The Alf Garnett Saga

This film is a real strange one. Written by Johnny Speight and starring Warren Mitchell as ever yet the story is all over the place the support acting is terrible but there are some unforgettable scenes that are laugh out loud funny. The football match is used as an excuse to pack in as many guest stars as possible but contains some classic lines.

Uma Stubbs & Anthony Booth are absent and replaced by Adrienne Posta who gives a passable performance and Paul Angelis who is unwatchable.

It's a strangely watchable yet poor production value movie A real conundrum for the Alf Garnett fan.

I should preface by saying generally speaking I have no issue with some of the broad British comedies of the 70s. Although it's probably an easy thing to say as a middle aged white male, allowances have to be made for the sensibilities of the times, during which attitudes to race and sexuality were obviously very different. I loved Mind Your Language, for instance, because it was all done with such a sense of warmth and fun, and even Love Thy Neighbour, as offensive as that is by modern standards, seemed to have a mostly light-hearted feel. If not for the constant use of racial epithets, it might even stand up today as a great working class comedy. (I'm referring to the Love thy Neighbour TV series rather than the movie spinoff). The white race-baiter Eddie Booth was in a minority of one, while the other characters, for the most part, rose above his prejudice and delighted when his attitudes brought him undone.

But not this time; in the Alf Garnett Saga, many of the characters seem to be happily swimming in the same racist sewer, and the constant, calculated, angry use of a deeply offensive racial term I found uncomfortable and disturbing.

I agree with some of the other reviewers, in that the street scenes of a changing London were of particular interest, as were the cameos of John Le Mesurier, Patsy Byrne (later Nursey in Blackadder), Kenny Lynch and Joan Sims. But otherwise, this example of what the late Australian movie critic Bill Collins referred to as "the tarnished years of British Cinema", is best forgotten.

I enjoyed Alf Garnet' stories for their insight into human nature. This film combined many aspects of Alf's thoughts, weaknesses, humour and humanity. It also satirises the 'tired' and relentlessly mundane family life of so many working class people. Pity the film is not available to purchase.

The second film based on the hit B.B.C. show 'Till Death Us Do Part' picks up where the first movie left off, with Alf Garnett and his family turfed out of their Wapping home and installed in a block of high-rise flats. Alf can't get used to living in the sky, having to ride elevators ( which frequently break down due to power cuts caused by the miners' strike ) and walk long distances to the nearest pub. For many in the '60's and '70's, this situation was only too real. Old people who'd survived the war with their homes intact lost them a decade or so later in the name of urban redevelopment.

Una Stubbs and Anthony Booth ( who played Alf's daughter 'Rita' and son-in-law 'Mike' in both the T.V. series and first movie ) were inexplicably absent. Presumably they'd read the script. I greatly respect Johnny Speight, but here his talent seems to have deserted him. As the film plods on, the humour grows increasingly desperate, culminating in a horribly embarrassing sequence in which Alf has an L.S.D. 'trip'. Paul Angelis and Adrienne Posta do their best, but the characters of 'Rita' and 'Mike' have been changed; 'Mike' is depicted here as a womanising drug addict, while 'Rita' sets out to shock her family by pretending to spend the night with Kenny Lynch. Guest appearances by Arthur Askey, Max Bygraves, Eric Sykes and George Best don't improve things. The best moment is at the end when Alf accidentally sets his bed alight. The first 'Till Death' film turns up on television often, but this has been completely forgotten, and with very good reason.

The eponymous Alf Garnett stars in his own Hollywood film, as a dockworker relocated from his "lovely" (ho ho ho) little house to the top floor of a tower block in a raw looking new estate.

This curious little drama follows the story of his life and the trials of his daughters marriage. The dodgy morality is dead in period.

Cameo appearances by George Best (author of the famous quip "90% of my money I spent on loose women, fast cars and alcohol – the rest I just wasted") when he still had a functioning liver and various other soccer and political figures of the era add to the plain little story.

In one scene the newspaper headlines change within two takes. Product placements – The Daily Mirror (a very odd choice of reading material for a Conservative !), Adidas (repeatedly) and Tetley Bitter.

By the way, I direct you to the film "10 Rillington Place" for an example of a house that was considered by the British Housing Commission "too good" to be demolished to give you an insight into how "lovely" Alf's old house would have been.