baldrickadder I have just tonight starting watching this, since my childhood. Now I was only young when I was first allowed this, I think maybe around thirteen. At that time it was all about the phrases " I'll hav alv" " sambo" "nignog" " honkey" "snowflake" etc.As so rightly stated often by other reviews, it is not racist in the slightest. Eddie did tend to come off worse, but always came across as ignorant and bigoted. Did it make me racist, not all. In fact this show perhaps embedded the pointlessness of being racist and the stupidity of racist people. It is also not so far fetched as one might imagine. It's set up in the north of England, I lived up north, Yorkshire, in a town with a large Asia population. They was a lot of prejudice about. One example, when the holidays came, a lot of the kids would go what they called " paki bashing". Even my dad was a racist, though I would rather prefer to say ignorant, perhaps still is. I am thankful of this show, it showed me that people are people and race and skin shade should not be a barrier. There's good and bad in everyone. Actually I think the powers that be, need us to have prejudice against each other.* not word for word but was a line Bill said in series 1 episode 3. Eddie had been his normal ignorant self.This would have gone over my head in my youth, although I might not have seen it before.Still funny as I remembered, but perhaps for very different reasons this time around.

mydailybet This is far from being racist and I remember this series as an adolescent in Sydney Australia. It was such a popular show it was discussed in school and role plays created. I would love to see something like this now with a typical Muslim family and white Christian family. Something that is in your face and not politically correct. This type of shows destroys the myths that keep people apart in the first place.Look at the problems around the world now because people are afraid of what they do not understand.This was a great show and a great message.Most of these PC fools are worse than Nazis.

welshNick This TV series was not racist and certainly did not encourage racism. It centred around a Labour voting bigot called Eddie Booth, his long suffering wife, Joan and the black couple who move in next Bill and the very beautiful Barbie.Eddie secretly fancied Barbie which of course made all his racist remarks even more ridiculous. Where this all worked out well was that the bigot, Eddie, was always made out to be the idiot.There has been a lot of controversy recently over this show saying how racist it all was. This simply is not true and if proof were needed I have it: 10 years ago it was repeated on UK Gold and the person who asked me to record it for them was ... Black. She loved it as a child and wanted to see it again. Her whole family loved it and she said growing up in the 70's the black community saw it as 'their show.' Excellent.

ShadeGrenade 'Love Thy Neighbour' has become a byword for all that was bad about British television comedy of the '70's. When B.B.C.-2 screened 'I Love 1972' in 2000 ( as part of its ongoing 'I Love The '70's' series ), presenter David Cassidy prefaced an item on the show with the words: "Watch...and cringe!". Viewers were being instructed to hate the show before they had seen so much as a clip. I think its sad that 'Neighbour' has been so misunderstood. People who were not even alive in the '70's will tell you with absolute authority that it was 'racist' and 'should never be shown again'. How many of them have actually seen an episode? 'Neighbour' was about a racist - Eddie Booth - but it was no more an endorsement of his ridiculous views than 'Fawlty Towers' a televisual guidebook on hotel management. It was written and created by Vince Powell and Harry Driver ( then by Powell alone following Driver's death ). It drew heavily on an earlier show they created - A.T.V.'s 'George & The Dragon' which starred Sid James and Peggy Mount as warring domestic staff. The writers decided to replicate the formula, but added a new ( potentially explosive ) ingredient - racial tension. Eddie ( Jack Smethurst ) and Joan Booth ( Kate Williams ) live in Maple Terrace, Twickenham - he is a chain-smoking, beer-swilling slob, she an overworked housewife. Into the house next door move a young, upwardly mobile black couple, Bill ( Rudolph Walker ) and Barbie Reynolds ( Nina Baden-Semper ). Immediately there is conflict. Bill gets a job at the same factory Eddie works in, and joins the same Social Club. In addition to the childish name calling, there is also rivalry going on. In one episode, Bill buys a car, so Eddie follows suit. When Eddie tries to purchase a bedroom suite, Bill also wants it. Their hatred formed the core of the comedy.Occasionally, they were seen drifting towards friendship ( such as the episode where they went out on a double date with two local girls ), but something always happened to restore the natural balance. There would have been no show otherwise.'Neighbour' was a smash hit, running to seven seasons, a movie version, and a stage play. Australia even made a spin-off featuring Eddie starting a new life Down Under.Jack Smethurst was superb as 'Booth', a walking contradiction of a man who purports to be socialistic, yet his attitudes are pure Enoch Powell. Likewise Rudolph Walker made 'Bill' sympathetic. Kate Williams replaced Gwendolyn Watts as 'Joan', and her rows with Eddie were often the best part of the show. Nina Baden-Semper's 'Barbie' complemented the cast perfectly ( she even recorded a vocal version of the title theme! ). Also popular in their own right were Eddie's drinking pals 'Arthur' ( the late Tommy Godfrey ) and the slow thinking 'Jacko' ( Keith Marsh ), whose catchphrase 'I'll have 'arf!' caught the public imagination.The show became a victim of the Political Correctness trend, meaning it has not had the repeats it deserves. Thankfully, it is all out on D.V.D. so we can make our own minds up. I used to live in a neighbourhood where there were many West Indian families, and you should have heard the laughter coming out of their houses when the show was on. Before condemning it outright, critics should take the trouble to watch it and see who comes out on top every week. It certainly isn't Eddie. If anyone was foolish enough to laugh along with him, that was their fault, not the show's.