TILL DEATH US

DO PART

BBC, 1965-1975

Written by: Johnny Speight

Starring: Warren Mitchell, Dandy Nichols, Anthony Booth, Una Stubbs

Producer: Dennis Main Wilson

Episodes/Series: 54 episodes/7 series

"He did not just say what I thought he just said!?"

Watch Jade & Josh react to the outrageous vitriol of Alf Garnett...

Till Death Us Do Part & In Sickness & In Health © BBC 1972 & 1986

Warning:

The following article contains uncensored racist remarks that may offend readers.

A Monster is Born

Till Death Us Do Part started life as a pilot in Comedy Playhouse, the BBC’s showcase anthology series, in 1965, which had, a few years earlier, birthed the revolutionary Steptoe and Son several years earlier, the first such sitcom to depict a gritty and authentic perspective of working class life and the volatile relationship of a rag and bone father and son, with “strong language” to boot.*

In the comedy pilot, written by Johnny Speight, the lead character was Alf Ramsey (later to become Garnett) with his long-suffering wife Else being played by Gretchen Franklin (taken over by Dandy Nichols for the series due to Franklin’s stage commitments).

Otherwise, the pilot was virtually identical to what it would become as a series: with Warren Mitchell’s stellar performance as Alf exemplifying the vulgar, volatile and argumentative head of the Garnett family.

As a Tory radical left-winger and despiser of the Labour Party, Alf constantly bickered with his more liberal-minded “Scouse git” son-in-law Mike, played by Labour Party activist Anthony Booth, and daughter Rita. It was controversial, but ultimately a smash hit with viewers.

In their bid to get the ratings upper-hand over ITV, the BBC audaciously scheduled it against Coronation Street in a pre-watershed slot. It paid-off and the series hit the ground running, immediately attracted controversy via word-of-mouth and stealing an estimated 2 million viewers from ITV’s flagship soap opera. While Till Death was considered ‘vulgar’ in terms of its content, the BBC, back then, considered all sitcoms to be family viewing and also scheduled The Likely Lads and Steptoe and Son in 8pm timeslots despite their risqué content and bad language.

The series’ early timeslot ensured it was seen by as many households as possible, meaning everyone could join in on the debate. A bit like an early-day Question Time.

Johnny Speight’s knack for sharp-edged and gritty comedy had created a monster: a bigoted, supercilious, vindictive white supremacist who was played with such conviction by Warren Mitchell that the series was doomed to decades of controversy from viewers and critics alike and a dig at the indomitable series was never far away.

Alf Garnett vs. Mary Whitehouse & British Society

While on the surface, Till Death Us Do Part will be remembered with infamy for its radical and outrageous views on immigration, race and imperialism and Garnett’s incessant use of racial slurs towards mostly-absent black and Asian people (“Coons!” “Nig-nogs!” “Wogs!”), Johnny Speight’s original intention for the series was to offer a sharp, social commentary which highlighted the class and generational tensions of British society during the 1960s.**

In doing so, he used the series to air the nation's dirty laundry on provocative subjects, including scroungers, immigration, religion and feminism. With episode titles such as: ‘Sex Before Marriage’, ‘A Woman’s Place Is in the Home’ and ‘Paki-Paddy’, the series wasn’t shy in bragging about the taboo subjects it would be confronting.

Inevitably, Alf’s forthright views unsettled some viewers and offended and alienated many people in the process.

Alf and Speight’s most infamous nemesis was Mary Whitehouse, the spokesperson for the ‘Clean Up TV’ campaign, who objected to the programme’s general vulgarity which she saw as having a complete disregard for common human decency.

However, this ‘vulgarity’ was part of Speight’s determination to bring to the forefront the dark underbelly of outdated, bigoted attitudes towards issues such as multiculturalism and immigration that still persisted in society and to demonstrate how it still persisted among certain groups of people.

Never one to be deterred by critics, Speight wrote an episode which revealed Alf to be one of Mrs Whitehouse’s biggest supporters by being engrossed in her book Cleaning Up TV, much to the incredulity of his family.

“She’s concerned for the bleedin’ moral fibre of the nation.”

Speight’s ultimate desire for Alf Garnett’s character was to serve an educational, cleansing function, whereby the audience would see his ignorance and be mortified and disgusted by it. By constructing Alf as a fool through which his bigoted remarks rarely went unchallenged by those around him, who confronted and refuted his views, viewers would be encouraged to laugh at him as opposed to with him. ***

Unfortunately, the sitcom’s ambivalent attitude towards racism and other issues could be read both ways by its audience and as a consequence of this and Warren Mitchell’s exceptional performance as Garnett, much to Speight’s dismay, an alarming number of viewers identified sympathetically with the character. ****

"The more outrageous and extreme his tirades grow, the more we adore him.” - T. C. Worsley,

Series Producer Dennis Main Wilson later acknowledged his failure in not fully realising Speight’s vision for the series:

“Our intention was to hold a mirror up to the world. Let it see itself – warts and all. With his loud-mouthed bigotries, he was to be the anti-hero. He was to be laughed at – not with.” - 1973

An Unexpected, Perpetuating Legacy

Despite the controversy it received, Till Death continued to run successfully on the BBC until 1975 when low ratings finally befell it and it was cancelled, due to the latter series’ focus on less-topical plots.

However, Alf Garnett could not be silenced forever and he returned (with a vengeance) in:

Till Death… (1981)

This follow-up series from ITV saw Alf and Else retire to Eastbourne and share a bungalow with former neighbour Min following the death of her husband Bert. The series vast differences to its predecessor led to it not being recommissioned

In Sickness and In Health (1985-1992)

Ran for six series on the BBC until 1992 and saw Alf cope with being a widower, but still spouting his radical, albeit mellowing, views on race and the government. With black and gay home help character Winston (aka ‘Marigold) on constant patrol to challenge

Alf’s increasingly outdated and unacceptable racist and homophobic views, Alf was depicted as the ‘fool’ to be laughed at more than ever before.

This was until 1988 when Speight was given a warning by the BBC and finally forced to curb Alf's racist language once and for all.

Have a listen to the theme tune below, composed by the imitable Chas & Dave and one of the catchiest theme songs in sitcom history.

An Audience with Alf Garnett, The Thoughts of Chairman Alf & A Word With Alf (1997-1998)

Alf returned for the last time to television in the late 1990s on ITV with a one-off celebrity “An Audience With…” show and a series where he expressed his notoriously bigoted views on everything from the government to immigration, sans the racist language, with old music hall songs thrown in.

After Johnny Speight died in July 1998, Warren Mitchell decided to retire the character of Alf Garnett for good.

Alf Garnett’s legacy, despite the incessant controversy he received, lasted an astonishing 30 years, something which is a testament to the quality of Speight’s writing and the tenacity of the British public to embrace a figure whose purpose was to offer a voice of protest against the changing state of British society and its values, even despite those views becoming softened and less aggressive later down the line. **

* Fiddy, D. (2016) Till Death Us Do Part Series Guide. London: Network

** Schaffer, G. (2010) ‘Till Death Us Do Part and the BBC: Racial Politics and the British Working Classes 1965-75’. Journal of Contemporary History, 45(2), pp. 454-477.

*** Schaffer, G. (2017) ‘Framing The Fosters: jokes, racism and Black and Asian voices in British comedy television’ in Malik, S. and Newton, M. D. (eds.) Adjusting the Contrast: British television and constructs of race. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

**** Peters, L. and Becker, S. (2010) ‘Racism in comedy reappraised: Back to Little England?’, Comedy Studies, 1(2), pp. 191-200.