Wow! Such a good movie.

Wonderful character development!

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

This show was the antithesis of racist. Bright, fashionable black couple live next door to ignorant, brutish white man and win the upper hand in every episode. Most black characters at the time were laughed at whereas here we clearly are meant to laugh with him. The script was amusing rather than funny, but it makes for an enjoyable comedy of manners.

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.

'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.

Remembering this as a kid, I seem to recall finding it very funny with strong characters and a memorable them tune. From an age when situation comedy was far funnier than its modern counterparts.Listening to people talking about it today, you would think it was racist - the main complaint that you laughed with Eddie Booth rather than at him. However, i always remember his black neighbour coming out on top most of the time. So I'm not so sure it really did reinforce those stereotypes. At least it was a depiction of how some white working class people felt at the time.Maybe it was a little over the top and certainly wouldn't be shown in our present PC times. But you've got to take it as a period piece. For me it was very memorable and at least broke one mould for me in having the first black actress I fancied in the shape of Nina- Bade Semper - She was gorgeous.It would be interesting to see a couple of episodes again to see if it really was that offensive and perhaps to gauge how we have moved on as regards to race relations.