Man About The House
 Chrissy (the dark-haired one) and Jo (the blonde one, prone to
rambling illogicalities) find a man in the bath after their party
and invite him to share their flat with them when they find out he
can cook - besides, they need the extra rent.
Thus Robin Tripp moves in to the flat at 6 Myddleton Terrace,
Earl's Court, and becomes the 'Man About The House' and thinks
he's in with the big chance for non-stop sex on tap (but never
ever gets anywhere at all).
Meanwhile, landlord George Roper (who lives downstairs) is on
hand to keep everyone on the straight and narrow, although his
wife Mildred thinks the climb to the upstairs flat may well be the
"stairway to heaven".
 Despite
the menage-a-trois premise there was very little overt naughtiness
in Man About The House.
Rather, in the ribald manner of
British humour, most of the jokes centred on ill-timed
interruptions, wrong bedrooms, parents' misunderstandings,
girlfriends' misunderstandings, boyfriends' misunderstandings,
smalls hanging on the line and many other embarrassing
situations.
This was 70s humour at its best - poof jokes, bristols jokes
and tasty birds in miniskirts! Ideologically sound? No.
Politically correct? Get out of it ... but funny? I never thought
my socks would dry!
And the supporting characters . . . Larry, with his harem of
"tarts", Mildred with her suggestive innuendo, 20
cork-tipped fags and smouldering looks, and George with his
defeatist approach to life and pathological fear of any kind of
sex (other than girly magazines).
 Who
can truly honestly stick their hand up (oo-er) and say with hand
on heart that they did not want to get into Chrissy's knickers
themselves? Who did not laugh at Jo because she was so thick,
bubbly, and blonde? Hands up who didn't want one of those aprons
with tits on the front? Hands up who wished they were Larry? Hands
up who thought Robin was "one of them"? Hands up who
wanted to give Mildred one ... er no, I'll get me coat . . .
Three episodes from the end of the series, viewers were
suddenly introduced to Robin's brother, Norman.
Having unsuccessfully chased Chrissy's affections for three
years and had all his advances spurned coyly or firmly, Robin was
upset to see Norman join the pursuit.
Norman won, with rapid results: in the final program he and
Chrissy were married.
This show spawned two successful spin-off series' - Robin's
Nest and George And Mildred. It was also later remade
for the US market as a (vastly inferior) show called Three's
Company.
A Man About The House motion picture was made for
cinematic release by Hammer in 1974, with the usual cast supported
by a wealth of familiar faces, including Spike Milligan and Arthur
Lowe.
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