George and Mildred

George and Mildred
British comedy series George & Mildred
Created by	Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke
Starring	Brian Murphy Yootha Joyce Norman Eshley Sheila Fearn
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	38
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	6 September 1976 – 25 December 1979
Related
Robin's Nest The Ropers

George and Mildred was a British sitcom produced by Thames Television that aired from 1976 to 1979. It was a spin-off of Man About the House and starred Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce as an ill-matched married couple, George and Mildred Roper. The premise of this series had George and Mildred leaving their flat as depicted in Man About the House and moving to a modern, upmarket housing estate, to the horror of their snobbish neighbour Jeffrey Fourmile, an estate agent who despairs that the Roper's presence will devalue his home.

It was written by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer. Like many sitcoms of the day, George and Mildred was also turned into a film which was dedicated to actress Yootha Joyce who died suddenly in 1980, just as the cast were looking forward to recording a sixth series.

Cast

• Brian Murphy - George Roper
• Yootha Joyce - Mildred Roper
• Norman Eshley - Jeffrey Fourmile
• Sheila Fearn - Ann Fourmile
• Nicholas Bond-Owen - Tristram Fourmile
• Simon Lloyd - Tarquin Fourmile (from series 3)
• Avril Elgar - Ethel Pumphrey
• Reginald Marsh - Humphrey Pumphrey
• Gretchen Franklin - Mildred's Mother
• Roy Kinnear - Jerry

Plot

George and Mildred Roper have left their old house after receiving a compulsory purchase order from the Council and move to 46 Peacock Crescent in Hampton Wick. While Mildred enjoys moving up in the world socially, lazy and unemployed George remains true to his working class roots and also continues to show a lack of interest in sexual relations with Mildred.

George and Mildred's yuppie next-door neighbours are Jeffrey Fourmile, a snobbish estate agent, and his wife Ann. They have a young son called Tristram, who gets on well with Mildred and George, and in series 3 a second child called Tarquin is born. The Conservative supporting Jeffrey is greatly irritated by George, who frequently annoys him.

Mildred's snobbish sister Ethel and her wealthy husband Humphrey occasionally visit, as does Mildred's mother. Mildred often makes subtle digs at Ethel's age or social status when Ethel visits. George's friend Jerry, a jack-of-all-trades, also visits, much to Mildred's annoyance. Jerry is fond of referring to Mildred as "Mildew".

In the first series, Mildred buys a Yorkshire Terrier called Truffles (played by dog actor Pussy Galore).

Episodes

Series One (1976)

1. Moving On (6 September 1976)
2. The Bad Penny (13 September 1976)
3. And Women Must Weep (20 September 1976)
4. Baby Talk (27 September 1976)
5. Your Money or Your Life (4 October 1976)
6. Where My Caravan Has Rested (11 October 1976)
7. The Little Dog Laughed (18 October 1976)
8. Best Foot Forward (25 October 1976)
9. My Husband Next Door (1 November 1976)
10. Family Planning (8 November 1976)

Series Two (1977)

1. Jumble Pie (14 November 1977)
2. All Around the Clock (21 November 1977)
3. The Travelling Man (28 November 1977)
4. The Unkindest Cut of All (5 December 1977)
5. The Right Way to Travel (12 December 1977)
6. The Dorothy Letters (19 December 1977)
7. No Business Like Show Business (26 December 1977)

Series Three (1978)

1. Opportunity Knocks (7 September 1978)
2. And so to Bed (14 September 1978)
3. I Believe in Yesterday (21 September 1978)
4. The Four Letter Word (28 September 1978)
5. The Delivery Man (5 October 1978)
6. Life with Father (12 October 1978)

Series Four (1978)

1. Just the Job (16 November 1978) : George is called to a job interview - the position vacant is that of traffic warden. George has no love for the 'little Hitlers' as he sees them, but perhaps he'll find his niche in life? Meanwhile George (reluctantly) and Mildred (happily) agree to attend their neighbours boy's, (Tristram's), School Prize Giving.
2. Days of Beer and Rosie (23 November 1978) : Has George got a son, conceived on Victory in Europe night ? (This episode looks back to the year 1945, and refers back, via George's reminiscences, and impressions, to Tommy Handley, ITMA and William Joyce. The actor Tony Melody appears in this episode.)
3. You Must Have Showers (30 November 1978) : Mildred wants a smart new shower, but George insists they can't afford the prices being asked, so calls in Jerry, (Roy Kinnear), to instal a jerry-built one.
4. All Work and No Pay (7 December 1978) : George resigns from his job as a traffic warden. But finds it very hard to tell Mildred. (In one of the conversations that George has with Jerry in this episode, Jerry says, he 'got a months jankers for that', a piece of British Armed Services slang. It illustrates the fact that George and Jerry are part of a generation that knew National Service, the system of peacetime conscription in Britain, 1948-1960).
5. Nappy Days (14 December 1978) : Ann and Jeffrey Fourmile have to attend a funeral and ask George and Mildred to look after baby Tarquin for the day. This is fine until George is left alone in sole charge of the baby, the Fourmiles are late getting back from the funeral, and George wants to go to a darts match at the British Legion. (Norman Mitchell appears in this episode).
6. The Mating Game (21 December 1978) : Mildred wants Truffles, George and Mildred's Yorkshire terrier, to have puppies. George is happy with that, since he thinks there might be money in it. They decide to try and pair Truffles with Mildreds sister Ethel's Yorkie, Pomeroy. But Ethel, (Avril Elgar), isn't sure; 'I don't think Pomeroy has ever seen a bitch. I keep him with me all the time.'
7. On the Second Day of Christmas (27 December 1978) : George and Mildred reflect on their uneventful Christmas - even Mildred's mother, (Gretchen Franklin), has a more exciting time. Ann invites them over for a post-Christmas drink and George loses a stack of money to Jeffrey playing a video game. And then Ethel and Humphrey arrive.

