George and Mildred
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George and Mildred was a British sitcom of the 1970s produced by Thames Television featuring an ill-matched married couple, George and Mildred Roper, played by Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce.
The characters were originally featured in another ITV sitcom, Man About the House, of which George and Mildred was a successful spin-off and it was adapted in the United States as The Ropers, a spin-off of Three's Company.
Plot
Having accepted a compulsory purchase order for their old house, the former landlord and landlady move to the suburbs of Hampton Wick, where George's gauche ways soon put him at odds with their yuppie neighbours, Jeffrey and Ann Fourmile and their young son Tristram. Mildred sees this change of address as a means of moving up the social ladder, and mixing with a better class of person. George remains workshy, lazy and proud of his working class roots, much to Mildred and Jeffrey's frustrations. Mildred also remains disappointed by George's lack of romance.The snobbish Jeffrey Fourmile, an estate agent (who had the misfortune of selling the Ropers their new home in the first place), was played by Norman Eshley, who also played the part of Robin Tripp's brother in Man About the House. Sheila Fearn played the more sympathetic Ann and eight-year-old Nicholas Bond-Owen debuted as Tristram. Other recurring characters were the Fourmiles' second child, baby Tarquin; Mildred's posh sister and brother-in-law, Ethel (Avril Elgar) and Humphrey (Reginald Marsh); Mildred's dotty mother (Gretchen Franklin); George's layabout mate, Jerry (Roy Kinnear), and Mildred's dog, Truffles (played by the canine actor Pussy Galore).
From 1976 to 1979, five series and 38 episodes of George and Mildred were made. During 1977, Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce, joined at one stage by Reginald Marsh, toured in a successful stage version of the programme.
Film version
Following the fifth television series, the show was made into a film in 1980, distributed by ITC Entertainment but made by the former Hammer film studios, part of one of Thames Television's two parent companies. It was directed by Peter Frazer Jones and written by Dick Sharples.Despite the presence of original title characters Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy, plus stars like Stratford Johns and Kenneth Cope and up-and-coming character actors like Vicki Michelle, the film was not a critical nor box office success, possibly due to the fact that it was not written by Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke, the two writers who had made the television series such a success. Also, the Fourmiles were relegated to little more than cameo roles, whereas they had been a key part of the TV series.
The End of George and Mildred
The final caption of the George and Mildred film read 'The End - or is it the beginning?' Sadly, 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. Sadly, 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.
See also
External links
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