Ready When You Are, Mr. McGill (1976)

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.