George and Mildred

• Yootha Joyce as Mildred Roper
• Brian Murphy as George Roper
• Norman Eshley as Jeffrey Fourmile
• Sheila Fearn as Ann Fourmile
• Nicholas Bond-Owen as Tristram Fourmile

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 upmarket Hampton Wick. While Mildred enjoys the chance to better herself in her new surroundings, she is always being thwarted—usually by the lazy, inept and generally unemployed George, who has no interest in climbing the social ladder, and also continues to show a lack of interest in sexual relations with Mildred.

George and Mildred's next-door neighbours are Jeffrey Fourmile, a snobbish estate agent and his wife Ann. Ann and Mildred become good friends, but Jeffrey is frequently irritated by George, with their spats providing much of the show's humour. The Fourmiles have a young son, Tristram, who gets on well with George, much to the chagrin of Jeffrey (particularly because Jeffrey supports the Conservative Party, while George puts socialist ideas into Tristram's head). In series three, Ann gives birth to a second child; Tarquin.

Mildred's snobbish sister Ethel and her rich husband Humphrey occasionally visit, as does Mildred's elderly mother. Having married wealth, Ethel enjoys trying to make Mildred feel inferior by showing off her latest car or fur coat, at which point Mildred often makes subtle digs at Ethel's age, or social status and pretensions. George however, is far less subtle. George's friend Jerry, a jack-of-all-trades and common swindler, also visits occasionally, much to Mildred's annoyance. Jerry is fond of referring to Mildred as "Mildew". Jerry is the only other character from Man About the House to reappear in this series.

In the first series, George buys Mildred a Yorkshire Terrier called Truffles after the Ropers are unable to adopt a child (Mildred later registers her with the kennel club as "Truffles duBorbon Fitzwilliam III").

George Roper's 1933 Brough motorcycle combination—shown to regular comic effect in the opening titles of series 2, 3 and 5—is now exhibited at the London Motorcycle Museum. It also appeared in the BBC sitcom Dad's Army.[3] In episodes 1-6 of Series 1, George drives a Reliant Regal three-wheeler – which he swaps for a caravan in the episode "Where My Caravan Has Rested". The Fourmiles' car was Ford Granada Mk1 in Series 1–4 changing to a Volvo 240 estate in Series 5.

The exterior shots for the Roper and Fourmile residences were filmed at 46 and 44 Manor Road, Teddington, Middlesex (now South West London) TW11 8AB. Interior scenes were filmed at the nearby Thames Television studios in Teddington.

The theme music for the show is Graphic Brown by Roger Webb (Media Music Number 22, Multi Images, 1978)

During 1977, Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce, joined at one point by Reginald Marsh, toured in a successful stage version of the programme.[4] The tour included appearances at The King's Theatre, Edinburgh. In 1976 and 1977, Murphy and Joyce appeared as the ugly sisters, Georgina and Mildred, in the London Palladium pantomime, Cinderella.[5]

Following the fifth series, a feature film version of the series was produced in 1980.[6] The film was not written by Cooke and Mortimer but by Dick Sharples.[7] The Fourmiles only played a small role in the film, which focused on George and Mildred celebrating their wedding anniversary, at Mildred's insistence, at an upmarket London hotel. It featured several guest stars including Stratford Johns, Kenneth Cope and Vicki Michelle.[8] The film was neither a critical nor box office success.[9] It was shown on ITV on Christmas Day 1980.

The final caption of the George and Mildred film read "The End – or is it the beginning?" It would prove to be the former as Yootha Joyce died from portal cirrhosis of the liver due to chronic alcoholism on 24 August 1980, before the film was released. Friends and colleagues were unaware that Joyce had been habitually consuming half a bottle of brandy every day for over 10 years.

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 were afraid of being typecast after playing the characters since 1973 on television and in two films. However, despite scripts being written, Joyce's hospitalisation and subsequent death brought a premature end to the show. Her funeral took place on the day the cast were due to begin rehearsals for the new series. Speaking of their relationship in a 2001 ITV programme, The Unforgettable Yootha Joyce, Murphy said that when they had first met at Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop he had, "always regarded Yootha as very stylish and very confident. I was rather over-awed by her at first, full of admiration for her. "At her death, "People said, 'You've lost a working partner' and I said, 'No, I've lost a chum'... and then I realised I've lost my working partnership as well...".

Thames Television did consider producing a spin-off for the character of George, looking at him cope with life as a widower. However, this project did not materialise, with Brian Murphy briefly moving to the BBC the following year for L for Lester which was cancelled after just one series.

He 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 by Thames Television.

George and Mildred was adapted in the United States as The Ropers, a spin-off from Three's Company (itself the US adaptation of Man About the House).[10][11]

Man About the House – George and Mildred: The Definitive Companion by Tex Fisher was published on 1 July 2010. The book includes contributions from many of the original cast, including Brian Murphy, Paula Wilcox, Sally Thomsett and Nicholas Bond-Owen. It explains the background and history of both programmes, together with an episode and film guide, full cast biographies, details of the stage play, full catalogue of support cast, and a 1970s phrase dictionary. ISBN 978-0-9565634-0-8. The book is published by Deck Chair Publishing.[12]

• List of films based on British sitcoms

• George and Mildred at British Comedy Guide
• George and Mildred at IMDb
• British TV Comedy Guide for George and Mildred.
• George and Mildred at the BFI's Screenonline