George and Mildred
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| George and Mildred | |
|---|---|
 Grorge and Mildred DVD |
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| Genre | Sitcom |
| Creator(s) | 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 |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV |
| Original run | 6 September 1976 – 25 December 1979 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
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. It was written by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer. Like many sitcoms of the day, George and Mildred was also turned into a film.
Contents |
[edit] Cast
- Brian Murphy - George Roper
- Yootha Joyce - Mildred Roper
- Norman Eshley - Jeffrey Fourmile
- Sheila Fearn - Ann Fourmile
- Nicholas Bond-Owen - Tristram Fourmile [1]
- Simon Lloyd - Tarquin Fourmile (from series 3)
- Avril Elgar - Ethel Pumphrey
- Reginald Marsh - Humphrey Pumphrey
- Gretchen Franklin - Mildred's Mother
- Roy Kinnear - Jerry
[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 routes 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, an 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)
- Moving On (6 Sep 76)
- The Bad Penny (13 Sep 76)
- And Women Must Weep (20 Sep 76)
- Baby Talk (27 Sep 76)
- Your Money or Your Life (4 Oct 76)
- Where My Caravan Has Rested (11 Oct 76)
- The Little Dog Laughed (18 Oct 76)
- Best Foot Forward (25 Oct 76)
- My Husband Next Door (1 Nov 76)
- Family Planning (8 Nov 76)
[edit] Series Two (1977)
- Jumble Pie (14 Nov 77)
- All Around the Clock (21 Nov 77)
- The Travelling Man (28 Nov 77)
- The Unkindest Cut of All (5 Dec 77)
- The Right Way to Travel (12 Dec 77)
- The Dorothy Letters (19 Dec 77)
- No Business Like Show Business (26 Dec 77)
[edit] Series Three (1978)
- Opportunity Knocks (7 Sep 78)
- And so to Bed (14 Sep 78)
- I Believe in Yesterday (21 Sep 78)
- The Four Letter Word (28 Sep 78)
- The Delivery Man (5 Oct 78)
- Life with Father (12 Oct 78)
[edit] Seres Four (1978)
- Just the Job (16 Nov 78)
- Days of Beer and Rosie (23 Nov 78)
- You Must Have Showers (30 Nov 78)
- All Work and No Pay (7 Dec 78)
- Nappy Days (14 Dec 78)
- The Mating Game (21 Dec 78)
- On the Second Day of Christmas (27 Dec 78)
[edit] Series Five (1979)
- Finders Keepers? (24 Oct 79)
- In Sickness and In Health (30 Oct 79)
- The Last Straw (6 Nov 79)
- A Driving Ambition (13 Nov 79)
- A Military Pickle (27 Nov 79)
- Fishy Business (4 Dec 79)
- I Gotta Horse (18 Dec 79)
- The Twenty Six Year Itch (25 Dec 79)
[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
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 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 end, as Yootha Joyce died, from chronic alcoholism, on 24th 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] Adaptions
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 releaes
The first series of George and Mildred was released by Network DVD in Region 2 (UK) in 2005. The second, third and fourth series were released in 2006. The fifth and final series was released in 2007.
[edit] Recent broadcasts
The show is now shown on Paramont Comedy 1 in the United Kingdom. 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.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ He was sometimes credited as Nicholas Owen.
[edit] References
- Mark Lewisohn, "Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy", BBC Worldwide Ltd, 2003
- British TV Comedy Guide for George and Mildred
