Bless This House (UK TV series)

Bless This House
Bless this House titles as used in the first three series.
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Vince Powell Harry Driver
Starring	Sidney James Diana Coupland Robin Stewart Sally Geeson Anthony Jackson Patsy Rowlands
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	6
No. of episodes	65
Production
Producer(s)	William G. Stewart
Running time	30 minutes (including commercials)
Production company(s)	Thames Television
Distributor	Fremantle Media
Release
Original network	ITV
Picture format	4:3
Original release	2 February 1971 (1971-02-02) – 22 April 1976 (1976-04-22)

Bless This House is a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 2 February 1971 to 22 April 1976. Starring Sid James and Diana Coupland, it was created by Vince Powell and Harry Driver, but mainly written by other hands including Dave Freeman and Carla Lane. It was made for the ITV network by Thames Television. In 2004, Bless This House came 67th in Britain's best sitcom.

The show was produced & directed by William G. Stewart, later the host of the 15 to 1 gameshow, and had theme music written by Geoff Love. A comic strip version was also produced, written by Angus Allan and printed in TV comic Look-in. The first seven episodes were made in black-and-white due to industrial action.

The series came to an abrupt end in 1976, when just four days after broadcast of the final episode of the sixth series, Sid James collapsed on stage at the Sunderland Empire during a performance of The Mating Season after failing to respond to a cue. James had suffered a heart attack and died later on the way to the hospital.

Plans were in place for a 7th and an 8th series and a second feature film at time of James' death. In an ironic twist of fate, James had told his co-star Diana Coupland, "We'll keep making this until one of us kicks the bucket."