Brian Cooke Brian Cooke Brian Cooke (born 1937, in Liverpool, Merseyside) is a British comedy writer who, along with co-writer, Johnnie Mortimer, wrote scripts for and devised many of the top television sitcoms during the 1970s, including "Man About the House", "George and Mildred", and "Robin's Nest". Cooke also wrote and created the 1980s TV sitcom "Keep It in the Family", starring Robert Gillespie and the late-1960s/early-1970s sitcom "Father, Dear Father" starring Patrick Cargill. "Man About the House", "George and Mildred", "Robin's Nest", and "Keep It in the Family" were remade for American television as "Three's Company", "The Ropers", "Three's a Crowd"
Yootha Joyce her own success, and dreaded the thought of being typecast as Mildred Roper. She appeared posthumously in her last recorded television performance, duetting with Max Bygraves on his variety show "Max". The episode was aired on 14 January 1981. The actor/comedian Kenneth Williams wrote of the performance that "...she looked as though she was crying..." He also went on to mention her in a later entry in his diary (9 April 1988) that she was "a lady who made so many people happy and a lady who never complained". In 1986 the Smiths used an image of Joyce on the