From Railway Child to Girl About the House: In Praise of Sally Thomsett

Sally Thomsett as Phyllis Waterbury in The Railway Children (1970)

and as Jo in Man About the House (ITV 1973-76) 

 

I. 

 

Even though the seventies British sitcom Man About the House remains one of my favourite shows, there are several things about it that I find problematic; not least of all that Sally Thomsett's character, Jo, is outrageously underdeveloped by the writers, Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer.  

 

Indeed, unlike the other lead characters, she's not even given a surname!    

 

Whilst I understand and appreciate that the show essentially concerns the quasi-romantic relationship between Robin and Chrissy (played by Richard O'Sullivan and Paula Wilcox), in my view Cooke and Mortimer missed a trick in not doing more with Jo who had a unique charm of her own and much untapped comic potential beyond the stereotype of the good-looking dumb blonde.

 

If I'd been writing the show, I would've hooked Thomsett's character up with Robin's mate Larry, a cheeky Jack the Lad (played by Doug Fisher) who rents the attic room above the flat. I would have also much reduced the role of the landlord, George Roper, and his wife Mildred (played by Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce).  

 

Obviously, this would have changed the show's structure, narrative, and comedic dynamic, but would have done so in a positive and interesting manner; for me, George and Mildred as a bickering married couple - he the hen-pecked husband and she the long-suffering sex-starved wife - are simply too rooted in cliché and old-fashioned humour [1].

 

If Man About the House had been the story of two young couples - Robin and Chrissy and Jo and Larry - and what it was like to be a twenty-something in the mid-70s, I think it would now feel less dated than it does today. And, who knows, it's possible that the audience may even have come to love Jo and Larry more than George and Mildred (or even Robin and Chrissy).         

 

 

II.  

 

Sally, of course, was already held in great public affection due to her role as Phyllis Waterbury in The Railway Children (dir. Lionell Jeffries, 1970). 

 

Amusingly, Thomsett was cast as an eleven year old girl despite being twenty at the time of filming and contractually forbidden not to give the game away during production by smoking, drinking, driving, or being seen in public with a boyfriend on her arm. Even many members of the film crew were unaware of her true age and would often arrive on set with sweets for her. 

 

A year afterwards, Thomsett appeared onscreen opposite Dustin Hoffman and Susan George in Sam Peckinpah's controversial and violent thriller Straw Dogs (1971), playing the role of flirty village girl Janice Hedden (who isn't brutally raped, like George's character, Amy, but still meets a grisly fate; inadvertently strangled by a retarded paedophile).  

 

It wasn't either of these roles, however, that brought Thomsett to the attention of Cooke and Mortimer when looking to cast the character of Jo in Man About the House. Rather, they had spotted her in a 30 second TV ad for Bovril (1972), playing the character of Jill, who is stood up by her boyfriend and returns home, cold and upset, where her mum makes her a nice hot drink using a spoonful of the nation's favourite beef extract [2]. 

 

The ad's humorous punchline - He's got big ears anyway - is repeated by Thomsett (as Jo) in the first episode of series two of Man About the House, much to the amusement of the live studio audience [3].

 

 

III.

 

After Man About the House ended (in April 1976), Thomsett continued to act in this and that and to appear in TV ads - including one for Crunchie bars in 1979 - but, in terms of her professional career, I think we can say her golden days were behind her and it's in the roles of Janice, Jill, and Jo that I'll always remember her with great fondness.  

 

 

Sally Thomsett as Janice Hedden in Straw Dogs (1971)

and as Jill in a TV ad for Bovril (1972)  

 

 

Notes

 

[1] In spite of this - indeed, probably because of this - the Ropers were hugely popular with the Great British Public and the spin-off series George & Mildred (ITV 1976-1979), written by Cooke and Mortimer, ran for 38 episodes over five series (just one episode less than Man About the House). 

      Murphy and Joyce also starred in a George and Mildred feature film, directed by Peter Frazer Jones (1980), though this was not well-received, either commercially or critically, as everyone finally tired of this type of lame and lazy comedy.  

 

[2] For non-British readers who might not know what I'm talking about, Bovril is is a brand of beef extract which has been enjoyed in the UK since 1886 - particularly by football fans standing on the terraces in mid-winter conditions. Three-and-a-half million jars are still sold in the UK every year. As well as being enjoyed as a hot drink, Bovril can also be spread as a paste on toast, or added to soups and stews for a rich beefy flavour. Vegetarians might prefer its yeasty plant based equivalent, Marmite. 

      The Bovril ad starring Sally Thomsett can be watched on YouTube by clicking here.   

