George and Mildred - DVD Releases

DVD Releases

The first DVD release of George and Mildred was from Clear Vision in the UK in 2001 (and simultaneously appeared on VHS). Although, the top of the sleeve says "Series One", the bottom says "episodes 1 to 6", so the remaining four episodes do not appear. Complaints about picture quality of this and the accompanying Man About the House release, and minor edits of the ad break captions, etc. probably went some way to explaining why no more Clear Vision releases materialised.

In Australia, the first series was released in May 2003. Unlike the Clear Vision release of series one, all 10 episodes were included, as were the original ad captions and the Thames TV idents (the music for this is called "Salute to Thames") at the start and original end boards. Many fans from the UK imported these versions instead, not only due to their superiority, but the favourable exchange rates made them no more expensive than the Clear Vision title. Series 2 followed in March 2004 and the movie that same November. Unlike the UK Network release of series 2, the Australian version contained some audio commentaries with series star Brian Murphy.

Contract and clearance re-negotiations for all worldwide regions put a halt to Umbrella's plans to proceed with the remaining episodes, and while the shows have been cleared for UK release (as evidenced by the Network releases), Fremantle Media still have not, as of 2007, worked out clearances for the Australian/New Zealand regions yet, so Umbrella's hands are still tied. On Wednesday, 16 July 2008, Series 3 was finally released in Australia, followed by Series 4 on 3 September 2008 and Series 5 on 3 December 2008, Soon after the release of Series 5, Series 3, 4 and 5 were discontinued, at this stage Series 1 and 2 were also out of production but remaining copies were continuing to be sold. In April 2009, Fremantle Media re-released the first three seasons with the same cover art as of the UK releases (Season 1 now being a 2 Disc set as the original version all 10 episodes were on one disc), Season 4 was re-released on 5 November 2009 and Season 5 re-release on 3 December 2009, although some delays occurred. Fremantle re-released Series 1, Series 2 and Series 3 on 3 March 2011 and has new artwork. Fremantle Media have announced the re-release of Series 4 and Series 5 for 1 September 2011.

The entire first series of George and Mildred was released by Network DVD in Region 2 (UK) in 2005 without the annoying edits or the over-compressed picture quality. The second, third and fourth series were released in 2006. The fifth and final series was released in 2007. The movie has been available in the UK for many years on both video and DVD, both individually and bundled as special double- and triple-bills with other "small screen to big screen" efforts. The complete box set with all 5 seasons has been released in the UK.

A book dedicated to the Situation Comedy, entitled The Man About the House and George & Mildred Companion is due to be published in 2010.