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 (1972), "Never Mind the Quality Feel the Width" (1973) and "Steptoe and Son Ride Again" (1973). She also appeared as customer Mrs. Scully in the pilot episode of "Open All Hours" (1973). It was not until 1973 that she acquired a starring role, when she was cast as man-hungry Mildred Roper, wife of sub-letting landlord George, in the sitcom "Man About the House". This series, which starred Richard O'Sullivan, Paula Wilcox, Sally Thomsett, and Brian Murphy as George Roper, ran until 1976, deriving its comic narrative from two young women and a young man sharing the flat above the Ropers.