My Name is Harry, composer Nachum Heiman, 1974

Описание: "My Name is Harry Worth" is a British TV sitcom from 1974. The mournful theme music was written by the composer Nachum Heiman. The show opens the same wayin each of the eight episodes, with Harry enthusiastically introducing himself to a crowded street in the town centre, only for everyone to hurry away. The sad strains of the tune begin as Harry shrugs and meanders down the road, at a loss as to why all the people have gone away. The cheery, gentle nature of the comedy in the episodes is framed by this sad tune at the show's beginning and end, hinting at the underlying sorrow of a life constantly lived at cross purposes to others.

Harry Worth was a much-loved comedian and comedy actor, a household name throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He played the hapless and hopelessly confused man who cheerfully breezed through mishaps and misunderstandings that accompanied his attempts to navigate the normal course of daily life. Although he always knew what he meant, and would go to extreme lengths to explain himself to all the people he constantly perplexed, his explanations only served to extend the confusion. In the main, he cheerfully let others cope with the complexities of modern life, whilst he cheerfully let it pass him by. If he always knew what he meant, no one else did.
By 1974, Worth had already starred in two very successful comedy shows on BBC, Here’s Harry from 1960 to 1964, and “Harry Worth” from 1966 to 1970. When Thames television persuaded him to switch to ITV it was considered quite the coup. His first show for ITV was “Thirty Minutes Worth,” which ran for two series in 1972 and 1973. A year later he made “My Name is Harry Worth,” his first situation comedy for ITV.

The show's title comes from a catchphrase associated with Harry: “My name's Harry Worth. I don't know why, but there it is!” Worth’s character was already associated in the public mind with mayhem and misunderstanding, causing people to keep their distance. In the show, Worth played a forgetful, confused and confusing door-to-door brush salesman forever entangled in a series of muddles and misunderstandings, the unintentional scourge of authority figures (or normal folk just trying to their normal jobs).

Each episode is the same, with Harry trying to navigate the routine and mundane details of everyday life as if they were enormous trials and tribulations, which they invariably become as a result of Harry simply being himself. Every day in every situation, Harry has the unerring ability to get the wrong end of the stick, and maintain a good firm grip on it as he seeks to explain that it is everybody else who has got it wrong. Describing himself as ‘very observant,’ Worth was the master of talking at cross purposes with people and that's where most of the comedy lies, with Harry continually misunderstanding what is required of him, creating situations in which Harry misunderstands what is happening. Throughout it all, Harry continues to insist that it’s all very simple and there is no problem really.

Harry, it is clear, lives in a world of his own, a largely uncomplicated world which is disturbed only by the entry of others. Harry and ‘people’ just don't mix, and every encounter proceeds at cross-purposes. That way lies excommunication. Harry sails through life unfazed by the chaos he causes, taking every event in his stride, never once despairing of ever explaining matters to others. Those others, he drives to despair. Hence the comic-tragic opening of the catchphrase “My Name is Harry Worth” being met with people running for cover, before the sad theme tune indicating a life lived alone kicks in.

The opening titles tell the underlying truth in the negative reaction of each and all to his presence. Filmed near Strawberry Hill railway station in Richmond Upon Thames, Harry enters a busy street packed with shoppers to lift his trilby to introduce himself: “Hello everyone,” he says. “My name is Harry Worth.” The announcement clears the street in an instant. The immediate effect is funny, but then the mournful theme music begins and Harry shrugs and meanders down the road, seemingly at a loss as to why everyone has gone. Despite having received the same negative reaction time and again, Harry ceases to greet the world with enthusiasm, as if expecting that one day the day will come when people are genuinely pleased to see him. The theme tune tells another truth.

The show was not a great success and ran only to the one series. I remember the show very fondly. And I understand the sad undertow delivered by the theme turn. In retrospect it is now clear that “My Name is Harry Worth” signalled the end of Harry Worth’s career in the limelight. He would never recapture the glory days of the 1960s. In light of which, it is worth noting how much the “My Name is Harry” theme tune savours more than a little of the theme tune to “The Last of the Summer Wine,’ another comedic show with a sad undertow.