ITV Robin's Nest cast now - soap icon, tragic stroke and family feud

Richard O'Sullivan's Man About The House character Robin Tripp, proved so popular that when that show ended he was given his own spin off in the shape of Robin's Nest. The ITV show saw the aspiring chef graduated from college and running a bistro, with his girlfriend Vicky Nicholls (Tessa Wyatt) which is partly financed by her interfering and disapproving father James (Tony Britton).

The series was considered groundbreaking at the time as it was the first UK sitcom to feature an unmarried couple cohabiting, although Robin and Vicky would eventually marry in the final episode of season two. The show was an immediate success when it began just nine months after the final episode of Man About the House aired. It ran for six series from 11 January 1977 to 31 March 1981. When the show ended the actors all had very different fates. Express.co.uk takes a look at what happened to them when the bistro closed it's doors.

A former child star Richard, now 80, had also appeared in the Elizabeth Taylor epic Cleopatra before he was cast in Man About The House where he played culinary student Robin Tripp who ended up sharing a flat with two women. When the show ended the character was given the spin off Robin's Nest.

He and co-star Tessa Wyatt who played his girlfriend Vicky, were in a relationship during filming and the pair had a son Jamie, but they split in the mid 80s.

Alongside Robin's Nest, he began playing the titular character Dick Turpin in the LWT drama in 1979 which ran until 1982. When both shows ended he continued to work on screen. From 1984 to 1988, he starred in the ITV sitcom Me and My Girl, playing widowed single father Simon Harrup.

He kept a lower profile in the 1990s although he worked steadily. His final acting role was in a one-off satire in 1996 titled Holed about a suburban golf club.

He suffered a stroke in 2003 and in the aftermath, he moved into Brinsworth House, a retirement home for entertainers in Twickenham, where he still lives.

Much like co-star and lover Richard O'Sullivan, Tessa, now 77, had been a child star and had garnered quite an impressive CV by the time she was cast Robin's Nest.

When the show ended she found herself hugely in demand appearing in shows such as Return of the Saint, Boon and 2point4 Children. In 1997 she joined the original cast of the Channel Five soap opera Family Affairs, playing Samantha Cockerill.

Since 2000 she has also appeared in Casualty and Doctors and she appeared in the fifth series of Peep Show as Jeremy's mother and was Tom's love interest in an episode of The Old Guys opposite Roger Lloyd-Pack and Clive Swift.

In 2013, she hit the headlines when she joined the cast of EastEnders, playing Betty Spragg who was a dance partner for Patrick Trueman (played by Rudolph Walker).

She and Richard split up after seven years together and she subsequently married property developer Bill Harkness in 1986, and they have two children. She also has a son with her first husband Tony Blackburn who she married in 1972 and divorced in 1977.

Tony was alreasy a BAFTA winning film and TV star for a quarter of a century by the time he joined Robin's Nest playing Vicky's irascible father James.

Following the demise of Robin's Nest he went into another sitcom starring opposite Nigel Havers and Dinah Sheridan in the BBC sitcom Don't Wait Up. Another hugely popular sitcom appearance was Don't Tell Father in which he co-starred opposite Susan Hampshire and Caroline Quentin.

He didn't abandon his drama roots though and in 1894 appeared inthe BBC's adaptation of the C.P. Snow novel Strangers and Brothers in 1984. He also had a role in the ITV Heartbeat spin off The Royal in 2006. His final film role came in 2012 in Run for Your Wife.

While he enjoyed a glittering professional career his personal life was far less successful. His daughter, TV presenter Fern Britton admitted in a 2008 article for MailOnlione he had been absent in her childhood. "My father remained a glamorous, if shadowy, presence throughout my childhood. There were no pictures of him in the house. I only knew what he looked like because I'd see him on TV, when I would wave to him madly... to all intents and purposes I never had a father, or the life that went with it," she sadly admitted.

In her 2024 autobiography The Older I Get How I Repowered My Life she revealed her parents's marriage had already crumbled by the time she was born and she had been conceived while they were separated. "It transpired that during one visit of a few hours back to see her, he and my mum had temporarily rekindled their feelings and I was conceived. Tony died at the age of 95 in 2019.

Rounding out the cast was Irish actor David Kelly as inept one armed dishwasher Albert Riddle. David was already well known in his native Ireland when he started booking roles in the UK. Prior to Robin's Nest he had a memorable part in Fawlty Towers in 1975 playing another inept character, the builder Mr O'Reilly.

He went on to have a regular long running role alongside Bruce Forsyth in both series of the comedy Slinger's Day from 1986 to 1987. In 1991, he appeared in the first series of the BBC sitcom 2point4 Children as the cafe-owner Paddy.

He continued to work between Ireland and the UK. In 1980 he won huge acclaim for his portrayal of the character "Rashers" Tierney in the 1980 RTÉ miniseries Strumpet City, which starred co-starred Peter O'Toole, Cyril Cusack and Peter Ustinov. He appeared in ITV soap Emmerdale Farm in the 1980s and Irish soap Glenroe in the 1990s.

On the big screen he enjoyed huge success with the 1998 film Waking Ned. Tim Burton cast him as the iconic character Grandpa Joe in 2005's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and he also had a part in Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (2004).

His last film role was in Stardust, in 2007 in which he appeared opposite Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer. He died after a short illness on 12 February 2012 at age 82.