Till Death Us Do Part (British TV Series) - Sequels

Sequels

In 1980, the ITV company ATV picked up the series and produced a solo show starring Alf - titled The Thoughts of Chairman Alf at Christmas - transmitted on 26 December. It was recently discovered that the original copy had been wiped, which is unusual as the wiping of archive material at ITV is usually thought to have stopped around 1977. However, this date depends on the ITV region. Some companies continued wiping material into the 1980s, such as ATV. After a search to find the special, two copies were found by viewers who recorded the show - one a low quality VHS copy, the other a mid quality Betamax recording. The special is currently available to view at the National Media Museum (Bradford) - at their television booths.

In 1981, ATV made six episodes under the title Till Death.... The series had Alf and Else living in a retirement home in Eastbourne with their widowed friend Min. Although Rita remained in the cast, Anthony Booth declined to return. Rita's son Michael was now a teenager and a punk rocker (even though he was born in 1972 and therefore should only be about 9 or 10). The series was not a success and when Central Television were awarded the contract for the Midlands region from 1982, it was decided that Till Death... was not to return.

In 1985 Alf Garnett returned to the BBC for In Sickness and in Health. This took Alf and Else (who was now in a wheelchair) onward into old age, and some of Alf's more extreme opinions were found to have mellowed. Una Stubbs made some guest appearances but Anthony Booth apparently wasn't interested in reprising his role. Eventually Mike and Rita divorced and Rita began dating a doctor. After the first series Dandy Nichols died, and so subsequent episodes showed Alf having to deal with the greatest loss of his life, Else, whom he truly loved.

The loss of Else and Rita as regulars in the cast meant that new characters had to be brought in as antagonists for Alf. These notably included his home help, Winston (played by Eamonn Walker), who was both black and gay, and Alf's prim upstairs neighbour, Mrs Hollingberry (played by Carmel McSharry), who eventually agreed to marry Alf. In 1988, Speight was warned about the use of racialist language - and after discussion it was decided that Garnett's offensive language was to be discontinued and the character of Winston was to be written out. With such characters helping update the basic concept, the "Sickness and Health" series ran until 1992.

Warren Mitchell also appeared solo on stage and TV as Alf Garnett, dispensing variations on Alf's homespun reactionary philosophy and singing old music hall songs. Most notable was the LWT show An Audience With Alf Garnett - which allowed Garnett to return to his racialist attitude.

Another show was called It Stands To Reason - The Thoughts Of Chairman Alf; one reviewer concluded that "Speight and Mitchell are to be congratulated for understanding so well the mind of a man who they hate".