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"Till Death Us Do Part" (1965) More at IMDb Pro »

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12 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
"A milestone in TV history.", 6 June 2004
Author: jamesraeburn2003 from Poole, Dorset

A bigoted docker from East London, Alf Garnett, is always getting his family into trouble with his ramblings about race, religion and politics.

This long running and extremely successful TV sitcom series created by writer Johnny Speight was also very controversial. Alf's racist and bigoted views often ensured that there was many complaints from angry viewers. Even though a lot of people find the show objectionable, it is still a milestone in British TV history because it changed the face of television in the way it said things and how it said them. The show rarely ever strayed beyond the tiny set of Alf's living room in Wapping (the walls used to wobble whenever Alf banged his fist against them in anger) and it was very weakly plotted but it ran for ten years and Alf Garnett was superbly portrayed by Warren Mitchell and Dandy Nichols was fine as his long suffering wife, Else, whom Alf referred too as the "silly moo". Anthony Booth (Tony Blair's father in law) played his son-in-law, Mike, a Labour supporter whom Alf called various names including "Shirley Temple" among other things because of his long hair. Una Stubbs played the daughter, Rita, who detested her father's bigoted ways, but at the same time retained an affection for him. Alf was a Tory and often conflicted with his son-in-law over the two different parties and they both supported different football teams, Alf was for West Ham and Mike for Liverpool. Everything that his family stood for, Alf was nearly always against.

Dandy Nichols left before the last series and the storyline suggested that she had gone to live with her sister in Australia because she could no longer cope with her husband. Meanwhile, Patricia Hayes and Alfie Bass were brought in as his new neighbours, Bert and Min, Bert was Alf's drinking buddie and a fellow West Ham supporter, while Min was always poking her nose into Alf's business. The series ended in 1975, but a spin-off series entitled "Till Death" surfaced in 1981 with Alf and Else retiring to Eastbourne with Mike and Rita trying to keep him out of trouble. In 1985, another spin-off series entitled, "In Sickness And In Health" emerged with Alf and Elsie as OAP's, Mike and Rita have both left home, so it was up to Alf to care for his wheelchair bound wife and do battle with social security. This series ran until 1992, but within a year Nichols had died after years of ill health and Carmel McSharry took over as his new lodger, Mrs Hollingberry, whom Alf only respected for her cooking. After the series ended there have been occasional TV specials such as "In Thoughts Of Chairman Alf" and "An Evening With Alf Garnett". Johnny Speight died in 1998.

In 1969, British Lion released a big screen spin-off of the series. It was occasionally funny and there were highlights such as Alf during the 1964 election and at the 1966 World Cup final. However, the script was sometimes unrepresentative of the show and it seemed comparatively tame compared to the original. The original cast was retained and it had a better crew behind the camera than one would normally expect of TV sitcom spin-offs. In 1972, a sequel entitled THE ALF GARNETT SAGA came out, but it was even more crude and out of character with only Mitchell and Nichols retained from the original cast.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Johnny Speight is a genies, 29 August 2006

Author: Jack Massey from Manchester

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Johnny Speight has to be the greatest ever scriptwriter. His credits include This, the two spin offs: Till Death and In Sickness and in Health.

This show is about the conservative bigoted Alf Garnett (Warren Mitchell) living with his long haired labour son in law Mike (Shirley Temple, I mean Anthony Booth, excuse the joke, I too have long hair), his fantastic dry, miserable wife Elsie (Dandy Nichols, the silly moo) and daughter Rita (Una Stubbs). Regular cast members include Gran (Joan Sims), Bert (Bill Maynard), Roy Kinnear and the brilliant SPIKE MILLIGAN. Milligan appeared in three episodes, Up the Polls (Which I would love to see, it also features Eric Sykes as Milligan's liberal minded friend, Milligan playing a Pakistani, Sykes and Milligan played similer characters in Curry and Chips- a more controversial sitcom by Johnny Speight), Holiday in Bournmouth where he plays an Indian train passenger and P--i-Paddy(Excuse the bad taste of the title), where he played Kevin O'Grady, the character who he played in Curry and Chips.

It is such a shame that Till Death us do Part can't get repeated now. It was a strong anti-racist message Speight was trying to get across to people.

Till Death us do Part is in the top 10 of my all time favourite sitcoms, the top 10 being 10.One Foot in the Grave, 9.Porridge 8.Two in Clover, 7.Fawlty Towers, 6.Steptoe and Son, 5.Till Death us do Part, 4.Last of the Summer Wine, 3.On the Buses, 2.Citizen Smith, 1.Dads Army Best episode: Series 4, episode3, Holiday in Bournmouth, for Alf falling in the pool and Spike Milligans performance.

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5 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Original and realistic, 27 August 1999
Author: Lang Skrimshire

This show was great to love and hate at the same time. Alf Garnett was the secret bigot in all of us. It spawned the American version "All in the family" with Alf Garnett becoming Archie Bunker.

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