George & Mildred

Generally released from July 27th 1980 on the ABC circuit, George and Mildred was shown on television less than five months later, going out on the ITV network on Christmas Day afternoon immediately after the Queen's Christmas Message. This short a window between theatrical and TV screenings was unheard of at the time, as traditionally, the gap was a massive 4 years, after the original theatrical run, before the broadcasters could premiere it on tv.

Curiously, this film was made by Chips Productions/Cinema Arts International/Hammer for ITC Films/ITC Entertainment which both being sister companies to ATV under the ACC Group, surprisingly not by EMI Films/Thames Television/Euston Films being a based on a series made by Thames Television which like Euston Films was a sister company of EMI Films under Thorn EMI. The usual route for film spin-off versions of then popular British sit-coms, was to give the films made by EMI, ITC, or Rank, even the original "Dad's Army" film was made by the British division of Columbia Pictures. At the time, British television broadcasters didn't officially have a feature film division - although ATV had ITC films, and Thames was arguably part of the Thorn EMI Group.

The budget for this film appears to be even lower than previously thought. The street scenes with the Fourmiles, seem to be shot on the actual tv street, or at least a similar one. The house interiors are the real house's interiors, not the Thames studio sets. The exterior and ground floor of the hotel are a real building, although maybe not a real hotel. The hotel's vast corridor and the hotel rooms appear to be the only sound stage sets, and even then George and Mildred's 2 rooms may only have been one room re-configured to double as the mirror layout. The hotel stairs, the underground car park, and the interior of the honeymoon restaurant, are most likely the then existing parts of the Elstree Studios complex, as re-used in many EMI/ABPC/ etc film and tv shows

Arguably, this could be considered as an extended tv movie season finale. At times it feels like some episode scripts were repurposed with a mistaken identity connecting device. Additionally, the film director had directed the tv series, and the film sets were built/shown in only 3 sides, and shot as if it was a studio audience programme

Final film of Caron Gardner.