MAN ABOUT THE HOUSE: 50 YEARS OF LAUGHS

Channel 5, 9.30pm

“Man About the House rewrote the recipe for sitcom,” says one contributor in this celebration of the show, which ran on ITV from 1973 to 1976. Richard O’Sullivan’s titular character was in a flatshare – racily for the time – with two women, played by Paula Wilcox and Sally Thomsett. The show made stars of the cast, including O’Sullivan as Robin Tripp, a role he later reprised in Robin’s Nest, while in the flat downstairs were the landlords, the Ropers (Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce), who would later have their own hit spin-off series, George and Mildred. Man About the House’s evergreen themes were the willthey-won’t-they saga of Robin and Chrissy (Wilcox), and the Ropers’ unfulfilling marriage.

Joyce died in 1980 and O’Sullivan doesn’t appear, but the rest of the cast gather to talk fondly of the live recordings, where they did their own stunts, and how O’Sullivan would often ad-lib. There are generous clips, with contributions from the series’ guest actors and Brian Cooke, one of the show’s creators (co-writer Johnnie Mortimer died in 1992), as well as fans Christopher Biggins, Melvyn Hayes and Nina Myskow. Veronica Lee and collaborations with U2, George Michael and Elton John. Also on the music theme, First Ladies of Hip Hop (9.30pm/BBC Two Wales, 10.30pm) concludes with a look at how female rappers climbed to the top of the industry in the 1990s and 2000s. And on BBC Two Wales/iPlayer at 9.30pm, Newport rapper Lemfreck explores a burgeoning music scene in Black Music Wales.

Brian Murphy and Paula Wilcox share their memories