Love Thy Neighbour: The Complete Series

Absolutely legendary - hilarious!! Well worth every penny!

Totally worn out after only 4 episodes i was laughing so much that i was crying. Never laughed so much in years. So refreshing to watch a comedy from my childhood, without the crude rude swearing and disgusting jokes of nowadays, without gratuitous sex or violence. Just innuendos. Good innocent fun. Lots of witty stories showing up how stupid prejudices are, prejudices of politics, race and with flitterings of seriousness for instance showing womens lack of rights.Story of 2 (sensible) ladies who get on, have a cup of tea, while their husbands try to get one over each other... but in end they defend & support each other - and have a beer in pub.The series uses made up words to insult each other, which couldnt be accused of racist because they were made up, were talking 50 years ago! i'd never heard of them before this program,.. which proves what my math teacher once showed us.... he said a word is offensive because of HOW its used, not because of the actual word.... he proved this by applying this to the word "paper" saying after a coupla weeks we'd see it as a swear word!! ....Weeks later my sister asked me to pass her some paper... "Dont swear at me!" I exclaimed!!Examples- spoilers!!"Thats it were moving ".... "is this about them being black?".... "no, there ruddy conservatives!""What would sean connery do with you?." "Anything he wants!""I just heard dumbo talking to mickey mouse, there gonna hijack snow white, thats me!!"

I'm old enough to vaguely remember this series from my childhood. I'd only seen a few episodes, but when I saw it available on DVD and including all eight series along with the movie, I just had to get it.Nostalgia is an odd thing. It can be everything you remembered or it can fall short. I am happy to report that Love Thy Neighbour is every bit as good, if not better, than I remembered.To those born in the mid 60's like me, the first nostalgia trip is when you play an episode and the old Thames television logo appears.Viewing this series with modern sensibilities can make for a bit of a culture shock and I found myself wincing a little, shocked at the racist epithets casually spoken by the white protagonist, Eddie Booth. Mind you, I had the same, more pronounced, shock when getting used to the foul language used in the brilliant Orange is the New Black series. however, once you're over that shock, the series is very enjoyable.Contrary to what some people may think, Love Thy Neighbour actually sees Eddie Booth's character being bested by a far smarter, level headed and sensible black neighbour, Bill Reynolds, played by the superb Rudolph Walker. Eddie Booth is shown time and again to be the ignorant bigot he is, so this series portrays racism, but it's the black character that comes off best most of the time. In so doing. he shows Eddie to be the racist fool he is.Comedy has been slowly diluted today in order to avoid being offensive to everyone. Part of humour is making fun of the differences between us all, and in that way, we can learn about ourselves and explore issues too sensitive to be dealt with outside of comedy. If you can't do that, then life is far too serious. We have to all learn to laugh at ourselves before laughing at others. If you look at another TV show of that period, Rising Damp, it also portrays Leonard Rosseter's character, Mr Rigsby, as ignorant more than racist. Also, like Love Thy Neighbour, it has the black character of that show, Philip, played by Don Warrington, running circles around Rigsby, being far more educated, intelligent and sophisticated than Rigsby ever could.So, these comedies, in my view, aren't "racist", but rather portray ignorant white characters who are gotten the better of because of their racism and ignorance.DVD transfer quality is excellent despite the age of the content, so top marks for the team that did the remastering.This show is a product of its time and it's unfair to judge it by modern sensibilities. Relax, stop being offended and simply have a laugh.

Simply this IS racist but it's reputation is constantly wheeled out by the do-gooders completely out of context.I'm too young to have watched when it actually aired but being a (retro?) fan of 70's comedy this is an extremely well written and in some places very cleverly written comedy that reflected the sentiments and feelings of the day. When will people get it through their heads that this is exactly how it was back then and you cannot apply todays ideology to a programme that is almost 40 years old.The language used is again, of it's day. This language is not tolerated in this day and age but 40 years ago it is language that people used in the context presented in this programme.Finally, having watched it through (and found it very funny) it seems that people have selective memories. They seem to only remember the 'white' guy taking a racist stance against the 'black' guy. Well, it isn't like that at all. The 'black' guy is simply just as bad as the 'white' guy and THAT IS THE VERY PREMISE OF THE SHOW!!! The impression I got was that the underlying commentry is that the times were changing and the behaviour of the time from ANY race was wrong and it simply doesn't get anyone anywhere.I'm a child of the 80's who loves comedy from the 70's and 80's. If you can get your head around the fact that these were different times with different views and ideas (which were the norm back then) then you'll find a comedy gem here with great performances from all involved.Highly recommended.

Brings back the time in the 70s when people weren't scared to make fun and laugh at all the subjects that are taboo today. The comedy pokes fun at racism without ever making it unacceptable but it would never be allowed to be aired in today's PC world. If you're not easily offended, buy it and sit back and enjoy this brilliant sit com that ran for 8 series.