Series Five (1979)

1. Finders Keepers? (24 October 1979)
2. In Sickness and In Health (30 October 1979)
3. The Last Straw (6 November 1979)
4. A Driving Ambition (13 November 1979)
5. A Military Pickle (27 November 1979)
6. Fishy Business (4 December 1979)
7. I Gotta Horse (18 December 1979)
8. The Twenty Six Year Itch (25 December 1979)

Stage show

During 1977, Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce, joined at one stage by Reginald Marsh, toured in a successful stage version of the programme. In 1976-77, Murphy and Joyce appeared as the ugly sisters, Georgina and Mildred, in the London Palladium pantomime, Cinderella.

Film version

Main article: George and Mildred (film)

Following the fifth TV series, the programme was made into a film in 1980. The film was written not by Cooke and Mortimer but by Dick Sharples. The Fourmiles only played a small role in the film. Despite the presence of original title characters, plus stars like Stratford Johns and Kenneth Cope and up-and-coming actors like Vicki Michelle, the film was not a critical nor box office success.

The abrupt end of George and Mildred

The final caption of the George and Mildred film read 'The End - or is it the beginning?' It was to prove the abrupt end, as Yootha Joyce died, from chronic alcoholism, on 24 August 1980, before the film was even released. Her friends and colleagues were astonished to discover that she had been drinking a litre of brandy every day, as it never affected her performance or professionalism.

In 2004, on an audio commentary on the Australian Umbrella DVD release of George and Mildred: the Complete Series 2, Brian Murphy revealed that there had been plans for a sixth series of eight episodes of the show. These were to have been recorded in late 1980. Murphy also revealed that this was due to have been the final series of George and Mildred, as he and Yootha Joyce wished to focus on other work. However, despite scripts being written, Joyce's hospitalisation and death put an enforced end to the show. Her funeral took place on the very day the cast were due to begin rehearsals for the new series.

Thames Television did talk of producing a spin-off for the character of George, looking at him cope with life as a widower. However, this project did not materialise. But Brian Murphy did reunite with George and Mildred co-star Roy Kinnear and writers Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke for The Incredible Mr. Tanner, a comedy produced for Thames soon after Yootha Joyce's death.

Adaptations

George and Mildred was adapted in the United States as The Ropers, a spin-off of Three's Company, the US version of Man About the House. Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy appeared, in character as George and Mildred, on the magic show The David Nixon Show.

DVD releases

The first DVD release of George and Mildred was from Clear Vision in the UK in 2001 (and simultaneously appeared on VHS). Although the top of the sleeve says "Series One", the bottom says "episodes 1 to 6", so the remaining four episodes do not appear. Complaints about picture quality of this and the accompanying Man About the House release, and minor edits of the ad break captions, etc. probably went some way to explaining why no more Clear Vision releases materialised.

In Australia, the first series was released in May, 2003. Unlike the Clear Vision release of series one, all 10 episodes were included, as were the original ad captions and the Thames tv idents (the music for this is called "Salute to Thames") at the start and original end boards. Many fans from the UK imported these versions instead, not only due to their superiority, but the favourable exchange rates made them no more expensive than the Clear Vision title. Series 2 followed in March, 2004 and the movie that same November. Unlike the UK Network release of series 2, the Australian version contained some audio commentaries with series star Brian Murphy.

Contract and clearance re-negotiations for all worldwide regions put a halt to Umbrella's plans to proceed with the remaining episodes, and while the shows have been cleared for UK release (as evidenced by the Network releases), Fremantle Media still have not, as of 2007, worked out clearances for the Australian/New Zealand regions yet, so Umbrella's hands are still tied. On Wednesday, 16 July 2008, Series 3 was finally released in Australia, followed by Series 4 on 03 September 2008 and Series 5 on December 3 2008, Season 4 & 5 are currently unavailable. In April 2009, Freemantle Media re-released the first three seasons with the same cover art as of the UK releases (Season 1 now being a 2 Disc set as the original version all 10 episodes were on one disc), Season 4 & 5 will be re-released but it is unknown when.

The entire first series of George and Mildred was released by Network DVD in Region 2 (UK) in 2005 without the annoying edits or the over-compressed picture quality. The second, third and fourth series were released in 2006. The fifth and final series was released in 2007. The movie has been available in the UK for many years on both video and DVD, both individually and bundled as special double- and triple-bills with other "small screen to big screen" efforts. The complete box set with all 5 seasons has been released in the UK.

Recent broadcasts

The show is now shown regularly on Comedy Central Extra in the United Kingdom complete with Thames Television ident. In Spain it shown on Cuatro and in Canada it is shown on Country Canada. In 2007 some episodes were shown on the Seven Network in Australia and is shown occasionally on pay-TV channel UK.TV on Foxtel. It has also been shown in Cuba. Granada Plus used to repeat the show until the close in 2004.

See also

• List of films based on British sitcoms

References

• Mark Lewisohn, "Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy", BBC Worldwide Ltd, 2003
• British TV Comedy Guide for George and Mildred

External links

• George and Mildred at the British Sitcom Guide
• George and Mildred at IMDb