I have just tonight starting watching this, since my childhood. Now I was only young when I was first allowed this, I think maybe around thirteen. At that time it was all about the phrases " I'll hav alv" " sambo" "nignog" " honkey" "snowflake" etc.As so rightly stated often by other reviews, it is not racist in the slightest. Eddie did tend to come off worse, but always came across as ignorant and bigoted. Did it make me racist, not all. In fact this show perhaps embedded the pointlessness of being racist and the stupidity of racist people. It is also not so far fetched as one might imagine. It's set up in the north of England, I lived up north, Yorkshire, in a town with a large Asia population. They was a lot of prejudice about. One example, when the holidays came, a lot of the kids would go what they called " paki bashing". Even my dad was a racist, though I would rather prefer to say ignorant, perhaps still is. I am thankful of this show, it showed me that people are people and race and skin shade should not be a barrier. There's good and bad in everyone. Actually I think the powers that be, need us to have prejudice against each other.* not word for word but was a line Bill said in series 1 episode 3. Eddie had been his normal ignorant self.This would have gone over my head in my youth, although I might not have seen it before.Still funny as I remembered, but perhaps for very different reasons this time around.

This is far from being racist and I remember this series as an adolescent in Sydney Australia. It was such a popular show it was discussed in school and role plays created. I would love to see something like this now with a typical Muslim family and white Christian family. Something that is in your face and not politically correct. This type of shows destroys the myths that keep people apart in the first place.Look at the problems around the world now because people are afraid of what they do not understand.This was a great show and a great message.Most of these PC fools are worse than Nazis.

I remember watching this and enjoying it as a funny comedy show, when it was first aired there was no such thing as the PC brigade, there are comments from both male characters in this show and at the end of every show it is Randolph Walkers character who gets the better of Jack Smethurst character.They were racist against each other so it wasn't a one sided racial name calling, but there were plenty of shows around which were racist in the same way, Curry and Chips and Alf Garnett being two prime examples, also Fawlty Towers, while it wasn't racist, it was certainly anti German with the episode called the Germans in which Basil does his funny walk and keeps mentioning the war, if LTN is going to be criticised for being non PC then Fawlty Towers also has to fall into that category.

I absolutely loved this show when I was a kid in the early/mid 1970s and was interested to see it running on an Australian network several years ago. I imagined it would have dated badly and no longer seem funny, but no, it's still hilarious. The format of Love Thy neighbour was quite simple. It explores the culture clash and constant bickering between bigoted working-class trade unionist Eddie (Jack Smethurst) and his upwardly mobile Black neighbour played by Rudolph Walker. Their wives constantly act as both 'straight men' and referees in the battles between Bill and Eddie. Was it racist? That's the question everyone asks. I'm confident in saying, no. Eddie often refers to Bill as "sambo" or "nig-nog", but then Bill calls Eddie a "white honky" just as often. Either both sides are guilty, or neither, and I don't see anything nasty or 'dark' in these jibes. Eddie's not hostile to Bill because he's Black, he's hostile because he's JEALOUS of him and in 9 out of 10 episodes it's Eddie who comes off worse. I particularly loved the episode where Bill convinces Eddie he's the victim of a voodoo spell and has him dancing - naked - round a tree at midnight yelling "pinky ponky, me white honky". I grew up in a 99% White town and my abiding memory of Love Thy neighbour is how beautiful Nina Baden-Semper was. I had quite a 'crush' on her as a pimply youth. I don't know what became of this lovely talented lady or Jack Smethurst, but Kate Williams (Eddie's wife) and Rudolph Walker remain familiar faces on British TV. They both have current roles in 2 of our most popular 'soaps'. The humour in Love Thy Neighbour was always the stupidity of Bill and Eddie's prejudices, so I think it presents an ANTI-racist message. Sadly, that's not much of a defence in the Britain of 2004. BBC2 recently had a major show in several parts to find "Britain's Favourite Sit-com" and Love Thy Neighbour was completely airbrushed out. To quote the Amon Goeth character in Schindlers List: "It never happened". That's a shame because it was funny and extremely popular at the time. it also showed that Black British characters can be attractive, successful and get the upper hand. we take this for granted now, but it was a brave thing to portray 30 years ago. It's worth watching, IF you ever get the chance to see it.