 

[3] Man About the House [S2/E1]: 'While the Cat's Away', directed by Peter Frazer-Jones, written by Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke (Jan. 1974). This episode - co-starring Ian Lavender (as Mark) and Jenny Hanley (as Liz) - can be viewed on YouTube by clicking here. Go to 15: 16 for the big ears line, which arguably gets Thomsett her biggest laugh in the entire series. 

      Interestingly, Lavender's character is supposed to be an actor and, at one point he tells Chrissy - who wants to know if the dress she's wearing gives her a sexy look, a bit like Susan George - that he auditioned for a crowd scene in Straw Dogs (but didn't hit it off with Peckinpah). Surely this can't be coincidental, and is rather another example of the writers teasing Thomsett about her acting history. Go to 12:25-44.

    

 

On Beryl Battersby and Chrissy Plummer

Paula Wilcox as Beryl Battersby in The Lovers (ITV 1970-71)

and Chrissy Plummer in Man About the House (ITV 1973-76)

 

 

I. 

 

There are several English actresses from the 1970s that I absolutely adore and one of these is definitely Paula Wilcox, fondly remembered as Chrissy Plummer in Man About the House (1973-76) [1] and, prior to that, as Beryl Battersby in The Lovers (1970-71) [2]. 

 

 

II. 

 

Miss Wilcox was only twenty when she starred as Beryl alongside Richard Beckinsale as her boyfriend, Geoffrey, in The Lovers and her character was famous for frustrating the latter's desire to become an active member of the permissive society. 

 

For Beryl, however, the freedom to say yes to sex before marriage - thanks to advances in contraception and changes in public morality during the 1960s - meant nothing if it was not also the freedom to say no: consent had to be something that could be given, withheld, or withdrawn.  

 

And besides, Beryl was an old-fashioned girl at heart; one to whom marriage and motherhood still meant more than women's liberation and the promise of socio-sexual independence [3]. 

 

In fact, her traditionalism and conservatism was even tinged with a streak of puritanism, as betrayed by the fact that she often referred to sex as Percy Filth (even whilst entertaining her own erotic fantasies involving her idol Paul McCartney). 

 

This made Beryl - not least of all to poor Geoffrey, desperate to pop her cherry and lose his own virginity in the process - an at times maddening character. 

 

However, thanks in no small part to Wilcox's lovely performance, she remains endearing and Geoffrey ultimately makes the right choice in resigning himself to the fact that he will have to marry Beryl if he wishes to consummate their relationship (perhaps even growing a moustache and smoking a pipe at her behest in order to signal his submission on this point).             

 

 

III. 

 

Similar themes to do with sexual politics and comically thwarted desire were also at the heart of Man About the House, with Miss Wilcox playing a more liberated character than Beryl, but one who still placed her body very much off limits to the charming and likeable young man, Robin (played by Richard O'Sullivan), who desires knowledge of it.    

 

To be honest, I don't quite understand why Chrissy doesn't take Robin as her lover; she is clearly very fond of him and extremely jealous whenever he shows sexual interest in other women [4]. 

 

Even less do I understand - or much like the fact - that in the final episode of the show, following a whirlwind romance, she marries Robin's obnoxious older brother, Norman, who with his double-breasted blazer, flared grey slacks, and flash sports car is everything that Robin is not [5]. 

 

That just feels wrong and it makes me have serious reservations about Chrissy: it's almost as if having flirtatiously teased him for so long, she now wishes to humiliate poor Robin. When the latter trips and falls into a spectacular wedding cake that he himself has made, he literally has his nose rubbed in the fact that she is marrying a man who has bullied and bested him his whole life.   

 

Interestingly, after the wedding, when a number of men step forward to kiss the bride, Chrissy has a passionate snog lasting almost a full half minute with Robin in front of the other guests - including her new husband, who eventually steps in to break things up. 

 

Whether this reveals Chrissy's true feelings or is simply her continuing to tease Robin (and humiliate Norman by being unfaithful to him before they have even left for their honeymoon), I'm not sure. But, again, it does make me wonder about her character. 

 

 

Paula Wilcox as Beryl and Richard Beckinsale as Geoffrey in The Lovers (ITV 1970-71)

Richard O'Sullivan as Robin and Paula Wilcox as Chrissy in Man About the House (ITV 1973-76) 

 

Notes

 

[1] Man About the House is a British sitcom created by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer. It starred Richard O'Sullivan (as Robin), Paula Wilcox (as Chrissy), Sally Thomsett (as Jo), as well as Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce as the Ropers. The theme tune - click here - was written by Johnny Hawksworth and entitled "Up to Date" (although it was not specially commissioned for the show).

      Six series (39 episodes) were broadcast on ITV from 15 August 1973 to 7 April 1976, all directed by Peter Frazer-Jones. The show was considered rather risqué at the time because it featured a randy and good-looking young man sharing a London flat with two single women. A big-screen version was released in UK cinemas in December 1974, dir. John Robbins. To watch the original movie trailer, click here.  

