‘Have you told the children yet?* I thought this had the makings of excellent comedy.”

Not that “Don’t Wait Up” makes light of divorce. Layton, who himself was divorced years ago and has since remarried, says he has even inserted a moralist viewpoint when the

freshly divorced Tom talks of the anguish he went through. “For somebody like Tom, who has been married for five or six years and who has given marriage a try, divorce is sad but somehow okay. If you consider divorce after 30 years people are appalled.” Layton views “Don’t Wait Up” as a series of comic plays whose sophisticated wit derives from the actual characters rather than from jokes or slapstick. “I take the writing very seriously,” he says. “Sometimes I emerge from my study looking pretty grey. Comedy is damned hard work.”

“Don’t Wait Up” screens Tuesdays at 8.40 p.m. on One.