On this date in 1976 George and Mildred was first broadcast on Thames TV. 10 things you might not know about the show:
This show was a spin off from Man About the House in which George and Mildred Roper move out of their flat and into a house in an upmarket estate. Their neighbour, Jeffrey Fourmile, is a snob who thinks that the presence of a working class couple will adversely affect property prices in the neighbourhood. His wife, Ann and Mildred, however, become firm friends.
There was a US version called The Ropers, which was itself a spin off of the US version of Man About the House, Three’s Company.
George and Mildred’s address is 46 Peacock Crescent, Hampton Wick. The exterior shots were filmed at 46 and 44 Manor Road, Teddington, Middlesex TW11 8AB. The interior scenes were shot at Thames Television studios in Teddington. However, the studio interiors are actually too wide to belong to the real houses. Their kitchens and hallways would overlap unless, according to IMDB Trivia “there was a weird duplex workaround.”
In the first series, George buys Mildred a Yorkshire Terrier called Truffles, which she registers with the kennel club as "Truffles duBorbon Fitzwilliam III".
The local Residents' Association committee is comprised of Mr and Mrs Morecambe and Miss Wise.
George has a 1933 Brough motorcycle and sidecar, which is now exhibited at the London Motorcycle Museum.
There was a film made of George and Mildred which focussed on the Ropers celebrating their anniversary in an upmarket hotel.
There were five series. There was to be a sixth, but Yootha Joyce, who played Mildred, died suddenly in August 1980, just as rehearsals were about to start, and before the film was released, so the movie is dedicated to her. She died of liver failure, having hidden her alcoholism from friends and colleagues. It was said she’d been drinking half a bottle of brandy a day for ten years.
Norman Eshley, who plays Jeffrey Fourmile, also appeared in Man About the House as Robin's brother Norman. However, the likeness between Robin’s brother and Fourmile is never alluded to in George and Mildred.
In 1976 and 1977, Murphy and Joyce appeared as the ugly sisters, Georgina and Mildred, in the London Palladium pantomime, Cinderella.
The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.
The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.
Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.
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