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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 384041" data-attributes="member: 23">On The Buses over, I'm going into an even more sizeable commitment with the first of several different series, linked by one inimitable character:<img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.themoviedb.org%2Ft%2Fp%2Fw600_and_h900_bestv2%2F5r8enLaWs3SnVoInZYsOLZgboki.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=bf3e12975752c1eb8d86277457dc0918daffebf54c790583a01422a0d2744055&ipo=images" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 449px" />As mentioned previously in this thread, I don't believe I've watched anything of Till Death Us Do Part. It had wrapped up long before I was old enough to even consider watching. I do remember the third series in the saga, In Sickness & In Health, with its Chas & Dave sung theme tune, and I'm sure I've seen some of that. I don't recall watching enough to form any opinion (I'd guess at the time it just wasn't my cup of tea), and I'd imagine part of the reason I didn't watch was because my Mum very much disliked In Sickness... because the central character was so very bigoted.This is an angle of the series that intrigues me. My Mum felt that Alf spouting parochial views was an endorsement of such views, and that to watch -and, God forbid, enjoy - such a vehicle was  tantamount to enabling bigotry.  It's an admirable stance but, having read a little about the series and actors, and watched a few scenes before investing in the DVDs, I'm going in with the understanding that the series' raison d'être is to satirise the Alf Garnetts of the world.Something that feels very evident in this series is its sense of reality. The characters may be a little larger than life, but they also feel very much grounded in reality. It's certainly worlds apart from On The Buses with its caricatures and catchphrases, and has more in common with another series I'm concurrently watching: Brookside. The scenes are lengthy, verbose and often politically charged, and the characters speak in a way that feels truthful. The profanity may be fairly tame by today's standards, but  must have raised a few eyebrows in the mid-Sixties, with Alf peppering his sentences with "bloody", "bleeding", "crap" and the like (interestingly, his frequent put-down to Else changed from "silly old mare" in the first episode to "silly old moo" in subsequent ones. Presumably to soften it a little). It's surprising to me that this aired at 7:30pm back in 1966. And on BBC1, mind you.It's quite likely that it wouldn't air in full today, not because of the mild profanity, but because the epithets so frequently bandied about would get it cancelled or heavily censored. It's certainly been uncomfortable to hear these terms used so liberally, but it's supposed to be. There were - and are - plenty of people who hold such views, and they deserve to be exposed. What I've found interesting is to see a family having a heated discussion about whether such terms are not only appropriate, but also accurate. Allowing the debate to happen actually exposed the ignorance that drives such bigotry, because Alf under pressure went round in circles and his argument essentially came down to "because I say so". He was given a metaphorical shovel and dug himself deeper and deeper. Mike and Rita's points, on the other hand, were well thought out and had substance to them.Meanwhile, the only black character seen on screen so far has been a middle class GP who looked at Alf with polite pity as Alf loudly professed his open-mindedness about seeing a black doctor while everything he said told us (and him) the opposite. Alf's terrified look as the doctor's hands got closer to him was simultaneously horrifying and hilarious. And this sums up why this series works so far. Were Alf played by a less charismatic actor, or one who genuinely shared the character's opinions he would become so ugly and grotesque he would be unwatchable. Warren Mitchell gets the character. He knows exactly who Alf is, and he shows him to us in all his flailing glory. And, despite the situation, we laugh. It's a promising start.</blockquote>

Verification: Who played Sue Ellen in Dallas?