Man About The House film - 50 years on

Written by: Georgy Jamieson
Published: Sunday 22nd December 2024

"It's not easy when he's always been just a man about the house..." a line from the theme song of the film version of the popular ITV sitcom, Man About The House (1973-1976). This is not the catchy tune we were used to from the TV series, but these lyrics give us a clue to what was coming up and the 'will they won't they' love story that we were about to be treated to in this big screen version.

The Man About The House film was released 50 years ago, on 22nd December 1974. Making film versions of popular sitcoms was quite the thing in the 1970s and the quality of these films varied, but this is one of the better ones, probably because the sitcom itself and the actors in it were so good and the characters were well drawn.

The project was made by Hammer Films. This was the last television sitcom adaptation they produced, with filming starting in March 1974 and finishing by 12th April. Like many film versions of successful TV sitcoms, not only was the theme tune different but so was the location. The TV sitcom was filmed at Thames Television but the film was made at Elstree Studios and on location at 40 Alma Square in London, which provided the outside shots for Myddleton Terrace, where the show is set.

Man About The House. Image shows left to right: Johnnie Mortimer, Robin Tripp (Richard O'Sullivan), Brian Cooke

The script was written by Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke. Meanwhile the director was John Robins, who had also made film versions of popular TV sitcoms Nearest And Dearest and That's Your Funeral for Hammer Studios and Love Thy Neighbour for MGI. Sally Thomsett, who played Jo, has since said she was never fond of the movie because they didn't have their usual director from Thames Television, Peter Frazer-Jones. She had, however, always wanted to be in a Hammer film, although she would have preferred it to have been one of their famous horrors.

Yootha Joyce, who played landlady Mildred Roper, remembers that on the first day of filming the ice was broken by the props department, who had placed a picture of King Kong and a gorgon with snakes coming from its head in a frame on the set, as if it were George and Mildred Roper's wedding photograph. It was there in the first scene they were shooting and, as everyone had the giggles, it took several takes to get right.

Man About The House. Image shows left to right: Robin Tripp (Richard O'Sullivan), Morris Pluthero (Peter Cellier)

The film's plot is a precursor to what happens in the George & Mildred spin-off TV show when the council puts a compulsory purchase order on their house. Property developers want to buy the whole of Myddleton Terrace to tear it down and build office blocks. The residents are appalled and want to save the houses, well to start with anyway. One by one the house owners succumb to the offers made to them by unscrupulous estate agent Morris Pluthero, played by Peter Cellier, on behalf of Spiros Property Developers, headed up by Mr Spiros played by Arthur Lowe. The Dad's Army star is just one of many cameos from famous names of the 1970s in this film.

One of the first cameos we see is Bill Maynard as a chef in the restaurant where Robin Tripp, played by Richard O'Sullivan, has taken a part-time job after catering college. Bill keeps a filthy and disorganised kitchen, which disgusts Robin but Chef is a character with a juicy past and regales Robin with lurid tales of shore leave from the navy, which gives Robin the idea to try strip poker with Chrissie (Paula Wilcox) and Jo (Sally Thomsett).

Man About The House. Image shows from L to R: Chrissy Plummer (Paula Wilcox), Jo (Sally Thomsett), Robin Tripp (Richard O'Sullivan). Copyright: Hammer Film Productions

Chrissie turns out to be an excellent player, or so she makes Robin believe because her grandad taught her to play cards. Robin ends up starkers and the girls have lost nothing more than a shoe! It's a funny scene where the women get one over Robin, especially when we find out Chrissie cheated and was holding extra aces. The scene is also a great example of the sexual tension and flirtation between Robin and Chrissie that runs through the whole film. Jo is always out for every round of cards and the game becomes a battle of wills and the sexes between Robin and Chrissie, yet in real life, it was Sally Thomsett who Richard O'Sullivan was dating and they were together for 3 years.

Man About The House. Robin Tripp (Richard O'Sullivan)

Meanwhile, Spiros, the property developer, has issued a letter to every house to make them an offer and Mildred calls a resident meeting in the local pub where Chrissie gets co-opted into joining the committee and suggests they get a petition to give to their local MP. Everyone is keen apart from George Roper, who has pound signs in his eyes and wants to sell. He also bores everyone to tears in the pub and one by one they all disappear. We get another cameo in this scene in the pub with Melvyn Hayes as a camp man who is kept by his much older lover.

Robin and Chrissy go back to the flat and Robin's friend Larry, played by Doug Fisher who was also a regular in the TV series, takes Jo for 'a drive' in the hope of some romance. There is a lovely juxtaposition of scenes with Robin and Chrissie getting it together on the sofa in a much bigger clinch than they ever achieved in the TV series, while Jo and Larry sit in his car overlooking the river with zero chemistry between them and him munching on cod and chips. When Jo reverses the car into the water by mistake and thus a soaking wet Jo and Larry burst in on Robin and Chrissie and ruin the moment.

The main trio of Robin, Jo and Chrissie strive to gain signatures from the locals for the petition; cue the guest stars as they go from door to door. Bill Pertwee and Johnny Briggs pop up as the postman and milkman who wish the 'Best of British' when Robin goes to Miss Bird at number 4, Andria Lawrence, a femme fatale who tries, in vain, to seduce him. And favourite 70s actor Aimi MacDonald plays Hazel Lovett, who turns out to be the mistress of the local MP, Sir Edmund Weir, played by Patrick Newell, and she lives in one of the Myddleton terrace houses that Sir Edmund owns. When Chrissie takes the petition to Sir Edmund he says he'll help - obviously, as he has a vested interest - but the unscrupulous Pluthero discovers Hazel Lovett is his mistress and blackmails him into selling.

