Let's see 'The black and white minstrels' and Love Thy Neighbour' again.

[dave50]

Let people see these shows and others from the seventies and let them make their own mind up instead of all this censorship.

[Bobbisox]

would never be allowed now Dave

[AB Editor]

No lets not, it was rubbish. Lets watch Luther instead.

[Ankou]

why ? they were crap.

[Davethedog]

Why?

[sandyRoe]

What about Till death do us part? That was fairly racist, as I remember

[sandyRoe]

^^^ Very racist. There was nothing fair about it.

[China Doll]

I'm just getting in to Luther and watching the first series. It's not bad.

[Maydup]

No, please leave them buried in the past where they belong along.

[jackthehat]

I watched them in the seventies and decided they were rubbish back then........I don't need to revisit them to see if they have improved with age and distance.

[Maydup]

^^ belong along! typo

[woofgang]

IIRC the point of Alf Garnett and "Love Thy Neighbour" was to poke fun at white people who were bigotted. The Black and White Minstrels was a nasty hangover from American Minstrel shows....different.

[VHG]

>>>>That was fairly racist, as I remember

Strangely when Johnny Speight wrote "Till Death do us part" he was trying to show up Alf Garnett for the racist bigot that he was (Johnny Speight was a Labour supporter and hated racism and bigotry).

He made Alf Garnett as awful and nasty as he could, so people would hate him.

But the reverse happend and he became a sort of "folk hero".

I can remember when there was strike in the 1970s one of the placards said "Alf Garnett was right" (about immigration).

So the show was not "racist" as such, it was "using" racism and bigotry to highlight how awful racism can be (if you know what I mean).

[Postdog]

If shown nowadays, certain programmes would be shown up for what they were - unfunny anyway.

[Everhelpful]

"Black and White Minstrels"? Was Al Jolson a racist then?

[jackthehat]

I don't know.
But he was a proponent of an 'art-form' which was....

[Everhelpful]

Jack,In my opinion He was one of the greatest entertainers of all time.

[jackthehat]

You are perfectly entitled to view him as such, everhelpful.
There is no doubt that he contributed a great deal to the fight against anti-black discrimination on Broadway and that the 'black-face' convention was a Victorian construct.

However, the leap to the B&W minstrel shows broadcast in the 1970's has no such 'authority' behind it.

[Everhelpful]

I was under the illusion no Racist or Political motive was present in the 70's and the Black and White Minstrel show was pure entertainment,nothing more nothing less,unless I was blissfully naive at the time.

[scotman]

I agree about 'Till Death Us Do Part' although I was not really old enough at the time to realise it.
Speight/Mitchell did a wonderful job of creating a ludicrous, bigoted, frustrated, shallow oaf and showing him to be all those things on a weekly basis.