LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR
Staunch Union Jack-waving socialist Eddie Booth and his
wife Joan live in Maple Terrace next door to a West Indian couple,
Bill and Barbie Reynolds.
 Joan and Barbie are good friends but their husbands
- who work
together at the same factory - are perpetually bickering because of
Eddie's bigotry and colour prejudice.
Eddie hates the fact that he has to live next door to
Jamaicans, and his cheerful West Indian neighbour, Bill (who also
happens to be a dyed-in-the-wool Tory), is just as good at trading
insults back.
Having previously explored ethnic disharmony in Never Mind
The Quality, Feel The Width, writing partners Vince Powell and
Harry Driver followed Johnny Speight down the path of employing
bigotry as humour.
Unfortunately,
whereas Till Death Us Do Part and Curry And Chips
(however misunderstood they might have been) had highlighted the
ignorance endemic in racism, Love Thy Neighbour rarely rose
above name-calling and crude stereotyping.
While the show boasted 17 million viewers at its peak, it is
inconceivable that a show like Love Thy Neighbour could be
made today. The racist jibes ("Sambo", "King
Kong", "Nig Nog", "Chocolate Drop" etc)
are rarely heard (and never condoned) in the world today.
 One must bear in mind though, that what is politically
incorrect now has not always been so.
By 1976, public sensitivity saw the show cancelled. It was
certainly a product of it's time, and unlikely as it may seem
today, Love Thy Neighbour was also once turned into a
two-hour play for a summer season at Blackpool (no pun
intended).
Jack Smethurst said at the time; - "I think it will be a
bit of an eye opener for tourists, especially those from countries
like South Africa and the American Deep South. At home they would
never see a show where black and white people abuse one another in
a comedy situation." Jack went on; "It's a very British
show. The majority of people here see it for what it is - a show
of racial tolerance". Excuse me?
Black actors Rudolph Walker and Nina Baden-Semper both claimed
not to be offended by the racism in the scripts and, like the
writers, hoped that Love Thy Neighbour would break down
barriers. Sadly it did no such thing.
It was however, a rip-roaring success, and even after the
show's cancellation in Britain, a further seven episodes of the
series were made and screened only in Australia.
 Titled Love Thy Neighbour In Australia, the episodes
showed Eddie Booth, having gone "Down Under" to work,
moving into the Sydney suburb of Blacktown (the humour was not
overly subtle) to find - surprise, surprise - a problem with his
neighbours.
The Australian episodes were made by the 7 Network and aired in
1980.
Jack Smethurst was the only original cast member, with the
addition of new characters Bernard Smith (Robert Hughes), Jim
Lawson (Russell Newman), Joyce Smith (Sue Jones), Cyril (Graham
Rouse) and Joe Marley (Ken Goodlet).
An American version of the show was produced in 1973 with Ron
Masak and Joyce Bulifant as Charlie and Peggy Wilson, a white
Democrat couple who live on Friar Tuck Lane in suburban Sherwood
Forest Estates near Los Angeles.
The Wilson's are horrified by the arrival of their new
neighbours, Ferguson and Jackie Bruce (Harrison Page and Janet
MacLachlan) - a black Republican couple.
Unlike the British model, the American series was not a success
and lasted for only 12 episodes, aired by ABC between June and
September 1973.
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