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Brian Murphy, who starred as the henpecked landlord George Roper on the 1970s British sitcoms Man About the House and George and Mildred, which were adapted for Three’s Company and The Ropers in the U.S., has died. He was 92.

Murphy died Sunday of cancer at his home in Kent, England, his agent, Thomas Bowington, announced.

Murphy also starred on the short-lived comedies The Incredible Mr. Tanner in 1981, L for Lester in 1982 and Lame Ducks in 1984-85 before joining the long-running BBC sitcom Last of the Summer Wine as Alvin Smedley for an eight-season run from 2003-10.

ITV’s Man About the House, from Thames Television, starred Richard O’Sullivan as student chef Robin Tripp, who moves into a London flat shared by two young women, Chrissy (Paula Wilcox) and Jo (Sally Thomsett), to enjoy a platonic relationship. The landlords, George and his sexually frustrated wife, Mildred (Yootha Joyce), are told Robin is gay.

Stars: Frankie Avalon, Richard O’Sullivan, George Sewell, Jill Haworth, Dennis Price, Mark Wynter, Gina Warwick, Carol Dilworth, Robin Stewart | Written by Michael Armstrong, Gerry Levey | Directed by Michael Armstrong

Tigon’s The Haunted House of Horror (aka Horror House) is a peculiar blend of 1960s camp, teenage angst, and Gothic horror that struggles to find its footing but still manages to intrigue. Directed by Michael Armstrong and starring Frankie Avalon, Richard O’Sullivan, and George Sewell, the film ambitiously sets out to combine youthful rebellion with the chills of a classic haunted house tale.

The story begins with a group of swinging London friends who, in search of thrills, decide to spend a night in an abandoned mansion rumoured to be haunted. What starts as playful banter quickly turns deadly when one of their number is brutally murdered. The group’s paranoia grows as they attempt to solve the mystery,...

Sadie Frost, Gary Kemp, Phil Collins – they all started out in movies from the Children's Film Foundation

A forgotten catalogue of hundreds of British children's films, all shot in the school holidays from the 1950s to 1980s, is to be re-released after lying dormant while many of their young stars rose to fame.

Performers such as Phil Collins, Michael Crawford, Leslie Ash, Susan George, Sadie Frost and Gary Kemp all got their first screen work in Children's Film Foundation features, which entertained the nation's youth at Saturday morning cinema screenings. The British Film Institute has announced that it will be releasing the entire catalogue and screening many of the best features at special events which are sure to attract nostalgic fans and social historians.

"The early black-and-white films from the 1950s were rather middle-class and wholesome, so you can imagine the children throwing their ice cream tubs at the screen back then,...

Actor and children's television writer known for Catweazle, Robin of Sherwood and The Borrowers

Richard Carpenter, who has died of a blood clot aged 82, brought intelligent, imaginative entertainment to generations of young television viewers through the fantasy series he created. After almost two decades as an actor, he found his first success as a writer with Catweazle (1970-71), starring Geoffrey Bayldon as a dishevelled, eccentric, 11th-century magician transported to the 20th century. Comic misunderstandings were mixed with slapstick as Catweazle befriended a farmer's son, Carrot (played by Robin Davies), who unravelled for him modern-day mysteries such as "electrickery" and the "telling-bone".

In the second series, Carpenter had Catweazle searching for symbols of the 13 signs of the Magic Zodiac and being taken in by another boy, Cedric (Gary Warren), at his parents' country estate. "I've always been interested in the person who is outside society," said Carpenter in a 1990 interview with the magazine Time Screen.