Jack Rosenthal

Norman and Sadie might be Rosenthal's Lovers 25 years on but there was something about it that felt faintly false. Like the implication that Russell Harty's show is transmitted a day after Hughie Green's.

I am very fond of Granada's "The Lovers," though it is a difficult addiction to justify as the jokes tend to fade on paper. The conversation of Geoffrey and Beryl is a series of near-squeaks. Their comments never exactly connect but whizz past each other's ears like fists in a film saloon fight.

Granada's excellent series "The Lovers" is remarkable for its ping-ponging, tangential dialogue, which ricochets and hits your funny bone.

The fun is in Lovers and I don't think I'll give you a "for-instance" because its ping-pong comedy is only apparent when spoken.