BY TIM GREAVES
In the early 1970s celebrated purveyors of screen terror Hammer
Films went through a phase of adapting popular British television sitcoms into
big screen romps. This included churning out at no less than three On the Buses escapades as well as
one-offs for Man About the House, Nearest and Dearest, That's Your Funeral and Love Thy Neighbour. The latter four were
directed by John Robins who, glancing at his CV, largely forged his career out
of light comedy. Where most of these films were fairly weak in terms of entertainment,
they were never less than money-spinning. Love
Thy Neighbour, a box office hit upon its original release, has just been
gifted Blu-Ray status by Network as part of their continuing "The British
Film" collection, though whether it's a film deserving of such lavish
treatment is open to debate.
Love Thy
Neighbour started life in 1972 as a primetime ITV sitcom and ended up
running for 56 episodes across 7 series spanning 4 years. Created by Vince
Powell and Harry Driver (who wrote the lion's share of the televised episodes)
it revolved around the conflict between two next door neighbours, working-class
white socialist bigot Eddie Booth (Jack Smethurst) and educated black conservative
Bill Reynolds (Rudolph Walker), along with the more amicable relationship
between their long-suffering wives, Joan (Kate Williams) and Barbie (Nina
Baden-Semper). The root of the problem between the husbands was Eddie's stubbornly
racist mind-set (though it could be selective when the moment was propitious;
he certainly had a roving eye where Bill's shapely wife Barbie was concerned)
and the constant squabbles derived therefrom. With the two protagonists
frequently hurling insults at each other (which I shall refrain from quoting
here!), using language that simply wouldn't be permitted on mainstream
television today, 21st century viewers would probably be aghast. But
back in the day the programme was enormously popular and frequently topped the
weekly ratings. Additionally, those who retrospectively accuse the show itself of being racist tend to overlook
the fact that for all Eddie's unforgivably offensive remarks towards Bill
(which, admittedly, viewers were being invited to laugh at), most of the time
the guys rubbed along quite well, and Bill not only gave as good as he got, he
usually came out on top, the emphasis falling upon just how foolish Eddie's
small-mindedness was.
Three series had already been screened by the time Hammer's film rolled
into cinemas in the summer of 1973. Starring all four of its television
incarnation’s leads and again scripted by Powell and Driver, it doesn't waste
any time with introductory faff, working instead on the safe assumption that
audiences by and large would already be familiar with the characters. There's
no real plot as such either, just several intertwined storylines (each of which
could have stood alone as a series episode) –
the guys get caught out by their wives when they attend a boozy striptease
show; the guys fall out over union matters in the factory where they work; the
guys' elderly parents (Patricia Hayes and Charles Hyatt) meet and get along
famously, much to their sons' mutual chagrin. The results make for a
mildly amusing if unremarkable time-passer that's very much of its era and the
appeal of which nowadays will boil down to how offended one is (or is not) by the writers' efforts to milk
laughs from both the pervasive racial disharmony and the derogatory insults
tossed around with abandon.
Network's Blu-Ray release presents viewers with the option of
watching the film in its 1.66:1 theatrical ratio or open matte 4:3. Although
the latter opens up picture information top and bottom, it isn't in high
definition – in fact it's
exceptionally poor definition – so having shelled out the extra £s to
own the film in pristine form, I'd suggest few people are likely to want to
watch it that way. The disc also includes a release trailer and an image
gallery comprising production photos, artwork and promotional materials from
the film's original release. It has been simultaneously issued on DVD.
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True enthusiasts will be pleased to learn that Network has released
the entire TV series as a 9-platter box set too, packed with bonus enticements
that include the never aired pilot (in essence what would later become the
opening episode, only featuring Gwendolyn Watts instead of Kate Williams as
Eddie's wife), several Christmas and New Year TV specials...and Hammer's big screen film!
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