Fawlty Towers episode reinstated by UKTV.

Great news Cleese hit the nail on the head with his comments .

Leaving aside The Major and the Manuel baiting, the next focus of Fawlty Towers attention is clear:


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:sherlock:

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Originally Posted by jon1959

Context isn't everything, but it is important.

When Till Death Do Us Part was on TV originally it was surrounded by casual racist depictions and normalised bigotry passing as humour. Bernard Manning was on prime time, the Black And White Minstrels had a mid evening slot, a lot of TV drama had black and asian characters as caricatures (often criminal or defined by curry), and Enoch Powell (and sadly, the London dockers) has just done their bit for race relations. Alf Garnett in that context was cutting edge anti-racist satire. He even did a very good job of making a hero out of the 'Scouse git'.

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Yep , certainty shows how far we have moved as a people in the UK in all manner of life including racism, LGBTQ, environment, health.

Proudly British

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Originally Posted by trampie09

I personally wasn't offended by Garnett and thought the show was well written and I felt guilty about laughing at it and enjoying it but I have to say I used to cringe at the things he used to say which must have been very offensive to a lot of people.

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Spot on , felt and did the same, thankfully we have moved on .

The whole point of Johnny Speight’s writing was to depict Alf as a prick that nobody who want to be like.

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Originally Posted by ccfc_is_my_life

I sense the point has flown over your head.

Alf Garnett was shown to be shitty human being, little to no redeeming virtues. He was nowhere close to being a sympathetic character, he was there to be shown as a vile misogynistic racist... anybody championing his racism no doubt already shares those characteristics.

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I think my point has flown over your head, thick people or young impressionable teenagers might be influenced by his character, I have read about the actor being in character in the theater saying something racist and getting a clap or cheer from the odd person in the audience and the actor feeling awkward about it.

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Originally Posted by life on mars

Yep , certainty shows how far we have moved as a people in the UK in all manner of life including racism, LGBTQ, environment, health.

Proudly British

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For a few minutes there I had you mixed up with the guy who said Naturally born UK citizens are in a minority in some UK cities, who will never buy another Chinese takeaway because of what they did on Covid-19 and the reason why had not seen the levels of infection and Covid-19 deaths compared with Italy and Spain was because of our genes and DNA.

You might want to check whether your account has been hacked. Possibly just now!

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Originally Posted by trampie09

Personally I think it could have encouraged racism, people could be influenced to think that behaviour was ok.

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Its certainly an argument to be had, by allowing this to be shown at a time when you know millions were viewing its content , one could argue it was displaying known stereotypes and accepted behaviours of the time , I'm sure some were influenced.

My favourite Fawlty sketch is the took the girlfriend to see India job, lol.
A bloke I worked with it was his favourite sketch also, was it ok at the time......hmm

Is it ok now ?, same with most Alf Garnett sketches are they ok now ?

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Originally Posted by delmbox

No, here's the original script, it was 3 not 8, but there's a "wogs" in there as a bonus:

Attachment 3896

The joke is that the Colonel is a relic of a different time but probably for the best it's been edited eh

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Your right you can see its written cleverly , as it points out to the major they are "not thinkers "and get "awfully confused " which I presume its the writers way of saying they are not right of mind ,normal in thinking or these notions .

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Originally Posted by splott parker

The whole point of Johnny Speight’s writing was to depict Alf as a prick that nobody who want to be like.

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Reading something similar about something else he did but it was apparently pulled for being too racist, he said the joke was on the English but it seems like the English authorities did not get it.

Hey perhaps the English did get it and weren't prepared to be the butt of jokes.....hmm, just like the Welsh six Nations advert they had pulled, some think it's a colonial thing that because they had the whip hand in days of old (due to wait of numbers I might add) it was ok for them to make jokes about other nationalities but when others in more modern times make jokes about them they are historically so not used to it that they often get offended (far more than others seem to percentage wise).

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Originally Posted by trampie09

Hey perhaps the English did get it and weren't prepared to be the butt of jokes.....hmm, just like the Welsh six Nations advert they had pulled, some think it's a colonial thing that because they had the whip hand in days of old (due to wait of numbers I might add) it was ok for them to make jokes about other nationalities but when others in more modern times make jokes about them they are historically so not used to it that they often get offended (far more than others seem to percentage wise).

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Wait of numbers, up there with stand of fish as the phrase of the day!

