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 Man
About
The House
Series
1, Episode 1: Three's A Crowd
First Aired: 15-08-1973
Written by: Brian Cooke & Johnnie Mortimer
In the first episode of Man
About The House
the sun is shining, the world is turning and it can't be bad; at least
not according to the man on the radio who is blasting his
transistorized message from a table full of empty bottles and dirty
glasses.
It might be a nice morning and the world may very well be turning, but
as Chrissy stumbles out of her bedroom it looks like her stomach is
turning too. Jo on the other hand appears to have survived the party
more or less intact and is even doing a spot of vacuuming. Until her
sickly roommate unplugs the vacuum cleaner anyway.
"Tell me something," Chrissy asks her.
"Yeah."
"That terrible girl at the party last night."
"Yeah."
"The one that kept giggling and wanted to striptease."
"Yeah."
"It was me, wasn't it?"
"Yeah."
It sounds like some party, but she is paying the price now.
Chrissy and Jo's roommate, Diana, has just got married and Chrissy is
worried that she ruined the wedding reception. Jo tells her not to
worry; Diana barely even noticed because her labour pains had started.
Jo blames Chrissy's behaviour on the punch anyway; it was so strong
that it has turned the ladle green.
When Chrissy decides to run herself a bath there is a man asleep in the
tub and she is so preoccupied that she does not even notice. The
sleeping stranger seems to be pretty out of it as well and when Chrissy
sets the taps running he doesn't even blink an eyelid, so the chances
are that he had some of the punch as well. Never mix your drinks folks.
The man in the tub is Robin Tripp and he arrived at the party with a
friend of one of the gatecrashers.
"You're probably wondering what I'm doing in your bath," he says, when
the threat of drowning finally rouses him.
"No, not at all," Chrissy replies. "I'm just glad I noticed you before
I got in."
Robin tells the girls that the last thing he can remember is having
some of that dreadful punch, so I suppose it would be hard for anyone
to blame him for dripping water on the carpet.
 As it turns out
Robin's arrival is
rather well timed because the girls are looking for someone to fill the
empty bed in Diana's room and Robin is looking for somewhere to live.
Two girls and a guy sharing an apartment though! This was the
seventies, remember, and it wasn't the sort of arrangement that anyone
would enter into lightly. The thing is that neither of the girls can
cook and when Jo presents Robin with a plateful of Scrambled eggs it
looks like he might be taking his life in his hands if he eats them.
"Oh, charming!" Jo says when Robin finds that all of the non-stick in
with his breakfast is making it stick in his throat. "Can you do any
better?"
"Yes," he replies and he can indeed because he is studying for his
diploma in cooking, at the technical college.
Robin's cooking wows the two girls and they invite him to move in with
them: equal share on the utility bills and Robin will need to do all of
the cooking. And the washing up. There is only one problem, the Ropers
will never agree to the arrangement. Chrissy has the solution to that
one though; she tells the Ropers that Robin is a puff.
|
Robin
Tripp
|
~~~
|
Richard
O'Sullivan
|
|
Chrissy
|
~~~
|
Paula
Wilcox
|
|
Jo
|
~~~
|
Sally
Thomsett
|
|
Mrs
Roper
|
~~~
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Yootha
Joyce
|
|
Mr
Roper
|
~~~
|
Brian
Murphy
|
|
Gabrielle
|
~~~
|
Helen
Fraser
|
|