Till Death Us Do Part
 Alf Garnett ( Working class Tory voter who despised his own
class) was an East Ender, racist and rabid West Ham supporter and
first appeared in a 1965 BBC Comedy Playhouse where the
family were originally called The Ramsey's.
In this controversial sitcom (written by Johnny Speight) Alf was
played by Warren Mitchell (who had been a DJ on Radio Luxembourg)
and was married to the "silly old Moo" Else (played by
Dandy Nichols).
The Garnett's shared their loveless marriage and their home with
their daughter Rita and her husband Mike (the "randy Scouse
git").
The
part of Mike was originally offered to Michael Caine (a friend of
Johnny Speight's) who proved unavailable due to his blossoming movie
career.
 In 1975 Patricia Hayes and Alfie Bass joined the series as the
neighbours who look after Alf when Else decides to visit her sister
in Australia.
From his armchair, Alf regularly submitted his family to
passionate rants on a variety of topics: "coons", "yer
majesty", women, Edward Heath (for taking Britain into the
Common Market) and the permissive society (particularly his
son-in-law Mike who had long hair and was a card carrying Trotsky
follower).
The series offended many and attracted a lot of complaints, most
notably from Mary Whitehouse and viewers who failed to see that Alf
was an ironic portrait and not a role model. The series aired on the
BBC on June 6, 1966. Two days later on June 8, the Tories asked for
a copy of the script which called Edward Heath a "grammar
school twit".
Nobody had seen any show quite like it; critics loved its
realism, the constant flow of ideas, challenges to authority and
impeccable performances and the audience loved the electric
atmosphere of the program as it trod the very edge of what was
permissible on TV.
It
had a deceptively simple premise, with its biting parody relying on
the exact opposite of what its protagonist Alf was saying in order
to aim its barbs at attitudes to royalty, religion, race and
politics.
 The more Alf blindly defended his beloved standards, the more the
audience realised that this was the measure by which those very
standards were intended to be lampooned.
Warren Mitchell was perfect in this role, and no doubt had a
great deal of trouble shaking the character off in later years.
By comparison, the character seemed mediocre in the 1985 sequel In
Sickness And In Health in which only Warren Mitchell appeared
(The series was supposed to be set after the death of the silly old
moo).
Two feature films were also made: Till Death Us Do Part
(1969) and The Alf Garnett Saga (1972).
The Americans made their own version of the show called All
In The Family with the Alf Garnett character being renamed to
Archie Bunker. The Germans also made a version and The Garnetts'
became The Tetzlaff's).
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