George & Mildred

- Season 1

(1976)

When their house is subject to a compulsory purchase order the Ropers must move. Mildred sees her dream house in suburbia, next door to yuppie couple Ann and Jeffrey Fourmile and their seven-year-old son Tristram. Jeffrey is appalled by George and pretends the house is already sold to prevent him and Mildred moving in but Tristram explains that his dad is lying and the Ropers get the house.

George and Mildred get to move in and Ann, who is not a snob like Jeffrey, invites them round for a cup of tea. Unfortunately when they go home George and Mildred find they have locked themselves out and left the bathwater running.

Mildred gets a job as a secretary in Jeffrey's estate agency. George is thus the house husband but he is a disastrous cook and home-maker. Mildred is relieved when he finally gets a job - less so when she discovers it involves being away all night.

Having baby-sat for Anne and Jeffrey Mildred is broody and wants a child of her own. George is less keen but is persuaded to apply for adoption. His crassness and the Ropers' age means that the adoption agency turns them down but he is thoughtful enough to buy Mildred a dog to compensate.

Following a family funeral Mildred notices that the pay-out on George's endowment policy is very small and persuades him to take a medical to get a better pay-out. The medical is a success but George starts to worry that Mildred wants to kill him to get the money and cancels the payments. Ann wonders how to break the news of Tristram's poor school report to Jeffrey.

George sells his car and buys a caravan, which he parks in front of the house. When Mildred's sister Ethel and her husband - whom George can't stand - come to stay and sleep in the Ropers' bedroom George moves into the caravan but unfortunately it gets towed away.

Whilst out walking Mildred's dog Truffles George happens to lose him and, rather than face Mildred with the news, he buys an identical one from a pet shop. Unfortunately for him - though fortunately for the dog - the plan is rumbled when the police find the real Truffles and return him to the Ropers.

George borrows Jeffrey's ladder to fix the television aerial but when Jeffrey takes it away George falls off the roof and ends up in hospital in the next bed to the knowledgeable Mr. Jolly who tells him he should sue his neighbour. Out and about in his wheelchair, George - or Ironside, as Mildred calls him, decides to do just that but has to settle for compromise.

When the Fourmiles go on holiday Mildred has a key to their house so she can water their plants but George abuses this by going in to watch the couple's superior colour television. Mildred has asked George to decorate their lounge but George calls in professionals - who follow him into the Fourmiles' house,wrongly assuming that this is where the re-decoration is needed. George and Mildred have to put the resultant unwanted make-over back to normal.

Ethel and Humphrey come round to discuss the future of Ethel's and Mildred's elderly mother, who they think should be put into a home as she cannot cope on her own and they need their spare room. Curiously it's George who suggests that mother moves in with them. Jeffrey has Tristram learn boxing after he gets beaten up by a girl.