      It's a brilliant series which, were it not for a certain snobbery regarding shows that weren't made by the BBC, would be ranked much higher in any list of the UK's best sitcoms than it is (I would certainly put it in my top 10: click here).       

 

[2] The Lovers is a British television sitcom created and written by Jack Rosenthal (and, during the second series, Geoffrey Lancashire). It stars Richard Beckinsale (as Geoffrey) and Paula Wilcox (as Beryl), a perfectly suited young couple, despite having diametrically opposed attitudes toward sex and marriage. 

      Two series (13 episodes) were broadcast on ITV programme from 27 October 1970 to 18 November 1971. It's essentially a chaste (and charming) sex comedy.

      Jack Rosenthal also wrote the feature film adaptation of the same title - but with an added exclamation mark - directed by Herbert Wise and released in UK cinemas in May 1973 (i.e., 18 months after the TV series ended and just three months before the first episode of Man About the House was broadcast). To watch the original movie trailer, click here. 

 

[3] In one scene in The Lovers! (1973), Beryl and Geoffrey encounter a feminist on the stairs at a house party, smoking a joint and loudly proclaiming the ideals of Women's Liberation. When she removes her bra and tells Geoffrey to burn it, he is only too happy to oblige, but Beryl, profoundly unimpressed, storms of in outrage to the kitchen and helps with the washing up.     

[4] See for example, episode 4 of series 1: 'And Then, There Were Two!' (1973). In this episode Robin brings a girl, Liz (played by Jenny Hanley), back to the flat and Chrissy deliberately ruins the evening by walking in on them as they smooch on the sofa in the living room, falsely claiming that she's his pregnant mistress.

      See also episode 2 of series 3: 'Come Into My Parlour' (1974), in which Chrissy displays the same mixture of jealousy and concern when Robin plans to seduce his new girlfriend Angie (played by Caroline Dowdeswell) over dinner in the flat.     

 

[5] Somewhat disconcertingly, the role of Norman Tripp is played by Norman Eshley, despite the fact that in an earlier episode - 'In Praise of Older Men (S2/E3) - the same actor played Ian Cross; a sleazy married man attempting to seduce Chrissy and take her away for the weekend to Bouremouth on a business trip. 

      Norman first appears in episode 5 of series 6: 'Mum Always Liked You Best' (1976). During a two day visit to see his brother, he takes a shine to Chrissy (which is understandable) and she seems to also be instantly attracted to him (which is not quite so believable). Robin makes his feelings clear to his brother and does everything he can to discourage Norman from pursuing Chrissy, but to no avail. For by the following episode - 'Fire Down Below' (1976) - the relationship between Norman and Chrissy has become serious and after a romantic sight-seeing tour of London, he proposes and she accepts without hesitation. In the next episode - which is also the show's finale - 'Another Bride, Another Groom' (1976) - they marry and the whole nation groaned with disappointment and sympathy for Robin. 

      Still, he does eventually get to open his own small restaurant as long wanted, Robin's Nest, and to marry an attractive blonde called Vicky Nicholls (played by Tessa Wyatt), but that's a whole different series ...  

 

 

Why I Love Carry On Teacher

Print by artandhue.com 
based on the original film poster

Carry On Teacher (dir. Gerald Thomas, 1959) is the third in the long-running Carry On series of film comedies and one of my favourite movies set in the classroom (as it is one of Morrissey's) ...

It features Ted Ray, who does a sterling job in this, his only Carry On role, alongside the usual suspects. Leslie Philips also puts in another ding-dong performance in what, sadly, will be his final Carry On until the much mistaken last entry in the series, Carry On Columbus (1992), once voted the worst British film ever made.    

Fans of classic seventies sitcom Man About the House, will also note the presence of a young Richard O'Sullivan as one of the Maudlin Street pupils (coincidentally, he's even named Robin).

And finally, since we're discussing the cast, special mention should also be made of the very wonderful Rosalind Knight, as the severe (but sexy) Ministry of Education Inspector, Miss Wheeler: that hair! that face! those clothes! 

But, apart from the actors, what is it that I love about this film so much?

It's the fact that, like all of the early Carry On movies written by Norman Hudis, it has a warmheartedness and a gentle good humour that's hard to resist; a quality that was lost over the years and films that followed as sentiment was increasingly sacrificed for sauciness and character gave way to caricature. 

Of course, there's nothing wrong with bawdiness and some of Talbot Rothwell's scripts have elements of genius. But one increasingly finds the sight of Bab's bursting out of her bikini top less amusing than that of Miss Allcock ripping her shorts. 

Notes

To watch the Carry On Teacher trailer on Vimeo, click here. 

For a sister post to this one - Why I Love Carry On Cruising - click here.