Including lost episodes not seen for more than 50 years

It was one of the most influential – and controversial – sitcoms ever to have aired on TV.

Now the entire run of 1960s comedy classic Till Death Us Do Part, featuring the bigoted Alf Garnett, is to be repeated – including four previously lost episodes which have not been seen on British TV for more than 50 years.

Warren Mitchell, who played the lead, described his bombastic, reactionary alter-ego ‘an ignorant, loud-mouthed, stupid pig of a man. A know-all. Nasty, repulsive’.

The sitcom courted controversy from the outset, being one of the first BBC shows to feature the word ‘bloody’ (broadcast 1,436 times during the first seven seasons). The Conservative Party complained that its leader, Edward Heath, was described as a ‘grammar school twit’ in the first episode and clean-up TV campaigner Mary Whitehouse described the series as ‘dirty, blasphemous and full of bad language’. However, the programme was said to be among the Queen’s favourites

Starting on Sunday, digital channel That’s TV will show all 13 series of the show and its successor, In Sickness and In Health, which between them ran on BBC One between 1966 and 1992.

Episodes of the first three black and white series were wiped after broadcast, but a handful of recordings have been discovered by technicians and film collectors over the past 20 years, including the four episodes to be screened now.

The sitcom also starred by Dandy Nichols as Alf’s wife, Elsie; Tony Booth (father of Cherrie Blair) as ‘Scouse git’ son-in-law Mikel and Una Stubbs and daughter Rita.

The show – which attracted 20 million viewers at is peek – made a household name of its creator, Johnny Speight, a prolific comedy writer who wrote for stars including Frankie Howerd, Peter Sellers, Morecambe and Wise, Eric Sykes and Arthur Haynes.  

Dennis Main Wilson, the veteran BBC comedy producer who received a Bafta for his work on the series, said in 1973: ‘Our intention was to hold a mirror up to the world. Let it see itself – warts and all. With his loud-mouthed bigotries, he was to be the anti-hero. He was to be laughed at – not with.’

That’s TV have gone to great lengths to stress that there should be no sympathy for the character. Even the far-right British National Party recognised that Alf Garnett was making views look stupid. John Tyndall, head of the BNP, complained in 1967: ‘The BBC and well-known leftist Johnny Speight had collaborated to put right-wing views In The Mouth of an idiot.’

Speight said in 1995: ‘I didn't invent Alf. He was created by society. I just grassed on him. I observed him, and unfortunately the world is full of Alf Garnetts. You can't encourage racists to be any worse than they are. And the fact that you raise these points of view and make fun of them makes people inclined to think about them. If you never mention them they just go on.’

Mitchell himself was a Jewish, Labour-supporting Spurs ticket holder who died in 2015. He was once asked about biogts who took Garnett as their champion, responding: ‘If they did, hard luck on them. If Alf is all they've got as a champion, then it's a pitiable state of affairs

In 1972 he performed his alter-ego live for The Queen at the Royal Variety Performance. Following the recording of the charity show Prince Philip introduced Speight to Princess Anne saying: ‘This is the gentleman who writes your mother’s favourite show.’

And Tony Booth once asked the Queen Mother if she was concerned about the show’s critics. She  responded: ‘Don’t worry, they’re only cranks.'

That’s TV Head of Programming, Kris Vaiksalu, said: ‘At a time of great social change, Till Death Us Do Part set out to challenge ignorance and prejudice and in doing so became one of the most popular sitcoms in British history.

‘Alf Garnett’s antics provided compulsive viewing for four decades and That’s TV is excited to have secured the rights to show every season of the show this autumn.

‘While only a small number of the episodes from the 1960s still exist, they represent an extraordinary social commentary of the time. These episodes have a special place in television history and are of wider historic significance, with Alf Garnett rallying against the changing attitudes of the 1960s.

‘We’ve been working hard to secure the rights to show these extremely rare tapes. Alf Garnett is one of British TV’s greatest comic creations and is a significant part of our cultural heritage. Till Death Us Do Part can been seen to have influenced many of the great characters in TV comedy over the decades from Homer Simpson to David Brent. We have been delighted to be able to work with the BBC and the Speight family to secure the rights to show some of these early episodes on TV for the first time in well over 50 years.’

Johnny Speight’s widow, Connie, added: ‘It is wonderful news that That’s TV will be showing these lost episodes of Till Death Us Do Part from the 1960s. Johnny wrote Till Death Us Do Part as a kitchen-sink comedy, openly ridiculing the politics and bigotry of the era.

‘Alf Garnett will forever be enshrined in the British collective psyche, embodying everything wrong with the nation in one man. The family has been pleased to work with That’s TV to enable them to broadcast a number of the early episodes for the first time in over 50 years.’

Johnny Speight’s daughter, Samantha added: ‘Discovering these lost episodes from the 1960s is like finding a time capsule. It should not just be academics that get to see TV shows from the last century and discuss their impact.

‘There is something special about watching episodes which have not been broadcast for so long. My children, Sophia and William, and I and I are looking forward to watching the shows on That’s TV and reliving a piece of history.’

Till Death Us Do Part started life as a one-off Comedy Playhouse pilot in 1965. Peter Sellers was the first choice for the role of Alf Garnett but was too busy with film work. The second choice, Leo McKern, was also unavailable, leaving the way open for Mitchell to take the lead role. Following the death of Dandy Nichols in 1986, the series continued with Mitchell playing the role of Garnett as a widow.

