Snatched away too early at the age of only 89. Of course Love Thy Neighbour was diabolically unfunny old shyte, but I do think it helped with the battle against racism in some ways. In the same way as Alf Garnett, Eddie Booth (Jack Smethurst) was always, but always, shown up as having catastrophic foolish results for his racism - he always loses out. He adopts some silly stereotype - of the type that as I remember were genuinely in fairly common circulation or were regularly used in insults - and then ends up looking ridiculous. For example, believing that black people do voodoo and put curses on, which led to Eddie dancing around his front garden naked at midnight chanting 'me white honky' or something similar. I recounted just recently that Cifriana's Nigerian friend, who's quite religious, said her Nigerian friends had warned her not to mix with Cubans because.....they do voodoo. So silly attitudes did and do still persist to this today among some. In the first episode, when the black neighbours are moving in, white Eddie mistakes the white removal man as the new owner and the black fella as the removal man. That is still a very common problem to this day. I think black MPs and officials have been complaining recently about getting asked if they're the cleaner or the maid and such like. Black barristers representing clients at court keep getting asked if they're the defendant. These days there are NO sitcoms on the TV that even remotely dare to challenge or expose these sorts of social problems in the way that Love They Neighbour did. I am pretty sure that old Jack wasn't a racist, in the same way that Warren Mitchell was a committed anti-racist and knew just what message he was sending to the great British public of that time. The language in that show is very shocking now, but if we are honest is very, very mild in comparison with the racial language that was casually and commonly used in every public environment, including the Vicarage Road terraces by the way. I think if you're going to show up their insults an language as stupid, you do have to pronounce it. The black fella was also quite regularly stupid and sometimes racist. He was also, as I remember, a Tory, whereas white Eddie was Labour - another nice twist on things. Anyway, on to the main point of this thread which is a pictorial gallery in commemoration of the show.
I met Jack on numerous occasions in Chorleywood (not so much in recent years) and he was an absolute gent, nothing like Eddie Booth. He loved a chat over a cup of tea and spoke fondly of his showbiz years, telling great stories such as touring with Spike Milligan and the things he got up to. Completely unlike a lot of celebs (and he never counted himself as one) he always had time to talk to anyone that showed an interest in his career. RIP Jack and thanks for sharing your memories
In a way, the premise of the show was fine and it’s true that Eddie was intended to be satirised by it. The language was pretty shocking though. In that first episode Eddie urgently tells his wife but you might get raped to which she replies ooh chance would be a fine thing. It was certainly having cake while eating said cake. Til Death Do Us Part was a superior proposition. TV now can be a bit tame by comparison. Sure there is plenty of humping and bullet in the head shots, but social issues are rarely tackled so head on. Someone would complain it was a ‘woke agenda’ if racists were satirised for a whole show.
His wife Julie Smethurst was my Sunday School teacher for many years and he often popped into my primary school where his son Adam was in the year below, particularly if we were playing footy. His son often came to school armed with loads of football memorabilia, particularly heavily-signed squad photos of Division 1 teams which were bandied around lads at school. For someone, who at the time was pretty famous, he was always very modest and good-natured. His only bad point was that he supported Manchester United. In those days acting was a job that wasn't very highly paid, and work was often infrequent, so much so, that will he was "resting" he helped out with the chap down-the-road's cleaning business just to earn a bit of cash.
On the subject of disparate 1970s sitcoms with a racial theme, there was one on ITV featuring a white bloke married to a, shock, horror, black girl. I believe it was called Mixed Blessings and it was very, very tame.
Yes, I remember this well. Mixed Blessings, it had to be Mixed Blessings, you and me. Approximately concurrent with Mind Your Language, I think?
I remember seeing the Please Sir! film at the Odeon in Watford (okay it may have been the Empire). What a great film. (Ok I haven’t seen it in many a year, may have dated). Edit - Jack Smethurst plays the coach driver.
Family holidays, where the big summer film would either be a new James Bond, a Carry On, or a movie spin-off of a popular sitcom, Likely Lads, Man About The House, On The Buses Trilogy. Ahhhh, the nostalgia. Jack's big break (as in big profile raiser) came as one of the main supporting actors in A Kind Of Loving. Thora Hird's interpretation of the mother-in-law from hell is still today's Gold Standard.
When we pass judgement on shows from previous eras we should generally be aware that things that we laugh at today will be seen as unacceptable in 40 years time .
The latest seems that the utterly brilliant Inbetweeners is now coming under fire. That basically mirrored my adolescence, (though mine was early 90s) and was bang on how people acted and spoke. Apparently people aren't like that now, though spending this morning doing my usual coaching of my son's U14 team, I'd argue nothing has changed.
