No sooner had the television version of Johnny Speight's controversial B.B.C. sitcom ended - temporarily, as it turned out - than the cast reunited for this feature film spin-off. Interestingly, it sets itself up as a prequel, initially featuring Alf and Else in London's East End during the Forties. We see Alf here as an eccentric patriot, rather than the tyrant bigot he became. Over news reel footage of Nazi tanks he boasts that Hitler is too scared to go to war with Britain. But it happens, and suddenly he is terrified. He believes it won't last long though. His patriotism vanishes the day the call-up papers land on his doormat. The attention to period detail here is marvellous; rationing books, air-raid shelters, doom-filled radio broadcasts, they're all here. Much to his disgust, soldiers are tucking into bacon and eggs while he has to make do with spam. The pub runs out of beer, and Alf cannot fill his pipe with tobacco. Though he manages to stay out of the army by being in a reserved occupation, he has other problems to contend with - Else is pregnant. The second part takes us to 1966; mini-skirts are in fashion, and Alf comes into conflict with his trendy lefty daughter Rita and her 'Scouse git' boyfriend Mike Rawlins. Alf won't let her put 'Vote Labour' posters in his window. This section is not as good as the first, but it is nice to see the circumstances that brought the characters together. There is a hilarious scene at Rita's wedding reception when Alf gets into a fight with Mike's father, a devout Catholic. Amongst the cast is future 'On The Buses' stars Michael Robbins and Bob Grant ( even though the latter has no lines ). Norman Cohen must have liked working in the wartime period as he went on to direct the film version of 'Dad's Army' and 'Adolf Hitler My Part In His Downfall', based on Spike Milligan's memoirs. Bill Maynard plays 'Bert', Alf's next door neighbour, with whom he conducts conversations whilst on the toilet ( how well I remember outside bogs. Ugh! Cold! ). It is impossible not to feel sorry for Alf as he walks up the street where he has lived for years, now deserted. For many people, this was a reality. Hitler could not destroy the street, but the local council did. The movie ends where it began - in a cinema - with Alf standing as the National Anthem plays, everyone else having gone home.Released in America under the title 'Alf 'n Family' ( presumably to capitalise on the connection with 'All In The Family' ), it was so successful it opened the floodgates for other sitcom-based films such as 'On The Buses' and 'Dad's Army'. A sequel - 'The Alf Garnett Saga' - was made three years later, but it was not a patch on the first.

The Film of the Successful TV series "Till Death us do part" undoubtedly is one of the better TV to Film adaptations. Norman Cohen as mentioned has directed this superbly. (In comparison to Carry On Engalnd you can believe the war situation!) The Whole cast is present from the TV Series which is a bonus in itself. (Of which let down films such as Rising Damp - easier to not do it at all) Warren Mitchell & Dandy Nichols really do play up to expectations.Usual errors within TV-Film adaptations is Recycled Material and/or weak plot lines/jokes. Till death us do part exceeds all these pitfalls and comes out trumps.As Alf would say "bloody marvellous innit!" - and i would attribute that to this film!

One of the first television situation comedies to get the cinema treatment, 'Till Death…' avoids the trap of being just an extended television episode which befalls many other adoptions, by opening out the story. It is more a prequel than merely being the 'film of the show', showing us the history of the Garnett family, from just before the start of the Second World War to the 'present day' of 1969, taking in the 1966 World Cup on it's way.It is the wartime sequence of the movie (it roughly takes up the first 45 minutes of the film) which for me is the highlight of the picture. You really do get a proper sense of time and place. The credit mainly goes to the director, Norman Cohen, who gives what could have been a static television-style play, a real cinematic treatment.The script by Johnny Speight is generally excellent and (as far as I know) isn't just a re-packaging of old television material. Ironically the movie falters when it moves 'twenty or so years later' and moves into the more familiar setting of the series That said, Rita's wedding is a memorable set-piece, moving between drama and comedy (and very uncomfortable viewing at times, due to Garnett's racism). It's Mitchell's movie, of course. It's a credit to the actor's talents that that you can't help liking Alf, despite the fact that Speight's script constantly under-cuts and mocks the character.It's an oddly bitter-sweet movie, as a community which had survived the Blitz is eventually disbanded, with the Garnett family exiled to a bleak modern concrete tower block. There is a real sense of loss here and it is this which places it a few notches up from the normal television spin-off. It's a pity that this movie will always be over-shadowed by its more controversial small screen incarnation, as it deserves a wider audience. It also showcases a rather brilliant title song, by Ray Davies, which any fan of The Kinks should check out.

I gave this a 6, cinemawise. For those of you who saw the series, it was a 3 or 4. I got 12 episodes of later years from Canada. The earlier years were a scream on the BBC, but then I was younger. This movie had little of its zip.