242 Man About The House

First  watched  : Uncertain

This  is  another  case  of  staying  on  the  channel  after  Coronation  Street  so  I've  no  real  idea  when  I  first  saw  it  but  probably  it  was  towards  the  end  of  its  run  which  was in  April  1976.

Man  About  The  House  was  considered  rather  risque  in  its  day  with  its  premise  of  a  young ( ish ) guy  sharing  a  flat  with  two  attractive  young  females  and  I  was  aware  of  the  frisson  around  it  without  understanding  why  it  was  there. Richard  O  Sullivan  played  Robin  Tripp  the  shaggy-haired  student  shacked  up  with  Chrissy  ( Paula  Willcox )  and  Jo  ( Sally  Thomsett ) and  not  getting  off  with  either  of  them. He  also  has  to  deal  with  the  mean  landlord  George  Roper  ( Brian  Murphy )  who  is  under  the  thumb of  his  sexually  frustrated  wife  Mildred  ( Yootha  Joyce ).

In  actual  fact  the  comedy  was  fairly  standard  sitcom  fare  with  George  by  far  the  most  amusing  character  and  there  wasn't  that  much  for  Mary  Whitehouse  to  get  in  a  tizz  about. The  series  lasted  for  three  years  and  gave  rise  to  two  spin-offs  and  a  poorly-received  film.

We'll  come  back  to  George  and  Mildred. O  Sullivan  remained  a  big  TV  star  for  the  rest  of  the  decade  but  succumbed  to  drink  in the  eighties  and  became prematurely  aged. He  lives  a  reclusive  life  in  a  home  for  retired  performers. Wilcox  is  still  a  working  actress  , mainly  in  comedy  with  a  recent  guest  part  in  Still  Open  All  Hours . Thomsett   on  the  other  hand  found  hardly  any  acting  work  after  the  series  finished   though  she  appeared on  panel  shows  in  the  eighties   before  emigrating  to  the USA  for  a  time. She  remarried  in  the  mid-90s  and  had  a  daughter  at  46  which  kept  her  out  of  the  limelight. She  recently  re-emerged  in  pantomime  and  contributes  to  nostalgia  shows.