The Losers
I see from the sparcity of information on the internet that this TV show is both little-known, and in fact was unsuccessful at the time of broadcast. The material is not promising, true: Leonard Rossiter plays an out-of-luck wrestling promoter, who takes on what he thinks is a dead loser so that he can make money from bribes from the other side. The trouble is his protégé turns out to be preternaturally gifted at wrestling, despite being unpromising material. This may sound as if it is Rigsby-does-wrestling, and indeed it can seem like that, because of course on one level Rossiter is always Rossiter and never anybody else. But despite being so apparently unpromising, this show is excellent. This is of course due to excellent writing by funny man par excellence Alan Coren, one time editor of Punch, which adds a whole sophistication and subtlety lacking in, say, Rising Damp. The uninspiring base plot is enlivened by a series of hilarious vignettes: the scenes where they meet the qu...