George and Mildred

Spun off from a spin-off of a TV sitcom that began in the '60s, this threadbare farce provides lamentable evidence of Wardour Street's profitless dependency on the British TV ratings chart. Murphy's runtish Roper, traditionally played as one of the gambling, grumbling unemployed, has been given a job (setting a Thatcherite example) as a traffic warden. Otherwise it's the same ageist, sexist class structure you know and loathe. Feeble humour even in its half-hour slot, and desperately unfunny at three times the length.