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ITV sitcom Man About the House (1973-76) contrasted the superficially
'permissive' lifestyle of would-be Lothario Robin and his two attractive female
flatmates with the humdrum, sexless marriage of their landlords George and
Mildred Roper. By the end of the series' successful run, writers Brian Cooke and
Johnny Mortimer had already signed a new contract with Thames, yielding two
spin-offs: Robin's Nest (1977-81), following Robin's new career as a
restaurateur, and George and Mildred, which saw the Ropers relocated to
suburbia.
George and Mildred was the better received of the two, perhaps because
audiences found more to identify with in the Ropers' bittersweet life of
domestic tedium than in Robin's marriage to an air hostess and his thriving
bistro. Certainly, the writers' sympathies lay with the Ropers. "If Johnny and I
hadn't written a series for them, someone else would have. You couldn't waste
characters like them," Cooke told the TV Times.
George and Mildred was never as funny as Man About the House, which benefited
from the contrast between youthful optimism and aged resignation, but
thematically it was always interesting. Reflecting the then relatively novel
idea of an increasingly 'classless society' (a theme more acutely explored in
the BBC sitcom Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, 1973-74), the comedy
centred on a newly affluent working class - represented by the suddenly solvent
Ropers, moving into genteel Hampton Wick - in conflict with the 'proper'
middle-class family next door, the Fourmiles. Central to the drama was an added
twist - while Mildred longs to climb the social ladder, George is defiantly
proud of his working-class status.
Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce, as before, give effective performances, while the Fourmiles
are an unexpectedly entertaining new ingredient. Norman Eshley as Jeffrey
Fourmile convinces with his distaste for George's vulgarity; Sheila Fearn is
excellent as his quietly amused wife, aware of her husband's pomposity and
pretensions; Nicholas Bond-Owen makes a suitably repellent clever-clogs brat.
Five successful series later, following enthusiastically received stage tours
of the UK and Australia and with a cinema adaptation awaiting release, the
programme ended only with Joyce's sudden death. The secret behind
this entertaining but unexceptional show's longevity might perhaps be found in
the believable central relationship at its heart, as summarised by Brian Cooke:
"The Ropers' marriage is like a lot of people's. But in spite of the niggles and
arguments the Ropers still stay together. What else can they
do?"
Vic Pratt
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1. The Ropers (1:16)
