Look … Look … Listen! You might learn somefink. This is the story of Till Death Us Do Part, the most controversial, most influential sitcom ever made for television. It is the story of a family at war – with each other, with the world, with religion, with royalty, with politics, with the BBC, with everything.
Whilst battles were spectacularly fought on screen, the campaigns and skirmishes continued behind the scenes, the conflicts just as explosive, just as vitriolic. In ten years, the Garnetts assailed the boundaries of taste, battered the limits of respectability, and laid waste the bits in between. It is the story of 1436 “bloodies”, 79 “silly moos”, three continents, two threatened prosecutions for blasphemy and a dog called Pickles.
There’s an abundance of arguments, attitude, aggression and alcohol. There’s lots of language, litigation and late scripts. There’s plenty of anecdotes of life imitating art imitating life, leading to the ridiculous idea of the “randy Scouse git” becoming our former PM’s father-in-law. Yes, this book has the bloody lot.
“Dirty, blasphemous and full of bad language” Mary Whitehouse
“Quite the worst programme I have seen during family viewing time” Mary Whitehouse
FIRST EDITION (SOLD OUT)
340pp. A5 paperback.
ISBN 978-1-84583-031-1 (pb)
Published 21 August 2008
REPRINT EDITION
393pp. 6×9 paperback
ISBN 978-1-84583-949-9
Published March 2017
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Ward was only seven when Alf Garnett hit our screens but he remembers being allowed to stay up and watch the show despite the language, using the excuse that his parents’ laughter kept him awake. He wishes he had been born earlier so that he could have enjoyed the ‘swinging’ bit of the ’60s and seen Hendrix and Cream in the flesh but does not blame his parents for this. He continues a love affair with any rock music created between 1965 and 1975 and more recent offerings such as Björk. His love for old telly resulted in his first book, Out of the Unknown: A Guide to the legendary BBC Series, in 2004. His other interests include reading ancient and medieval history, the cinema and travelling as much of the world as he can afford.
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