Love Thy Neighbour

This show was the antithesis of racist. Bright, fashionable black couple live next door to ignorant, brutish white man and win the upper hand in every episode. Most black characters at the time were laughed at whereas here we clearly are meant to laugh with him. The script was amusing rather than funny, but it makes for an enjoyable comedy of manners.

This excellent, cleverly written sitcom was first aired when I was 6 & even as a child I adored it. Sadly it has been panned by accusations of racism, over the years, mostly by (I feel) people who have never really watched it or even understood it. Here we have Eddie (Jack Smethurst) who is a white British, progressive, socialist, he is bigoted & rather dim, & most of the comedy is from the stupidity of his character. Bill (Rudolph Walker) is an educated black conservative who moved next door with his beautiful wife Barbie, who Eddie actually lusts after. Eddie's long suffering wife is Joan puts up with him, however she is good friends with Barbie & between the three (Bill, Barbie & Joan) they often set Eddie up to expose his bigoted attitude & narrow mindedness, with some comedy gold situations. The thing I think people need to remember with this, it was quite ground breaking for it's time, (early 70's) when there were very few black people on British TV, yet this show has a surprizingly lovely level of diversity with many other black characters & Rudolph Walker went on to become one of Britian best loved character actors starring in TV & film, & he ha always defended his starring in "Love Thy Neighbour" saying... "These days we can't take the p**s out of each other & just have a laugh" (2003)

Yes there are racial slurrs on both sides, with sayings like "white honkey" & "sambo" but this IS a SITCOM, & not a detailed social study into critical race theory & white fragillity! & lets face it no one uses these words today & the whole point of this sitcom is just having a laugh at Bill & Eddies antics of one up-man-ship which always gives Bills character the upper hand. This funny series is certainly worth another look with eyes that are not clouded by cultural Marxism & though a lens of non discrimination & just enjoy. At the end of the first ever episode (not the pilot) we laugh at Eddie when he says he wants to move. Joan his wife asks why, is it because Bill is black, Eddie retorts "It's not that he is black. He's a BLOODY CONSERVATIVE!

I think with the previeling globalist socialist attitudes today which obviously lean left, they really don't like this series because the series pokes fun at white progressive "Eddie" who is a dim witted socialist, rather than being racist. This is the REAL reason.

This is a simply comedy from a more innocent time & it deserves to be enjoyed, again!

This is far from being racist and I remember this series as an adolescent in Sydney Australia. It was such a popular show it was discussed in school and role plays created.

I would love to see something like this now with a typical Muslim family and white Christian family. Something that is in your face and not politically correct. This type of shows destroys the myths that keep people apart in the first place.

Look at the problems around the world now because people are afraid of what they do not understand.

This was a great show and a great message.

Most of these PC fools are worse than Nazis.

This show has to be taken and viewed in the context it was written in.

As a black man born in the early 70's, this show is funny for all the people of my parents age I mentioned it to. 'Political Correctness' is more about white people feeling comfortable with what other white people say in their presence, than making black people feel comfortable about whats said to them by white people. Eddie Booth takes the brunt of nearly every episode as his ignorance shows him to be the fool so often. His bigoted ways always showed him up to be the narrow minded, unintelligent idiot he is and regularly needed his wife's help to set him straight.

Fair enough, its not everyones cup of tea, but it is funny and to think it got shelved from being re-run because of our over protective PC fanatics thought it would re-ignite racism in our streets is a shame. News is that racism hasn't gone and will never go and considering racism is a learnt behaviour, if parents want to educate their young children to be racist, they will just get the DVDs at home and let them watch it that way. ted00043 from Australia just doesn't get the show. Its like a die-hard Columbo viewer watching Bablyon 5; it messes with their head.

If your going to do it, do it properly. Ban it all together (from our shelves, TV and archives) or let it be seen by everyone, everywhere.

A fun enjoyable comedy, good for forgetting your troubles to. It has a bad reputation these days as a racist show. And it's true that racial tension is the main theme, and racist slurs are often used.

However, this is not a show that a white supremacist would write. A black guy (Bill) and a white guy (Eddie) have petty conflicts, and Bill usually wins. The white guy in most episodes makes a total idiot of himself.

Neither do they really hate each other. One episode has Eddie dance naked round a tree to release a voodoo curse he believes he's put on Bill. It's basically macho posturing between the two guys which leads to them falling out and making.

So while it does have racist language, its underlying message is far more "woke" than is often imagined. It never punches down at the black characters. And it's genuinely funny.