Re: No There was an episode of 'Only fools and Horses', I don't remember which one, but they have replaced the audio of a specific line that Del Boy says, because today it's seen as racist. Aparently you see his lips move to say the line, however the audio has been edited. I've watched it thousands of times, and still don't remember which scene it is. They also make several references to 'the paki shop', something else which probably wouldn't be allowed today. Having said that, some modern day programmes such as Life on Mars, made politically incorrect statements, which you'd expect from the time the programme was set, and seemingly got away with it.
Re: No I don't think political correctness existed then. I've got Till Death Us Do Part & In Sickness And In Health DVDs they make me laugh
The point is that the protagonists are always on the receiving end of ill fortune. They never prosper and the joke is always on them. There's a morality tale going on and the writers such as Johnny Speight were very aware of this when working around censorship. Rising Damp, Steptoe, Alf Garnett are all shown intact when repeated on TV, as far as I am aware - Love Thy Neighbour had the same moral slant but it was too directly abusive, which is why TV has pretty much washed it's hands of it.
Re: No Hard to believe Love Thy Neighbour ran for 8 series? You can get it all on DVD. I found the film on VHS a few years ago and it was just crap. Till Death was class though, he had a go at everybody so it was about his bigotry rather than whoever he was having a go at. And it was very funny, there were/are people like that and it was ripping the pIss out of them.
Agreed "Till Death" was one of the best sit-coms ever, "Love Thy Neighbour" was very poor. The silly moo used to crack me up when she put Alf down with a viciously cutting remark.
Who remembers "Mind your language"? Every member of the evening class was a British stereotype of various nations.
Loved. It I think it was the next step up from please sir and the fenn street gang for John Alderton. Which he didn't take and I forget the name of the actor who played the tutor
You've got yourself a treat there. Rising Damp is one of my favourite programmes and I never get bored of watching it. My favourite episodes are the ones where Rigsby and Philip have a boxing match and when Peter Bowles turns up and gives Miss Jones acting lessons. The four lead characters are played to perfection. I've never really considered it as being un-PC, as it doesn't contain any inflammatory language and the joke is that Rigsby is a tight fisted, prejudiced, desperate old man who never comes out on top. I always felt that Eric Chappell was using the show to gently mock that type of person. Even so, what Rigsby says and does is not that outrageous. All he displays are some of the uneducated prejudices of the time and the punchlines of many of the scenes are based around his targets' responses rather than what he says. It's not like some of the stuff that Ricky Gervais does, whereby he makes some terrible comments or jokes and gets away with it because the audience is in on the fact that he is playing a tw@t. Half the time the audience is actually laughing at the joke he has made, rather than the irony that he is an idiot, etc.
