BYE GEORGE
How late comedian Brian Murphy nearly ditched TV for insurance job & had to give up hugely important role due to fame
Scroll down to read his beloved wife's heartbreaking tribute
BEFORE starring as TV’s most reluctant Romeo in the shape of hen-pecked husband George Roper, Brian Murphy almost gave up acting to become an insurance salesman.
But fans loved his portrayal of the sex-shy, downtrodden landlord with the dodgy comb-over in Seventies comedy Man About The House.
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Women would even proposition Brian, while men with sex problems would ask his advice on how to avoid their bedroom duties.
But thanks to hapless Mr Roper, Brian, who died on Sunday aged 92, spent the next 50 years playing old men — in some of TV’s best-loved sitcoms, from Last Of The Summer Wine to Benidorm. Remarkably, he worked almost until his last day.
Announcing his death yesterday, his wife of 30 years, the former Hi-de-Hi! actress Linda Regan, 75, said: “He left a massive legacy of laughter.
He made the whole world laugh. He made me laugh all the time. We had great, great days.”
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She added: “My love for you will never die. RIP sweetheart.”
Before his death, Brian said: “I can’t grumble about my lot, I’m very happy. I’ve brought up a family and been working relatively solidly for 60 years. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Brian Trevor John Murphy was born on September 25, 1932, in Ventnor, Isle of Wight, the third son of grocer’s assistant Gerald Murphy and wife Mabel who later ran a restaurant on the island.
Brian’s brothers, Ken and Eric, died on active service in World War Two. His mother suffered a breakdown after Eric’s death.
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As a child, Brian loved variety shows and would watch stars of the day performing for holidaymakers at the Town Hall Theatre in Ventnor.
Called up for national service at RAF Northolt in West London, he met budding actor Richard Briers, who went on to star in another hit Seventies sitcom, The Good Life.
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After quitting the Air Force, Brian studied at London drama school RADA but quit after a year because his student grant was withdrawn.
He then worked as a radio repair man and a printer before landing an audition with Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop at East London’s Theatre Royal in Stratford East, which launched stars such as East-Enders great Barbara Windsor.
Brian said: “I got an audition with Joan Littlewood and, after one and a half hours, she said, ‘Do you do anything else?’ When I told her I liked drawing, she said, ‘Perhaps you should take greater interest in that’, which was a kick in the teeth.
“The following day she sent a telegram to say I could join the company immediately.”
It was there that he met Yootha Joyce, who would go on to play his domineering wife Mildred in Man About The House.
Another fellow student was stage manager Carol Gibson. He would later marry her, in 1957, although they divorced in the Eighties and Brian went on to wed Linda in 1995.
Brian and Carol had sons Kevin and Trevor and also looked after a dozen foster children at their home in Highgate, North London.
Fearing a big break would never come, he contemplated quitting acting to sell insurance
In 1963, Brian and Yootha appeared in Littlewood’s Sparrows Can’t Sing, on film and stage.
He then spent 20 years as a supporting actor in TV shows including The Avengers, Z Cars and Dixon Of Dock Green.
Fearing a big break would never come, he contemplated quitting acting to sell insurance.
He said: “I was out of work for four months. There were bills to pay, a wife and two children to support and I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere.”
But then his luck changed. He said: “I’d been in the business for 20 years and suddenly it all happened.”
Life really did begin at 40 as he became George Roper in Man About the House.
George and his bossy wife were only meant to be in three episodes of the show, also starring Richard O’Sullivan, Paula Willcox and Sally Thomsett as the young flatmates who lived upstairs. But they were such a hit, many of the show’s 18million fans were sure lazy George’s marriage to social-climber wife Mildred was real.
Wherever Brian and his co-star Yootha went they were mobbed, including if they went to a pub.
Brian said: “Women often have a gag with me about you-know-what and ask if they could help me out. But I’m sure if ever I said yes, they’d have run for their lives.
“Men would come to me with their sexual problems. I’d say, ‘Mate, have another pint and go home later than planned. You’ll be OK’.”
Sadly, Brian’s fame meant he and real-life wife Carol had to stop fostering. He said: “They’d be living not with Brian Murphy but George Roper off the telly. It could be tricky for a child that already had problems.”
The sixth and final series was never made because Yootha died in 1980, age 53, from her secret alcohol addiction — drinking half a bottle of brandy a day for her last ten years
But Man About The House’s George and Mildred then got their own spin-off sitcom, George And Mildred. The show, which ran for five series from 1976 until 1979, did even better than Man About The House, drawing 22million viewers a week.
But the sixth and final series was never made because Yootha died in 1980, age 53, from her secret alcohol addiction — drinking half a bottle of brandy a day for her last ten years.
Brian later lamented: “If only I’d realised she had a problem I could have done something. I was one of her closest friends but didn’t do enough. Although we were close, Yootha didn’t really confide. I should have realised there was a problem.”
George And Mildred’s writers later created two new TV shows starring Brian. In The Incredible Mr Tanner he played a hapless escape artist, while L For Lester was a sitcom about a driving instructor.
But they could not recreate Brian and Yootha’s chemistry and neither of his new shows were hits.
Brian and first wife Carol split up amicably and in 1991 he found love again, while starring in a play called Wife Begins At Forty. He fell for his stage wife, Linda, who played Yellowcoat April Wingate in the hit holiday camp sitcom.
Despite a 17-year age gap, Brian was smitten with Hi-De-Hi!’s Linda, who was Yellowcoat April Wingate in the hit holiday camp sitcom.
They set up home in Bromley, Kent, and he said: “We used to go out for dinner and people would say we were like an old married couple in the way we argued.”
After spells in The Bill and Holby City in 1999, Brian then returned to sitcoms as eccentric nextdoor neighbour Arthur Capstick in Caroline Ahearne’s BBC show Mrs Merton & Malcolm.
In 2003, he then joined Last Of The Summer Wine, and for seven years played Nora Batty’s neighbour, practical joker Alvin Smedley. He also appeared as Clive in Benidorm.
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And two years ago, he and Linda joined award-nominated podcast sitcom Barmy Dale.
Following his death, Linda posted on social media: “I was lucky to have in my life.”
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