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Originally Posted by cyril evans awaydays

Wait of numbers, up there with stand of fish as the phrase of the day!

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Cool, lol.

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Originally Posted by ccfc_is_my_life

I sense the point has flown over your head.

Alf Garnett was shown to be shitty human being, little to no redeeming virtues. He was nowhere close to being a sympathetic character, he was there to be shown as a vile misogynistic racist... anybody championing his racism no doubt already shares those characteristics.

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I don't believe the point has flown over his head at all.
You should get off your high horse and accept that people, not as intelligent as you, at the time may have looked up to this man and took his words as read.
I was around at the time and people in school loved Alf Garnet and looked upon his character as funny.
People would even mimmick his words.

Thing is, I do not believe these people, in junior school, were racist but airing this type of sitcom would have certainly influenced their behaviour, especially if their parents were laughing at his antics. Many would not have understood what they were actually laughing at.

Anyway back to the OP, I am of the opinion that this character, along with Eddie Booth, were a million miles away from Basil Fawlty.

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Originally Posted by MacAdder

I don't believe the point has flown over his head at all.
You should get off your high horse and accept that people, not as intelligent as you, at the time may have looked up to this man and took his words as read.
I was around at the time and people in school loved Alf Garnet and looked upon his character as funny.
People would even mimmick his words.

Thing is, I do not believe these people, in junior school, were racist but airing this type of sitcom would have certainly influenced their behaviour, especially if their parents were laughing at his antics. Many would not have understood what they were actually laughing at.

Anyway back to the OP, I am of the opinion that this character, along with Eddie Booth, were a million miles away from Basil Fawlty.

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Do you honestly think that 50 years in the future people will look back at this time and say, " What a wonderful, right thinking society they were. There is not a single thing we would change if we were able to do so". Of course they wont. We have no way of knowing how society will evolve, which is why all the handwringing now about the ills of a bygone era is a pointless exercise. By all means learn from past mistakes but understand that people's thinking was different then, as it will be in 50 years time.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...y-bame-leaders

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Originally Posted by jon1959

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...y-bame-leaders

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Sense at last

Watching OFAH now and uncle Albert says **** a few times in "hole in one"
Wouldn't get away with that these days

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Originally Posted by trampie09

I think my point has flown over your head, thick people or young impressionable teenagers might be influenced by his character, I have read about the actor being in character in the theater saying something racist and getting a clap or cheer from the odd person in the audience and the actor feeling awkward about it.

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I get your point now, I can see how it would form your racism to the English...

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Originally Posted by ccfc_is_my_life

I get your point now, I can see how it would form your racism to the English...

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Trampie suffers from what I call 'Zulu Syndrome' i.e. buying into all the Welsh nationalist stuff but conveniently forgetting the Welsh contribution in expanding and maintaining the British Empire. A black and white stance of Welsh = good, English = bad does the trick for him and he weaves anti-English sentiment into any thread where he thinks it can be shoe-horned. He just can' thelp himself.

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Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie

Trampie suffers from what I call 'Zulu Syndrome' i.e. buying into all the Welsh nationalist stuff but conveniently forgetting the Welsh contribution in expanding and maintaining the British Empire.

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Quislings.

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Originally Posted by ccfc_is_my_life

I get your point now, I can see how it would form your racism to the English...

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Didn't you say mocking is allowed ?

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Originally Posted by Elwood Blues

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I completely disagree

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Originally Posted by Elwood Blues

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As the Tremeloes sang, “Silence is Golden”

] close bracket

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Originally Posted by MacAdder

Agree.
The same could be said about Jack Smethurst's Eddie Booth except it was set up north.
There are stark similarities in both programmes.

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Love Thy Neighbour was set in London, Twickenham actually.

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Originally Posted by splott parker

Love Thy Neighbour was set in London, Twickenham actually.

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Really? I must admit that I assumed it was up north as Eddie Booth was a Manchester United fan.
Silly assumption I suppose as they rarely come from Manchester :hehe:

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Originally Posted by splott parker

Love Thy Neighbour was set in London, Twickenham actually.

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https://www.google.co.uk/search?clie...ile-gws-wiz-hp

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Originally Posted by MacAdder

Really? I must admit that I assumed it was up north as Eddie Booth was a Manchester United fan.
Silly assumption I suppose as they rarely come from Manchester :hehe:

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Cockney reds.