One off repeat of Porridge "The Desperate Hours" over Christmas rang a bell and of course it was also an episode title from Steptoe and Son, which got me thinking (as it seems there are numerous films/TV episodes that use this same title) has it become a generic term for any sort of hostage situation?

In the Porridge one it was of course the brilliant Dudley Sutton as the hostage taker and in Steptoe the even more brilliant Leonard Rossiter.

They're all just plays on the film title/plot, I think. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Desperate_Hours_(film)

Yes I imagined it was a tenuous homage.

There are quite a number of other examples. Not that I know the original material enough to remember them off hand.

I do recall that every episode in Series 7 of Birds Of A Feather is named after another sitcom, though.