Speight was born in Canning Town, East London in 1920, the son of a dock-worker. He left school at 14 with little education and worked in local factories. Army service during World War Two enabled him to mix with different classes, but he returned to factory work afterwards. It was not until the 1950s, when he was 32, that Speight started to write. He died of pancreatic cancer in 1998.

Some episodes of Till Death Us Do Part were last repeated in 2010 on BBC Four – the last time any episode of the series was shown on British television. One ‘lost’ episode (remade using a 1960s script but with a new cast) was also shown as part of the BBC’s landmark sitcom season in 2016.

That’s TV which broadcasts on Freeview channel 65, Sky channel 183 and Freesat channel 178 starts showing the surviving episodes of Till Death Us Do Part from this Sunday at 9.00pm.  The channel also screens other classic comedies such as The Goodies, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Whatever Happened To the Likely Lads, A Bit of Fry and Laurie and The Kumars at No. 42

THE LOST EPISODES ON THAT’S TV

Intolerance (S1 Ep4)

 First aired: BBC One, Monday 27 June 27, 1966, at 7.30pm

Synopsis: Alf reluctantly accompanies Mike to see Liverpool play, where his bigoted views land him in trouble. Mike is paid a visit by Liverpool players Ian St John and Willie Stevenson

Recovery: Missing from the achieves since the late 1960s, a copy was discovered in the loft of a private film collector in 2016. It was subsequently screened at the British Film Institute but has not been shown on TV since the 1960s

Comments; Mark Ward, who wrote a book about the sitcom, said ‘Intolerance was an astonishing breakthrough in television comedy, deploying a Jewish actor to spout racist sentiments, a clown manipulated by Speight and Mitchell to make a deep incision in the hide of racial disaffection. There is never any question as to Speight’s intention, or to his moral standpoint… Alf never thinks about who he is addressing but merely spouts racist stereotypes, getting even these hopelessly wrong

To be shown on That’s TV: Tuesday September 6, 9pm,

In Sickness and In Health (S2 Ep8)

 First aired:  BBC One, Monday February 13, 1967,  at 7.30pm

Synopsis:  Alf is not feeling very well, and his family don’t seem to have much sympathy. Will a stay in hospital change their minds?

Recovery: Returned to the archive in 2009 when BBC film editor Graham Walker found a 16mm copy

Comments: Contains 14 ‘bloodies’ Thought to be the episode seen by Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees when staying in London (after a party with The Beatles) which inspired him to write the song Randy Scouse Git. In the UK the song was retitled Alternate Title.

To be shown on That’s TV: Wednesday September 7, 9pm

State Visit (S2, Ep9)

First aired:  BBC One, Monday February 20, 1967, at 7.30pm

Synopsis: Alf has never been a fan of Prime Minister Wilson, especially now that a Russian premier is visiting the UK. Communism is clearly imminent

Recovery:  Returned to the archive in 2009 when BBC film editor Graham Walker found a 16mm copy

Comments: Ten ‘bloodies’

To be shown on That’s TV: Thursday  September 8, 9pm

The Phone (S3, Ep1)

First aired:  BBC One, Friday  January 5, 1968, at 8.20pm

Synopsis:  After missing a bet on the horses when the local call box is busy, Alf decides it’s time to have a private telephone installed. With: Patricia Hayes playing Alf’s neighbour

Recovery:  In 2001 this episode was recovered from an off-air recording on a Philips EL3400 open-reel videotape. Due to oxide shedding from the tape it was recovered in small sections which were then reassembled into the full episode

Comments: In the Daily Telegraph, Peter Knight ,wrote that the episode would open ‘this year’s Mary Whitehouse baiting season’ with its ‘irreverence, raw vulgarity and earthy language’.

To be shown on That’s TV: Saturday September 10, 9pm

ALF GARNETT QUOTES

ALF ON BIG BEN: "I wrote to Harold Wilson once… told him his bloody clock was wrong, his Big Ben… never even had the decency to reply… and there was a stamped addressed envelope in the letter an’ all… Nicked my four penny stamp!"

ALF ON SOCIAL HIERARCHY: "Listen I ain’t got nothing against the working class, but what I say is this, let them stick to their proper function, and their proper function ain’t sitting up there in Downing Street, mucking about with the status quo…"

ALF ON THE NHS: "They don’t use it do they mate?... Your lot, the Labour Party, the lot what brought it in… You just imagine old Harold Wilson and his oppos, old Brown an’ old Callaghan, sittin’ up there in a National Health hospital… kindly waiting for three hours eh? And drinking our National Health tea, and eating their rotten fly-blown National Health sandwiches… The minute they feel a bit dicky they’re straight up to Harley Street, ain’t they?... Swillin’ back the champagne an’ scoffing the caviar!"

ALF ON DEATH: "I can't afford the gas to end it all and I can't afford a ticket to throw myself under a train. I'd throw myself under a bus, except I'd freeze to death waiting for the bloody thing."

ALF ON THE TORIES: "They need a new leader. If Churchill were alive today he'd be turning in his grave."

ALF ON WOMEN'S LIB: "They should have left that Mrs Pankhurst chained to the bloody railings."

ALF ON FREE LOVE: "Randy Socialist git! They’re all the same, they are. Yer Labourites – it’s them what started all this free love talk… everyone was respectable till they started going around saying it wasn’t all wrong. They’re all the same yer Socialists – they all want something for nothing – even their love."

Published: 1 Sep 2022