Lytton’s Diary is a 1985-1987 British drama following the work and life of Fleet Street gossip columnist Neville Lytton (Peter Knowles). Lytton, thought to be loosely based on famed columnist Nigel Dempster, is a suave, sophisticated man with a complicated love life and a nose for scandal in all areas of society.  He runs the Diary page of the Daily News with a staff of about six people and competes for exclusives with his Post counterpart (and former colleague) Henry Field while struggling to keep his editor (affectionately called “God”) happy.
 
Structured almost as a procedural, each episode encompasses a story Lytton is investigating.  Subjects run the gamut from corrupt bankers to vicious skinheads with forays into the lands of evangelical Christianity and beauty pageants.  One memorable episode, “The Lady in the Mask,” centers on a bored housewife who spends her evenings stripping for society men.  While some of the plots were controversial for the time, they are tame enough now and are mostly wrapped up tidily with little fuss.  Along with covering the weekly news story, we watch Neville half-heartedly play office politics and manage to (often accidentally) stay one step ahead of his competitors.  The newspaper business changes before Neville’s eyes and during the series he must contend with both a new publisher and editor, neither of whom Neville likes.
 
Peter Bowles is excellent as the charming and complicated Lytton.  He struggles with his scruples, both in investigating stories and in deciding whether or not to run them and he holds remarkably liberal views for one who professes not to care. He spends the first season finishing his first novel while he travels the road to publication in the second.  His horror at some of the process is laughable—given his profession he should be much less naive. He romances his long-time friend Nora and flirts with plenty of women but resists divorcing his estranged wife.  He struggles with change and aging with little grace.  The rest of the cast leaves little impression, and while the mystery plots are tight enough, the fact that we rarely see the ill effects of gossip requires much suspension of disbelief and in the end, there is just very little here. I enjoy the crisp dialogue and Bowles’ performance, but Lytton’s Diary will not linger long in my memory. 
The video is mediocre:  the color is soft and there is a lot of grain, which is typical of British shows from the 1980s.  The audio is mono and while dialogue is mostly clear, there are occasional hisses and pops and the main theme is quite loud compared to the actual episodes.  The set includes all twelve episodes of the two seasons of Lytton’s Diary with no special features.  For anyone concerned, the nudity warning on the box refers to the episode “The Lady in the Mask” where the lady in question strips down to just her mask and heels in a brief segment.
 
Lytton’s Diary is a witty workplace drama with reasonably interesting mysteries, but the pace is meandering and the characters not named Lytton are forgettable.  Also, because gossip now means instant information via text, email, or Twitter, the electric typewriters and pay telephones from the 1980s appear quaint, as do the fashions and the occasionally preachy tone.  So long as you watch Lytton’s Diary as a period piece, it’s fine, but for many of us it will simply feel dated.  This is a show, albeit a well-produced show with a charismatic lead, for a very limited audience.