George and Mildred

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George and Mildred

British comedy series George & Mildred
Format Sitcom
Created by Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke
Starring Brian Murphy
Yootha Joyce
Norman Eshley
Sheila Fearn
Country of origin Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
No. of episodes 38
Production
Running time 30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel ITV
Original run 6 September 1976 – 25 December 1979
Chronology
Preceded by Man About the House
Related shows Robin's Nest
The Ropers
External links
IMDb profile

George and Mildred was a British sitcom produced by Thames Television that aired from 1976 to 1980. 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. 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 suddenly died in 1980 just as the cast had looked so forward to recording a sixth series at the time.

Contents

[edit] Cast

[edit] 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. Mildred's snobbish sister Ethel and her husband Humphrey occasionally visit, as does Mildred's mother. George's friend Jerry, a cowboy builder, also visits, much to Mildred's annoyance. In the first series, George buys Mildred a Yorkshire Terrier called Truffles (played by dog actor Pussy Galore).

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 strongly dislikes George, who frequently annoys Jeffrey.

[edit] Episodes

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] Series Four (1978)

  1. Just the Job (16 November 1978)
  2. Days of Beer and Rosie (23 November 1978)
  3. You Must Have Showers (30 November 1978)
  4. All Work and No Pay (7 December 1978)
  5. Nappy Days (14 December 1978)
  6. The Mating Game (21 December 1978)
  7. On the Second Day of Christmas (27 December 1978)

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.[citation needed]

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 "Salute to Thames" opening 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), Freemantle still have not, as of 2007, worked out clearances for the Australian/New Zealand regions yet, so Umbrella's hands are still tied.

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.

[edit] Recent broadcasts

The show is now shown regularly on Paramount Comedy 2 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.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ He was sometimes credited as Nicholas Owen having added Bond because he was a fan of James Bond.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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