The Politics Thread

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PleaseNotPoll said:
I disagree about Till Death Us Do Part. Alf Garnett's never been more relevant, unfortunately.
He's clearly the villain of the piece and his views are demonstrated to be outdated and ignorant, which is where much of the humour comes from.

You probably don't want to tell them about Sean Connery's views on domestic violence, then...
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Absolutely agree on Johnny Speight and Alf Garnet but it wouldn't get made today. It wouldn't.

On Spike Milligan, the story is very interesting. Milligan is of Irish ancestry but was born and brought up in India (a country that he adored). The character in Curry and Chips is actually him, as he was sufficiently sun tanned to be taken as Indian , when his family returned to London. He's playing out the weirdness of his early adult life in typical Milligan fashion...but again it can come across terribly.

Love Thy Neighbour and the others were insulting, even at the time.
 
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The League of Gentlemen is the interesting one, considering it's far more recent than the others

As it stands, it's under review due to the character of Papa Lazarou, which is Reece Shearsmith in blackface - but the thing is that, while Papa Lazarou may look dodgy at a first glance but context and nuance certainly makes it clear there's several dozen shades of grey in that one, but the character of Babs is actually more problematic given that's more likely to have Graham Linehan or JK Rolling saying there's nothing wrong with it at all. And the thing is, TLOG agree with that one, as almost right out of the gate of the 2018 revival they outright stated the way Babs was portrayed in the first three series certainly was transphobic, and made sure to address that ASAP before moving on

Compare that to Little Britain, which apart from being obnoxious with how unfunny it was and also making social gatherings a pain in the ass for months as there was always one ****er doing the catchphrases, that show punched down so much that it was the sitcom equivalent of LeafyIsHere

...and, no, don't Google who that is, because if you do you'll start thinking that maybe the dinosaurs should get a second bite of the cherry
 
Bit of an omission there, Torygraph...
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Can't think why...
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On the other hand, this bloke's probably going to get a grossly inflated sentence...
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PleaseNotPoll said:
I'm not really familiar with Love Thy Neighbour, but it's available to stream on All 4, which is Channel 4's equivalent of the iPlayer...
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I wouldn't.

It was solely an opportunity to air racial epithets such as "Sambo" and a number of others.

There were and are no redeeming features to it...and it was as unfunny as you would expect of an ITV sitcom.

I promise if you watched it, you'd never get it out of your head.
 
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"It Ain't Half Hot Mum" is more complex than it is presented, often written off simply because of blackface. The actor concerned Michael Bates was born in India, lived there for much of his life and spoke fluent Urdu. He worked in the Indian Civil Service and in the war served with the Gurkhas. By all accounts he loved the place. His character on the show was not a one-note caricature and came across as clever, often getting the upper hand over his white "masters". There was also an absence of ethnic characters and actors on TV at the time. So am I suggesting that IAHHM was some kind of liberal progressive show? No of course not, but in terms of a transition from a racist past to a more equal future, it was a stepping stone. It helped white people get used to the idea of non-white characters on TV, and hence in society. And before you condemn it from the perspective of today's moralities, remember that things are more appropriately judged within the context of the times they were created (1974), and in that context it was more progressive than regressive. Without these small steps, it would have been harder to bring the general population round to the idea of equality, because simply telling people they're racist doesn't actually work.
 
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vimhawk said:
"It Ain't Half Hot Mum" is more complex than it is presented, often written off simply because of blackface. The actor concerned Michael Bates was born in India, lived there for much of his life and spoke fluent Urdu. He worked in the Indian Civil Service and in the war served with the Gurkhas. By all accounts he loved the place. His character on the show was not a one-note caricature and came across as clever, often getting the upper hand over his white "masters". There was also an absence of ethnic characters and actors on TV at the time. So am I suggesting that IAHHM was some kind of liberal progressive show? No of course not, but in terms of a transition from a racist past to a more equal future, it was a stepping stone. It helped white people get used to the idea of non-white characters on TV, and hence in society. And before you condemn it from the perspective of today's moralities, remember that things are more appropriately judged within the context of the times they were created (1974), and in that context it was more progressive than regressive. Without these small steps, it would have been harder to bring the general population round to the idea of equality, because simply telling people they're racist doesn't actually work.
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I think you are right. Although I will say there was some outrage at the time (yes I'm old) and the guy was only in one series as I believe he died before a second series was made. Not sure how much of a stink there would have been if he was around for the other series.
 
SpursDisciple said:
I think you are right. Although I will say there was some outrage at the time (yes I'm old) and the guy was only in one series as I believe he died before a second series was made. Not sure how much of a stink there would have been if he was around for the other series.
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He was in the first five series and then died, apparently. They filmed three more.
 
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