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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 386752" data-attributes="member: 23">I had a nice surprise in preparing to watch my next Garnett series. As I was unsealing the DVD, I noticed there's a bonus feature: 1980's The Thoughts Of Chairman Alf At Christmas (On Yer Actual Boxing Day).When looking at the list of Till Death Us Do Part episodes (and all its related sequels and spinoffs), I'd scrolled past this one, noting that the entry said it was an "ATV stand-up show, which still exists in the archives". I thought it sounded interesting... particularly since I've also got the Nineties series of the same name and format lined up to watch in due course, but presumed it wasn't readily available to watch... not on home media, anyway. So, as I said, finding this last night was an unexpected treat.Naturally, I'm very curious about the background of this. It seems unusual, to say the least, to revive a sitcom character five years after their series had ended on a rival channel just for a one-off special featuring said character operating on a completely different plane. ATV's sequel, Till Death... would begin some five months later, so I can only assume this came about partly to test the water or pave the way. Or perhaps they simply decided to make use of the character as soon as possible having obtained the rights, and quickly put together a show that didn't involve the expense of sets, location work or even a cast.Beginning as it meant to go on, Alf entered from the back of the studio audience mid-barney with someone who appeared to be trying to stop him. He came ranting down the steps then gave the audience the same treatment., dumping his scarf, hat and coat in someone's lap, calling one elderly lady after another "silly cow". They loved it.It's certainly novel to see this character interact with real people, with Warren Mitchell energised by from whatever came his way and ad libbing his way through Johnny Speight's script. The frequent glimpses of the studio audience, by the way are a lovely reminder of how much visual character people had back then.One slightly more disturbing thing I found myself wondering as I watched was: what percentage of the audience is there because their own beliefs and prejudices align with those of Alf. Writings would suggest that there was a proportion of the viewing audience who weren't bright enough to see that the character is actually poking fun at Alf's incredible ignorance, and admired the character for expressing the views he did. It's difficult to tell this from a few glimpses of people laughing at lines that are funny anyway, but certainly the vast majority of the audience seemed to be older white people*. The only time I noticed a non-white face in the audience was when a black man was singled out by "Alf", who had a chat with him while calling him "sambo".  He seemed to take it in good humour, but still...Seeing Warren Mitchell in full, live flight was really something. He won't break character for anything, and his memory for dialogue is hugely impressive. Johnny Speight gave him huge spiels of dialogue, and it all seemed so easy for him. Even more impressive, he played the entire second half with Alf being drunk, supposedly having had a few too many with the audience during the commercial break.As a one-off curio, it's fascinating. And even more so because of the cross-network story behind it. I suspect an ongoing series of this might wear a bit thin, but I'm still looking forward to seeing the Nineties version of this when I get to it.* Not that older people have a monopoly on racism. And it's always possible this audience was coached in unaware of what they were coming to see, like the infamous Wood & Walters audience, described as a sea of silver hair, with one woman loudly complaining to her companion "you realise we're missing Brideshead for this?". </blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?