Alf Garnett (Warren Mitchell) was born a Londoner, and if he has his way he’ll die a Londoner, nobody can change that, not even the onset of World War II.
Alf is an unashamed bigot and generally wrong about pretty much everything, including in 1939 when he refused to believe Great Britain would go into battle, especially with a strong leader like Neville Chamberlain (in Alf’s mind), but he was soon proved incorrect, as would be the case throughout his life.
Writer Johnny Speight began his groundbreaking sitcom Till Death Us Do Part as a way of laying out various issues facing Britain in the 1960s, issues which other comedies of the day were reluctant to confront.
By placing the prejudice of his Garnett character right out there, he was able to come up with a dialogue between right and left in the form of Alf’s older generation heatedly discussing politics and society which were hot button topics with the more enlightened younger generation, represented by his daughter Rita (Una Stubbs) and her boyfriend Mike (Anthony Booth) who would adopt Speight’s less conservative point of view.
Also appearing was Dandy Nichols as Elsie, Alf’s longsuffering wife who may have seemed meek but was ready with the odd pithy retort to her husband’s diatribes. All four of these stars returned to these roles for this film.
There were two Till Death Us Do Part movies but this first was regarded as the better.
Alf Garnett
Warren Mitchell Else Garnett
Dandy Nichols Mike Rawlins
Anthony Booth Rita Garnett
Una Stubbs Mike’s Father
Liam Redmond Bert
Bill Maynard Sergeant
Brian Blessed Fred
Sam Kydd Valuation Officer
Frank Thornton Fred the Pub Landlord
Michael Robbins Neighbour
Pat Coombs Sergeant’s Girlfriend
Kate Williams Mike’s Mother
Shelagh Fraser Mike’s brother
Geoffrey Hughes Jim (shopkeeper)
Edward Evans Maud’s Husband
Bill Ward
Alf Garnett
Bert
Neighbour
