Making Divorce Work: In 9 Easy Steps

An hilarious spoof self-help book from the star of Marion & Geoff and host of the hit BBC comedy The Keith Barret Show.

‘I don’t feel like I have lost a wife but that I have gained a friend. I would never have met Geoff if Marion hadn’t left me.’

‘Marion and Geoff’ was one of the most-loved and most-acclaimed BBC comedies of recent years. Rob Brydon wrote and starred as cuckolded Welsh cabbie Keith Barret, recording a hopelessly optimistic video diary about his life as a divorcee. It was a heartbreaking show, darkly comic and brilliantly written. The series won Best Drama at the South Bank Awards, and Rob Brydon won a British Comedy Award for his performance as Keith.

In summer 2004 Brydon took his character Keith Barret to the Edinburgh Festival with a show (or rather a ‘talk’ or ‘therapy session’) entitled ‘Making Divorce Work’, which drew on all of Keith’s experience as a divorcee. It was a sell-out, and the Daily Telegraph declared it ‘More outright hilarious than the TV series’.

Now, after a highly successful series The Keith Barret Show, Keith Barret has settled down and written an indispensable self-help guide to surviving relationship break-ups. In Making Divorce Work, Barret offers advice for the broken-hearted on everything from getting access to the kids (‘my little smashers’) to dating again. It is a brilliant parody of the self-help genre (although Barret has written it with all sincerity), and an intimate portrait of Keith Barret; our favourite eternal optimist.