What Happened To The cast Of Man About The House?
The show is now 50 years old and in it’s day Man About The House was hugely successful making it’s stars household names.
Fifty years on we ask what became of it’s stars.
Richard O’Sullivan
Played Robin Tripp in Man About the house and reprised his role in spin off Robin’s Nest.
he went on to a hugely successful career highlights included spin off series
Robin’s Nest,
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Dick Turpin
and with Tim Brooke Taylor in
Me And My Girl
Richard O’Sullivan retired from public life in 1996, making only a brief appearance as a guest on This Is Your Life in 1999.
Following the major stroke in 2003 from which he never made a full recovery, O’Sullivan elected to join the Brinsworth House for retired entertainment actors in Twickenham, south-west London. He had broken his leg in an accident two years prior, leaving him with a walking stick that he still uses today.
Paula Wilcox
Played Chrissy Plummer in Man About The House and is still working today aged 73. After Man About The House Wilcox starred in
Miss Jones and Son in 1977,
Still working in the 1990’s she appeared alongside Peter Davison in the sitcom
Fiddlers Three
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In 2004 she starred as Lilian in BBC Three sitcom
The Smoking Room
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Most recently (since 2020) Paula Wilcox has been a Coronation Street regular playing Elaine Jones, first wife and a previous abuse victim of Geoff Metcalfe and Mother to Tim Metcalfe. This is her second time on the famous cobles, in 1969, she played Janice Langton, Ray Langton’s sister.
Sally Thomsett
Sally Thomsett was all over the place in the 1970’s, a household name, whether it was on TV as Jo in the insanely popular Man About The House or on the big screen in The Railway Children or Straw Dogs.
She then abruptly vanished from the spotlight, practically overnight. In reality after nine years of almost non stop work Sally Thomsett decided to take a break in order to travel the world.
She returned to acting in the mid-1980s and appeared on stage in a 1987 production of The Cat and the Canary before making regular pantomime appearances.
She also appeared in the music video for “Doctor in Distress”, a charity single made to save Doctor Who from cancellation in 1985. Thomsett’s career slowed down after the birth of her daughter, although she did appear on stage in 1998 and 1999 in a touring production of The Holly and the Ivy.
Thomsett appeared in Peter Pan as Mrs. Darling at Doncaster Racecourse during the 2014–2015 Christmas season.
Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce
Played George and Mildred Roper in Man About The House.
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Both reprised their roles for the hugely popular spin off series George and Mildred
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Yootha Joyce made what would be her final appearance in the big screen version of George and Mildred in 1980.
Sadly in the summer of the same year Yootha Joyce died of liver failure, it was reported she’d been drinking half a bottle of sherry for the last 10 years .
Brian Murphy went on to a hugely successful career with a follow up series created especially for him ‘The Incredible Mr Tanner’ in which he starred alongside Roy Kinnear. Not the success he might have hoped for he moved on to another less than successful series L for Lester.
Despite the two less than successful sitcoms Murphy continued to appear on TV screens including a successful run in Last Of The Summer Wine playing Alvin Smedley,
a part he would play until the show’s end in 2010.