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Like 'On The Buses', 'Love Thy Neighbour' ran on ITV for almost half a decade, yet is hardly remembered now. It starred Mancunian actor Jack Smethurst as racist Eddie Booth and West Indian born Rudolph Walker as his equally bigoted next-door neighbour Bill Reynolds. The comedy stemmed from the pair's frequent attempts to get one over on each other, which more often than not would see Eddie coming off the worst. Despite the fact that it is obvious that the show's intention is to poke fun at bigotry rather than glorify it, its use of racial language alone has insured that repeats have been blocked, which is a shame as 'Love Thy Neighbour' is to my mind one of the best sitcoms of the '70's.
Would-be Socialist Eddie Booth lives in Maple Terrace, Twickenham and is happily married to his lovely wife Joan ( Kate Williams ). One day, his idyllic lifestyle is shattered when Bill Reynolds and his wife Barbie ( Nina Baden Semper ) move into the house next door. Eddie, being insufferably bigoted, does not take well to this at all and attempts in vain to force them out. During the show's run, Eddie and Bill were to be seen squabbling over the most trivial of things. When Bill boasted about how good he was at limbo dancing, Eddie tried to one-up him by claiming he was far better at it, even though he hadn't the faintest idea how to limbo dance and when Bill bought a new car, Eddie had to follow suit and buy one. Joan and Barbie, however, got on rather well, though they too had their moments of childish bickering.
'Love Thy Neighbour' ran for seven series and ( for the most part ) made for excellent viewing. One thing detractors should take note of is that on a number of occasions, Bill and Eddie got on well and were sometimes to be seen looking out for and depending on one another. When Eddie accidentally smashed another neighbour's window, Bill took the blame for it. When the electricity board threatened to cut off Bill's supply due to an unpaid bill, Eddie confronted the board manager and demanded he correct the error.
Vince Powell and Harry Driver wrote the scripts initially but when Driver died in 1973, Powell wrote the scripts alone until new writers such as Adele Rose and H.V. Kershaw came aboard. A feature film went on release in 1973 and in the early '80's a remake was made for Australian television in which Eddie went to work down under.
Jack Smethurst was wonderful as Booth, a man so stupid and ( to an extent ) snobbish as to make Alf Garnett look like the Ark Angel Gabriel. Rudolph Walker's Bill got a lot of laughs as he frequently made his neighbour come a cropper. It was Kate Williams who made the biggest impression on yours truly as Eddie's put-upon wife Joan. This fine actress has comedy in her blood ( watch her in 'Holiday On The Buses' and 'May To December' if you don't believe me ). Also hilarious in their own right were Tommy Godfrey and Keith Marsh as Eddie and Bill's friends Arthur and Jacko ( ''I'll have 'alf!'' ). Paul Luty was also impressive as Nobby, the barman of Eddie's local club. I found Nina Baden Semper's character annoying but all the same without her the show would not seem as complete.
In the era of Frankie Boyle and Sacha Baron Cohen, I fail to see how anyone can be offended by this. Trust me, compared to the two aforementioned, it is tame. Now that it is all out on DVD, you can watch it for yourself and make up your own mind about it.
score 9/10
RaspberryLucozade 2 December 2014
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3134629/ |
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8-6-2020 02:37:06