Everyone has signed to sell up, with Pluthero persuading them by a variety of means, including greed and lust, but the Ropers are holding out. That is until Mildred goes out shopping for, of all things, a see-through nightie, and Pluthero pounces on George who is willing to sell him their house. Everything looks good for the sale when George drops the bombshell that they have sitting tenants, who have a 3-year lease, and he discovers he can't sell while that is in place.

Chrissie was the one who signed the lease so Pluthero pursues her and takes her out to lunch to get her to sign it over to him. This sets up what would be considered some of the funniest scenes at the time but now we'd probably say it descends into toilet humour. Chrissie takes Pluthero to Robin's restaurant and we see a transformed kitchen that is now clean and professional, although Larry, who is a waiter there, the chef and Robin don't behave very professionally. They lace Pluthero's food with an evil connection of syrup of figs, cod liver oil, Epsom salts and any laxatives they can lay their hands on. Chrissy holds out against higher and higher offers and Pluthero leaves frustrated and in some discomfort.

Man About The House. Image shows left to right: Robin Tripp (Richard O'Sullivan), Chrissy Plummer (Paula Wilcox), Jo (Sally Thomsett), Mildred Roper (Yootha Joyce). Credit: Hammer Film Productions

Mr Spiros has been asked to go on TV to defend the building project but he's sending Pluthero instead to explain that it's now off because it's taken so long to tie up the deal a preservation order has been put on the 6 houses. Pluthero gives it one last go to get George to sign but Mildred comes home, with her nightie, and stops him. Celebrating that they have thwarted the plan, Mildred and the trio have a drink upstairs in the flat while George jumps in his car and heads to the Thames TV studios to catch Pluthero before he goes live on TV.

This leads to the finale of the film, which all takes place in the studios where the sitcom is made, Thames Television. It feels like a bit of an 'in joke' and a way of showcasing other ITV stars, which is indeed what happens and leads to a scene that now gets cut if the film is shown on TV due to its racist language. George runs through Thames asking for directions to Studio 3 and comes across Jack Smethurst and Rudolph Walker in the bar. Recognising the two actors from the hit sitcom Love Thy Neighbour, George calls them the kind of names and expressions the characters used to describe each other in their TV show, none of which would be acceptable now. The joke is that, out of character and relaxing in the bar as themselves, they find that language unacceptable too.

Man About The House. Image shows left to right: Spike Milligan, Chrissy Plummer (Paula Wilcox), Jo (Sally Thomsett)

There's also fun with Spike Milligan who gives George Roper and Robin, Chrissie and Jo directions, in his own very special way. He was a huge star to get in the film. We get two more cameos with Michael Robbins as the guard on the studio door and Norman Mitchell as Arthur Mulgrove, the security guard at reception who is an old flame of Mildred's.

The Today programme with interviewer Bill Grundy starts with Pluthero, still desperate to go to the loo, and Sir Edmund Weir the local MP. George is in the audience trying to get Pluthero's attention, followed by our young trio Robin, Chrissie and Jo. Finally, George puts the signed contract on the table but Pluthero has had to say the project is cancelled and tears all the contracts up, including the Roper's.

Back on Myddleton Terrace, the sold signs are coming down and Mildred has invited Arthur Mulgrove to live at their house as a lodger, where she greets him at the door in none other than her new nightie!

With everything wrapped up, Robin and Chrissie talk games again back in the flat. Robin suggests chess and after Chrissie teases him that she can play but then confuses it with draughts we are left with him telling Chrissie, in a very flirtatious way, that the object of chess is to mate.

Man About The House. Image shows left to right: Chrissy Plummer (Paula Wilcox), Robin Tripp (Richard O'Sullivan), Jo (Sally Thomsett)

The film was a success with the public, which wasn't surprising given the sitcom's popularity on TV, and it took £90,000 at the box office in the London area alone. However, the critics weren't quite so enthusiastic. The Monthly Film Bulletin said: 'It is a comedy of words, not actions. The script manages to produce some good laughs and a few sniggers. The film succeeds within the limits which it sets itself, though there are some directorial miscalculations ... But in the main, the film acquits itself better than most movie spin-offs from TV series.'

The Man About The House film is one of the better sitcom film spin-offs of the time. It has a decent plot and script, plus we have the same great cast and writers from the TV series, keeping the characters, relationships and situations that we knew and loved. Some parts have dated over the last 50 years but, essentially, it's about relationships, dating, flirting and love and none of those things ever go out of fashion.

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Man About The House

Catering student Robin Tripp sees nothing untoward about sharing a flat with two girls, Chrissy and Jo. It's an arrangement that suits all parties admirably unless the girls try their hand at cooking or Robin's animal urges get the better of him but it's a source of ongoing consternation to their landlords, Mr and Mrs Roper!

This feature-film spin-off from the massively popular television series stars Richard O'Sullivan, Paula Wilcox and Sally Thomsett as the groovy flatmates and Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy as landlords George and Mildred.

Transferred in high definition from original film elements, Man About The House guest stars Love Thy Neighbour's Jack Smethurst and Rudolph Walker, alongside Arthur Lowe, Bill Maynard and comedy genius Spike Milligan!

First released: Monday 28th January 2019