Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce in London, 1976 Credit: PA George and Mildred would never have worked a fraction as well as it did, had it not been for the interplay between Murphy and Joyce.

Any boy who grew up in the Seventies will recall with a shudder watching Yootha Joyce's predatory Mildred Roper in the saucy sitcom Man About The House. The terrifying teeth, the bright orange ...