George and Mildred and a laugh or two

Press, 1 November 1977, Page 19

George and Mildred and a laugh or two

By A. K. GRANT " "George and Mildred” is one of what promises to be an endless series of spin-offs from “Man About the House.” “Robin’s Nest” is the other spin-off now screening, and I can foresee the day when 40 per cent of TVTs output will be locally produced, and the other 60 per cent will derive in some way or other from “Man About the House,” including such shows as “George and

Mildred Meet Police Woman!” “Oh Really, Robin!” and "Robin and Mildred and George and Vickey." However, it would appear that “Man About the House” was rich enough to sustain such plunderings. Of the two present spin-

offs, “Robin’s Nest” is the funnier, thanks mainly to Richard O’Sullivan, and, certainly, when I saw the first episode of "George and Mildred” my heart sank.

The Ropers had made me laugh a lot in “Man About the House,” but it did not appear from that first episode that they could assume sufficient extra dimensions to support a show of their own. In fact, I don’t think they have assumed any, extra dimensions at all,’ but nevertheless last Sunday’s episode was quite funny from time to rime.

The show certainly has its flaws. The endless harping on George’s sexual ’inadequacy can become wearisome, particularly

since the jokes involving it are delivered with all the subtlety of a Ron Don lecture on international relations. And in some ways a false note is struck here, because it is hard to believe that a woman as randy as Mildred is made out to be, would stick around with a husband as averse from the more physical forms of intergender communication as we are constantly told George is, particularly since he is presented as having few other redeeming features apart from an admirably dogged refusal to be put down by his snobbish neighbours. However, it is a mistake to analyse characters in a comic series from a starting point of rational behaviour, and however inherently unlikely George and Mildred’s relationship is, the fact remains that George, as played by Brian Murphy, is very funny. Yootha Joyce is not quite so successful. This is partly because, although a woman, she is in effect the straight man of the team, called upon to do little except react with embarrassment to George’s vulgarity and make the occasional sour double-en-tendre about his deficiencies in the virility department. She gives an impression as an actress of being larger than her role, and it is a pity that Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke have not endowed her with a more complex motivation than a lower - lower . middle - class aspiration to become lower-middle-class.

Norman Eshley and Sheila Feam, as the neighbours, are adequate without being remarkable, and Nicholas Owen, as Tristram Fourmile, proves, if proof were needed, that English child actors are just as repulsive as American child actors.

Although, as J have said, there are lots of flaws in the show, one is nevertheless left at its conclusion with a sensation of having been amused. I don’t quite know how they do it, but it does not really matter: being amused by a comedy show is something which does not always happen and when it does is something more than which one cannot ask for.