Editing Till Death Us Do Part (section)

=== Success years ===
The series became an instant hit because, although a comedy, it dealt with aspects of [[working-class]] life comparatively realistically and in the context of its time. It addressed racial and political issues that had been becoming increasingly prevalent in British society. Mitchell imbued the character of Alf Garnett with an earthy charm that served to humanise Alf and make him likeable. According to interviews he gave, the fact that some viewers overlooked Alf's racist views and regarded him as a "rough diamond" disappointed Speight.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.predigitalmedia.com/The-Times-22--Feb-2018---Till-Death-Us-Do-Part.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.predigitalmedia.com/The-Times-22--Feb-2018---Till-Death-Us-Do-Part.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Censoring the Past |date=22 February 2018 |newspaper=[[The Times]]}}</ref>
[[File:Warren_Mitchell.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Warren Mitchell, who played Alf Garnett in the series|Warren Mitchell, who played Alf Garnett in the series]]

The show captured a key feature of Britain in the 1960s — the public perception that the generation gap was widening. Alf, and to a lesser degree his wife, represented the old guard, the traditional and conservative attitudes of the older generation. Alf's battles with his left-wing son-in-law were not just ideological but generational and cultural. His son-in-law and daughter represented the younger generation. They supported the aspects of the new era, such as relaxed sexual norms, fashions, music, etc. The same things were anathema to Alf and in his opinion indicative of everything that was wrong with the younger generation and the liberal attitudes they embraced.

Alf was portrayed as the archetypal working-class [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]. His two primary passions were [[Association football|football]] and politics, though his actual knowledge of either was limited. He used language considered unacceptable for television in the 1960s. He often referred to racial minorities as "[[List of ethnic slurs|coons]]" and similar terms. He referred to his Liverpudlian son-in-law as "Shirley Temple" or a "randy [[Scouse]] [[wikt:git|git]]" ("Randy Scouse Git", as a phrase, caught the ear of [[Micky Dolenz]] of [[the Monkees]], who heard it while on tour in the UK and used it as the title of the group's [[Randy Scouse Git|next single]] — though their record label renamed it "Alternate Title" in the UK market to avoid controversy), and to his wife as a "silly [old] moo" (a substitute for "cow" which was vetoed by the BBC's head of comedy [[Frank Muir]]). However, [[Michael Palin]] writes in his diary for 16 July 1976 that Warren Mitchell told him that "silly moo" was not scripted, "It came out during a rehearsal when he forgot the line 'Silly old mare'." Controversially, the show was one of the earliest mainstream programmes to feature the [[Profanity|swear word]] "[[bloody]]". The show was one of many held up by [[Mary Whitehouse]] as an example of the BBC's "moral laxity".<ref>See, for example, her responses to an episode referred to as "Bird Fancier" (first transmitted on 20 September 1972), which features a discussion of the [[Virgin birth of Jesus]], as detailed in Michael Tracey and David Morrison ''Whitehouse'', London & Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1979, pp. 110–16. The episode is also known as "Pigeon Fancier", but the recording as broadcast contains no identifying caption.<!-- All assumes the video clock countdown contains no identifying title. --></ref>

In a demonstration of Speight's satirical skills — after a successful libel action brought against Speight by Whitehouse<ref name="Ward">Mark Ward [http://www.petford.net/kaleidoscope/a-family-at-war.html "A Family at War: Till Death Do Us Part"], {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101012071642/http://www.petford.net/kaleidoscope/a-family-at-war.html |date=12 October 2010 }} ''The Main Event'' (''Kaleidoscope'' brochure) 1996</ref> — he created an episode, first broadcast on 27 February 1967, in which Alf Garnett is depicted as an admirer of Whitehouse. Garnett was seen proudly reading her first book. "What are you reading?" his son-in-law asks. When he relates that it is Mary Whitehouse, his son-in-law sniggers. Alf's response is "She's concerned for the bleedin' moral fibre of the nation!" The episode ends with the book being burnt.<ref>Thompson [https://books.google.com/books?id=-r7k88pWzYgC&pg=PR12 ''Ban This Filth!: Letters From the Mary Whitehouse Archive''], London: Faber, 2012, p. 12</ref>

Ultimately "silly moo" became a comic [[catchphrase]]. Another Garnett phrase was "it stands to reason", usually before making some patently unreasonable comment. Alf was portrayed as an admirer of [[Enoch Powell]], a right-wing Conservative politician known particularly for his strong opposition to the immigration of people from non-white countries. Alf was also a supporter of [[West Ham United F.C.|West Ham United]] (a football club based in the East End) and known to make derogatory remarks about "the Jews up at Spurs" (referring to [[Tottenham Hotspur F.C.|Tottenham Hotspur]], a north London club with a sizeable Jewish following). This was a playful touch by Speight, as Warren Mitchell was both Jewish and a Tottenham Hotspur supporter.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Warren Mitchell has died |url=https://www.spurscommunity.co.uk/index.php?threads/warren-mitchell-has-died.122370/ |access-date=2022-09-14 |website=Spurscommunity |date=14 November 2015 |language=en-US}}</ref>

In interviews, Speight explained he had originally based Alf on his father, an East End [[Stevedore|docker]] who was staunchly reactionary and held "unenlightened" attitudes toward black people. Speight made clear that he regretted that his father held such attitudes, which Speight regarded as reprehensible. Speight saw the show as a way of ridiculing such views and dealing with his complex feelings about his father.

However, it was later claimed in the book about the series, ''A Family at War'' by Mark Ward, that the only similarities between Alf and Speight's father were that his father was a hard-working, working-class East End docker and manual labourer who voted Conservative, revered traditional British values, and was very polite to everyone he met, no matter their background. It is claimed that Speight picked up the idea for Alf's bigoted personality from railway station porters he met when he had worked in temporary jobs for [[British Rail]] in the London area. The political views of both Alf and Mike were reflective of Speight's own perception of people both on the [[Left-wing politics|left]] and the [[Right-wing politics|right]], with the ignorance and bigotry of those on the right represented by Alf and the idealism of many sections of the left represented by Mike.