Why so much hype?

I wanted to but couldn't!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

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.

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.

A controversial, yet classic sitcom from the 70's. Based around the lives of Eddie (the proud British unionist), his wife Joan, Bill (the proud black ethnic tory)and his lovely wife Barbie. Often stereotyped by those who have never really watched the series as 'racist', Love Thy Neighbour was far removed from such a stereotype. Looking at the lighter side of the attitudes at the time, Eddie's and Bill's disagreements were perfectly balanced with friendship (who could forget the episode when Eddie drags Bill out on the town?!).Eddie and Bill's characters are presented as equals, and both have different views on life (whether it'd be labour, tory, or black power!) but more often than not, when they argue and bicker, both come out looking as bad as each other. Anybody faulting Love Thy Neigbhour for it's views should take a closer look at the series first. A show that positioned Bill (Rudolph Walker) in such a prominant powerful role, and presented him as such a strong upstanding character was way ahead of it's time (when other shows were still presenting ethnic minorities as 'comedy' characters).

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.