Quite amusing and not as racist as people think

glenn-aylett

Now let the PC police shoot me, and I know Love Thy Neighbour has as much chance as being shown on peak time television again as Blyth Spartans winning the European Cup, but I didn't think it was a bad show and was quite amusing.

In the early seventies Till Death Do Us Part was a massive hit on the BBC, where a white working class Tory put the world to rights every week and usually got into blazing rows over issues such as race an the permissive society with his more progressive daughter and son in law. Audience figures of over 20 million persuaded ITV that they needed a rival and commissioned Vince Powell, famous for writing scripts on Coronation St in the sixties and creating a string of sit com hits, to come up with a rival to Till Death.

Love Thy Neighbour was ITV's answer. Basically Alf Garnett was replaced by Eddie Booth ( Jack Smethurst), a similarly downwardly mobile bigoted white man, but with one difference, he was a staunch Labour union man who was bigoted because he saw blacks as undermining pay and conditions at work. Not surprisingly when a Tory voting black couple moved next door he was less than pleased, especially as they seemed to be better off than him. Thus the scene was set for the most controversial, and one of the most popular sitcoms, of all time.

Typically an episode would start with Eddie trading insults with Bill Reynolds, his black neighbour, morning, sambo would be followed with morning, white honkey, and should Bill( Rudolph Walker) catch Eddie eyeing up his attractive wife, then all hell would break loose. However, both wives got on and often acted as peacemakers between the two. Also memorable was the elderly shop steward, Jacko, who was quite friendly to Bill, and his catchphrase I'll have an arf became popular.

Love Thy Neighbour was quite amusing for its time and watching an episode where Bill buys a Triumph sports car and Eddie buys a £ 10 banger to try and compete( the doors fall off as soon as the car starts) is hilarious. However, being an ITV show, those expecting Alf Garnett style rants will be disappointed as for all the racist names are used frequently, the humour is gentler than the Alf Garnett variety and there are few of the political dogfights that made Till Death so amusing. However, Vince Powell did a nice role reversal as Eddie Booth, apart from on race, is rather to the left of Alf Garnett and Bill Reynolds is his polar opposite politically.

I would recommend Love Thy Neighbour to anyone who wants to see what amused us in the seventies and how the comedy climate has changed in the last 40 years.

score 8/10

glenn-aylett 21 March 2013

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2770397/