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LOVE THY
NEIGHBOUR
ITV, 1972-1976
Written by: Vince Powell & Harry Driver
Starring: Jack Smethurst, Rudolph Walker,
Kate Williams & Nina Baden-Semper
Episodes/Series: 53 episodes/8 series
"Did he just say "colour problem"?"
Watch Jade & Loretta react to Love Thy Neighbour
Love Thy Neighbour © Thames Television/ITV 1972
Warning:
The following article contains uncensored racist remarks that may offend readers.
The Nitty-Gritty
Love Thy Neighbour was the second most notorious progeny of the British ‘race sitcoms’ that emerged throughout the 1960s, 1970s and perpetuated into the 1980s.*
It was written by sitcom-writing duo Vince Powell (creator and writer of Mind Your Language) and Harry Driver (until his untimely death in 1973), who had already flexed their comedy muscles as creators and writers of ratings-hit Bless This House (1971-1976), featuring comedy legend Sid James.
The series centred around a suburban working-class white couple, Eddie and Joan Booth, living next door to a black couple, Bill and Barbie Reynolds, with the first episode showing the black couple to be moving in, much to bigoted neighbour Eddie’s outrage (mistaking the white removal man for his new neighbour, in typical close-minded fashion).
The series’ comedy emanated from the constant rivalry and conflict between the two male characters, predominantly resulting from Eddie’s racial prejudice towards Bill.
A ratings hit, but critically scorned for its depiction of race
In its heyday, Love Thy Neighbour was insanely popular with viewers and was one of the most popular sitcoms of the 1970s, attracting weekly viewers of up to 17 million.
Perhaps this explains why it spawned eight series and over fifty episodes, as well as a feature film (as was commonplace for TV sitcoms at the time) in 1973 and an Australian sequel series of the same name.
Considered by many as ITV's attempt to replicate and capitalise upon the success of the BBC’s Till Death Us Do Part, albeit much less ingeniously crafted, the motive behind the show was to benignly take the ‘tension out of race and colour’ and neutralise the ‘thorny issue of race relations’*, something which the programme-makers saw as being genuinely beneficial towards*.
However, despite Eddie’s character being deliberately portrayed as the ignorant, bigoted ‘fool’, whose actions always came back to bite him, compared to the suave, educated and superiorly intelligent Bill – with a constant barrage of racial slurs being exchanged between the pair: “nig-nog” and “sambo” being retorted by “honkey”, “snowflake” and “paleface” - it is the sitcom’s ambivalence – much like Till Death – that was its Achilles heel.
Love Thy Neighbour was made in an era perceived as a time when Britain was struggling to come to terms with mass immigration (the Windrush generation) and the series was produced to try and exemplify this.
Inevitably, many critics panned the series upon its first broadcast, with one contemporaneously branding the scripts and characters as “flat, ramshackle, superficial and…intermittently offensive” and some viewers reported, due to the sitcom’s popularity, an increase in racist taunting and name-calling on the street*.
Sarita Malik (2002)** argued that Love Thy Neighbour, like other race comedies, was about black people signifying trouble: namely, trouble with the neighbours, trouble fitting in in the neighbourhood, which consequently trivialised the white characters’ prejudice, deeming it funny and understandable, given the “difficulty” of the situation they were in.
The series’ use of ‘mutual racism’ –– by signposting the stereotype of ‘blackness’ (voodoo, cannibalism) - was never challenged and instead presented as an inevitable and petty process of multiculturalism (“nig-nog” vs “honkey”).
On the other hand, the majority of black families surveyed did not take any offence from the programme and enjoyed watching it, considering it to be positive for race relations.
The response the programme received was a double-edged sword whatever way you look at it.
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"Nig-nog" vs "Honkey"
After Love Thy Neighbour: No regrets, despite one actor's irreparably tarnished career
Since the series’ conclusion, the two male leads have spoken unashamedly of their roles in the comedy despite its controversial legacy.
Rudolph Walker who played Bill Reynolds, and is now best known for his role as Patrick Trueman in EastEnders, refuses to condemn Love Thy Neighbour, admitting that he kills himself with laughter when watching it because “all it is at the end of the day is a black guy and a white guy being damned stupid.”
Rudolph Walker has played Patrick Trueman in EastEnders since 2001.
Jack Smethurst, who played bigot Eddie’s acting career, by comparison, took a nosedive after the show ended, with only a small, menial roles in the likes of Coronation Street, Chariots of Fire and small parts in sitcoms such as Last of the Summer Wine and Keeping Up Appearances, something he puts down to ‘typecasting’.
For a time, he ended up working in his friend’s flower shop where his recognisability sadly didn’t diminish.
Derided in the UK, but still a beloved show internationally
Today, Love Thy Neighbour is kept alive predominantly by its notorious reputation and remains firmly on the blacklist of streaming services in the UK.
However, it has enjoyed an extraordinary renaissance in countries such as Nigeria, the Caribbean and Australia where it still brings the house down with roars of laughter from people of all ages.
But hopes of a renaissance in the UK are much less optimistic, with Rudolph Walker attributing political correctness for consigning this comedy series to the depths of our unsavoury television history:
“These days we can’t take the piss out of each other and laugh. The whole climate in this country has changed.” – Rudolph Walker, 2003
* Shaw (2012) ‘’Light Entertainment’ as Contested Socio-Political Space: Audience and Institutional Responses to Love Thy Neighbour (1972-76)’, Critical Studies in Television, 7(1), pp. 64-78.
** Malik, S. (2002) Representing Black Britain: Black and Asian Images on Television. London:. California: SAGE.
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