They’re Rested, Ready and Facing 50

Call them knights in shining Armani. Or sexy beasts, if you must. But please don’t call them the male answer to “Sex and the City,” for they deserve to be judged on their own merits.

They are the men of BBC America’s “Manchild,” four well-heeled 49-year-olds in the prime of their midlife crises who hit the Turkish baths by day and the bars by night. With a wit drier than the Dom Perignon this quartet consumes by the case, they speak their minds on a range of topics: sex, relationships, money, sex, art, family, the meaning of life and, last but not least, sex.

Make no mistake, this goes beyond locker-room talk; journalist-author Nick Fisher has written scripts that are incisive, irreverent and surprisingly poignant. It also helps that the cast delivers his hilariously profane lines with aplomb and that director David Evans ties everything together stylishly in half-hour installments.

The show is narrated by Terry (Nigel Havers), who pathetically tools around on a BMW motorbike and is dating a model half his age. He presents the series’ premise while lying on a massage table:

“In a man’s life, teens are a hormone-fueled quest for sex; 20s, finding a wife and career; 30s, making serious money; 40s, unpicking the unholy mess marriage, families and work have made of your life. But time it right, and your 50s can once again be a full-time, full-on hedonistic quest for pleasure.”

Of course, the joke is that just as Terry states such grandiose theories of masculinity, they often blow apart. After he says how great it is to be footloose and fancy-free, we see the emotional control his ex-wife and two kids exert--and how shallow his relationship with a 25-year-old woman can be.

His compatriot James (Anthony Stewart Head) is a cosmetic dentist equally ready to sow some wild oats after a divorce. One problem: James needs some repairs on a region far less visible than the teeth.

Patrick (Don Warrington) is the true epicurean of the group, an eccentric who has remained single all these years. A bon vivant on the outside, he is tormented on the inside over whether to keep his mother on life support.

The hapless Gary (Ray Burdis), by contrast, is a veritable Mr. Stability: He’s been married for 26 years and has a teenage son. Yet when the lads paint the town red, Gary is torn between a puppy-dog loyalty to his often shrewish wife, Cheryl (Lindsey Coulson), and a mongrel-like urge to stray.

If “Manchild” has one flaw, it’s that the female characters don’t have the same depth as these four; instead, they are largely defined by their ties to the men.

But what else would you expect when one’s “mate” is defined as a buddy rather than a lover?

The first four episodes of “Manchild” will air on BBC America tonight starting at 5 (edited) and repeating at 9 (uncut). New episodes begin next Friday. The network has rated it TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children younger than 17).