Joe Black

A look back at Come Back Mrs. Noah

Come Back Mrs. Noah may be emblematic of all the worst excesses that 1970s comedies are chastised for, but it's not beyond reproach. The series revels so vigorously in the ridiculous and the corny that it feels like an absurdist exercise in what's possible in a 7pm sitcom.

Curious British Telly, 16th February 2021

Ready When You Are, Mr. McGill (Granada), by Jack Rosenthal, was a very funny play about an extra with delusions of competence who was given a line to say and muffed it. As McGill, Joe Black had the unrewarding job of being an invincibly boring little man. He did it well, but perforce yielded the centre of attention to Jack Shepherd, who played the harried film-director. Shepherd's drained anguish has by now become one of the most sought-after acting styles on television - nobody else can do it.

Clive James, The Observer, 18th January 1976