The first episode of one of the most controversial sitcoms ever broadcast. Kevin O'Grady ( Spike Milligan ), a half-Irish, half-Pakistani, becomes a cleaner at 'Lillycrap Ltd', a factory devoted to making novelties for seaside towns. Arthur Blenkinsop ( Eric Sykes ), the foreman, introduces him to the workforce. They already have a black man working there - Kenny ( Kenny Lynch ) - and do not want another. "I voted Labour all my life!", whines Norman ( Norman Rossington ), "But when it comes to blacks, I'm with Enoch!". In the canteen, O'Grady refuses to eat his dinner on religious grounds. When a sexy girl walks by, he tries to fit in by making a wolf whistle and referring to her as 'crumpet lady'. At the pub, Arthur introduces his new friend to Tom ( Jerold Wells ), another bigot. Tom is worried that O'Grady is after his wife, who happens to be rather plain looking. "You think I give it one?", responds O'Grady, alarmed. Arthur takes O'Grady back to Mrs.Bartok's ( Fanny Carby ) boarding house. "As you're Irish, I put a dumpling in your curry!", she says ( Milligan struggles not to laugh here ). Kenny warns Arthur that O'Grady might be gay...
Written by Johnny Speight for the fledgling London Weekend Television, and starring some of the best comedy talent of the day, it should be funny - it is. Meera Syal might not like it ( she tore it to pieces on a Channel 4 retro programme some years ago ) but I personally found it funnier than anything she's been involved in. As was the case with 'Till Death Us Do Part', you can either laugh at the racists or with them. Anyone who did the latter was a fool though. They are thick as two short planks. O'Grady gets the better of them each time.
Milligan is...well, exactly how you would expect. Unlike dear old Michael Bates in 'It Ain't Half Hot, Mum' ( also now regarded as racist nowadays ) who put some reality into his performance, Spike is obviously a white man in make-up. A joke is made of this in the show. "What part of Ireland are you from? ", Tom asks him, "Burnt cork?". I found him a lot less offensive than say 'Little Britain' or Sacha Baron Cohen's much-applauded take-offs of ethnic minorities.
Sykes' character is more liberal-minded than the others at 'Lillycrap Ltd' so there's an attempt at balance here. Unfortunately, this was lost in later episodes. Pity.
Funniest moment - O'Grady announcing he wants to work to help the Queen and Prince Philip out of their financial problems ( it was bandied about at the time by the right-wing media that the Royal Family were hard-up. 'The Goodies' also referred to this in their opening show ).
More racist language is to be heard here than in any programme I can remember seeing. But it is necessary - to ridicule racism, you first have to depict it. Syal is wrong to assume that all white people who saw this were on the side of the bigots.
The promise in this first episode was sadly not maintained. The last three are quite dreadful, with virtually no plots, mainly consisting of people standing around arguing. The last - centred around a Christmas party - bears an unfortunate resemblance to the infamous 'Till Closing Time Do Us Part' episode of Speight's most famous creation. If you only have the first three, stick with them. They are the best of a bad bunch.
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