Love Thy Neighbour (1973)

Released by Hammer in July 1973 in the wake of the second series of the Thames Television series, the attitudes on display in this film are so dated that, in retrospect, they are more laughable than offensive.

Time, however, hasn’t dimmed its spectacular unfunniness – if ever a sitcom less deserved elevation to the big screen, then this was it.

The film features all the same characters from the TV series, principally neighbours Eddie Booth (Jack Smethurst) – a white socialist and avowed racial discriminator – and Bill Reynolds (Rudolph Walker) – a happy-go-lucky West Indian.

Their wives, Joan (Kate Williams) and Barbie (Nina Baden-Semper), respectively, are good friends and decide, no matter what falsifications they have to tell, they will enter a local newspaper’s “Love Thy Neighbour” competition.

Complications arise when Eddie’s widowed mother (Patricia Hayes) arrives on a visit from Manchester at the same time as Bill’s widower dad (Charles Hyatt) files in from Trinidad. There are more complications when a factory feud lines up on a colour basis.

Watch it only to boggle at a career low point for a number of well-known British faces.

Jack Smethurst passed away on 16 February 2022, aged 89.

Eddie Booth
Jack Smethurst
Bill Reynolds
Rudolph Walker
Joan Booth
Kate Williams
Barbie Reynolds
Nina Baden-Semper
Mr Granger
Bill Fraser
Joe Reynolds
Charles Hyatt
Jacko
Keith Marsh
Arthur
Tommy Godfrey
Annie Booth
Patricia Hayes
Terry
Melvyn Hayes
Winston
Azad Ali
Carter
Arthur English
Registrar
Clifford Mollison
Charlie
Lincoln Webb
Norma
Andria Lawrence
Betty
Anna Dawson
Dolly
Pamela Cundell
Lil
Annie Leake
Susie
Princess Tamara
Carol
Siobhan Quinlan
Cyril
James Beck

Director
John Robins

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