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.

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.

'Love Thy Neighbour' has become a byword for all that was bad about British television comedy of the '70's. When B.B.C.-2 screened 'I Love 1972' in 2000 ( as part of its ongoing 'I Love The '70's' series ), presenter David Cassidy prefaced an item on the show with the words: "Watch...and cringe!". Viewers were being instructed to hate the show before they had seen so much as a clip. I think its sad that 'Neighbour' has been so misunderstood. People who were not even alive in the '70's will tell you with absolute authority that it was 'racist' and 'should never be shown again'. How many of them have actually seen an episode? 'Neighbour' was about a racist - Eddie Booth - but it was no more an endorsement of his ridiculous views than 'Fawlty Towers' a televisual guidebook on hotel management. It was written and created by Vince Powell and Harry Driver ( then by Powell alone following Driver's death ). It drew heavily on an earlier show they created - A.T.V.'s 'George & The Dragon' which starred Sid James and Peggy Mount as warring domestic staff. The writers decided to replicate the formula, but added a new ( potentially explosive ) ingredient - racial tension. Eddie ( Jack Smethurst ) and Joan Booth ( Kate Williams ) live in Maple Terrace, Twickenham - he is a chain-smoking, beer-swilling slob, she an overworked housewife. Into the house next door move a young, upwardly mobile black couple, Bill ( Rudolph Walker ) and Barbie Reynolds ( Nina Baden-Semper ). Immediately there is conflict. Bill gets a job at the same factory Eddie works in, and joins the same Social Club. In addition to the childish name calling, there is also rivalry going on. In one episode, Bill buys a car, so Eddie follows suit. When Eddie tries to purchase a bedroom suite, Bill also wants it. Their hatred formed the core of the comedy.Occasionally, they were seen drifting towards friendship ( such as the episode where they went out on a double date with two local girls ), but something always happened to restore the natural balance. There would have been no show otherwise.'Neighbour' was a smash hit, running to seven seasons, a movie version, and a stage play. Australia even made a spin-off featuring Eddie starting a new life Down Under.Jack Smethurst was superb as 'Booth', a walking contradiction of a man who purports to be socialistic, yet his attitudes are pure Enoch Powell. Likewise Rudolph Walker made 'Bill' sympathetic. Kate Williams replaced Gwendolyn Watts as 'Joan', and her rows with Eddie were often the best part of the show. Nina Baden-Semper's 'Barbie' complemented the cast perfectly ( she even recorded a vocal version of the title theme! ). Also popular in their own right were Eddie's drinking pals 'Arthur' ( the late Tommy Godfrey ) and the slow thinking 'Jacko' ( Keith Marsh ), whose catchphrase 'I'll have 'arf!' caught the public imagination.The show became a victim of the Political Correctness trend, meaning it has not had the repeats it deserves. Thankfully, it is all out on D.V.D. so we can make our own minds up. I used to live in a neighbourhood where there were many West Indian families, and you should have heard the laughter coming out of their houses when the show was on. Before condemning it outright, critics should take the trouble to watch it and see who comes out on top every week. It certainly isn't Eddie. If anyone was foolish enough to laugh along with him, that was their fault, not the show's.