The Alf Garnett Saga

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.