Inside George Webley

1 9 7 0 (UK)
12 x 30 minute episodes

Inside George Webley was scripted by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall and starred Roy Kinnear as compulsive worrier, George Meredith Webley.

George worked as a bank clerk for the aptly named Meanside and Beestley Savings Bank in Leeds and considered it his duty to bore everyone rigid – including his long-suffering wife, Rosemary (Patsy Rowlands) – with trivia, perpetually worrying about everything in the world and complaining that he had suffered every illness known to man.

George was the eternal pessimist and approached life with the attitude that if something was going to go wrong – it would.

Generally, Kinnear’s television roles were never quite worthy of his vast talent, but this Yorkshire Television sitcom was one of his better series.

A veritable smorgasbord of guest stars included Les Dawson, Clive Dunn, Roy Hudd, Hattie Jacques, Dandy Nichols, Max Wall, James Bolam, Peter Butterworth, Gorden Kaye, Hugh Latimer and Frank Thornton.

The series was the first of several collaborations between Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, which included a TV adaptation of the latter’s solo novel Billy Liar (Billy), Diana Dors’ sitcom Queenie’s Castle and an adaptation of Barbara Euphan Todd’s eternal scarecrow stories featuring Worzel Gummidge (as played by Jon Pertwee).

George Webley
Roy Kinnear
Rosemary Webley
Patsy Rowlands