What Alf Garnett says to me is that Speight was a typically arrogant media lefty who used his writing to enforce his own views. That is so typical of the deluded pseudo intellectual lefty type who fails to recognise the wider and deeper issues and strokes his own ego by belittling the ignorant for their predictable attitudes.

Yes, people were right to be concerned about immigrants for a number of reasons that are now becoming clear. The institutionalised and wide spread public racism that raised it's head in the face of increasing immigration was predictable in a post empire country and the PC reaction that emerged to counter it was merely a side show to ensure the policy of mass migration could go quietly while the ruling classes rubbed their hands together.

Alf Garnett was a wonderful propaganda piece by a left wing luvvie who helped the people he probably despised the most get richer.

Of course, they're superb!

And they are on DVD/YouTube (what's still available. The beeb had a very cavalier attitude towards preserving stuff pre 1970).

It's not repeated very often but I can only guess 'Dave' doesn't judge it worth buying the rights for. There's bundles of what were very popular shows that very rarely get aired again (Off the top George & Mildred, Dear John, Hitchhikers Guide etc)

Lend me a Tenor

31 May to 3 June 2017

John McIntosh Arts Centre
London Oratory School
SW6 1RX

with Superfly in the chorus
[Link]

Interesting that your analysis is revealing as to your own biases,though much of it chides others for supposed bias.

Johnny Speight was actually the son of an East End docker,no "luvvie". Alf Garnett was no "propaganda piece" (other than when filtered through your own biases);there were loads resembling him in those days in the East End;my granddad for one!

As Johnny Speight himself said:“I didn’t invent Alf Garnett, I just grassed him up.”

“I get most of the material for Alf standing around in pubs, all I really am is a recorder”.

Satire being about as traditional a British value (and virtue) as you can get;what was Shakespeare if not a satirist?

RIP Warren.Created one of the great British characters of the post-war era in bringing Johnny Speight's scripts so vividly to life.

Edited by legaleagle (16 Nov 2015 11.28pm)

Excellent. Reminded me of my grandad. RIP both.

It got a bit tired in the end, but both were satires, with the joke actually being on Alf Garrnet and those who 'were up in arms'. It was a bit disturbing when you met people who thought 'he speaks a lot of sense', because clearly the only person who was making Alf Garrnet's life miserable or worse, was him

Great stuff, ran longer maybe than it needed to and maybe was a bit ahead of its time and maybe sometimes a bit to clever for its own good.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]

Actually the series is regarded as being a model of political correctness in action, albeit first generation political correctness, because it generated controversy in order to stimulate debate and engagement.

Its like the 'Ban Baa Baa Black Sheep' people don't realise that initially the story began with PC social engineering theory about psycholinguistics and constructionism, which eventually was picked up as a story by the usual suspects.

The whole point of things like this, is that they reflect on both sides of the fence (those who are PC to the point of being bigots, and those who defend bigotry).

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]