Johnny Speight (June 2, 1920 - July 5, 1998), was a TV scriptwriter of many classic British sitcoms. His most famous creation was the controversial bigot Alf Garnett, and although many of his shows contain the themes of racism and sexism, they are regarded as classics. 2 June is the 153rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (154th in leap years), with 212 days remaining. ... 1920 (MCMXX) is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... July 5 is the 186th day of the year (187th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 179 days remaining. ... 1998(MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... Television is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance. ... A sitcom or situation comedy is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. ... Alf Garnett was a fictional character on the BBC television sitcom Til Death Us Do Part and later In Sickness and in Health. ... An African-American man drinks out of the colored only water fountain at a racially segregated streetcar terminal in the United States in 1939. ... The sign of the headquarters of the National Association Opposed To Woman Suffrage Sexism is commonly considered to be discrimination against people based on their sex rather than their individual merits, but can also refer to any and all differentiations based on sex. ...

Life and Career

Speight was born in Canning Town, London, England and began contributing scripts to comedy shows in 1955, starting with Great Scott - It's Maynard!. His first major series was Sykes And A... (1961), which starred Eric Sykes, Hattie Jacques and Richard Wattis. (see Sykes). Speight was one of many great writing talents on that series which also included the star Sykes, John Antrobus and Spike Milligan. Canning Town is an area of East London, England. ... Part of the London skyline viewed from the South Bank London is the most populous city in the European Union, with an estimated population on 1 January 2005 of 7,421,328 and a metropolitan area population of between 12 and 14 million. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population - Total (mid-2004) - Density Ranked 1st UK 50. ... Comedy is the use of humor in from theater, where it simply referred to a play with a happy ending, in contrast to a tragedy. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Eric Sykes, CBE (born May 4, 1923) was born in Oldham, Lancashire (now Greater Manchester) and is a British comedic writer and actor. ... Josephine Edwina Jacques (February 7, 1922 - October 6, 1980), better known by the stage name Hattie Jacques, was a British comedy actress born in Sandgate, Kent. ... Sykes was a long-running BBC television sitcom of the 1960s and 1970s, starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques. ... Spike Milligan Terence Alan (Spike) Milligan KBE (April 16, 1918 – February 27, 2002) was a comedian, novelist, playwright, poet, jazz musician (trumpet and guitar - also played the piano - and was a dab hand at raspberry blowing) and is best remembered as the creator, principal writer and performing member of The...

In 1965, Speight created the series Till Death Us Do Part featuring Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett, a right-wing working class figure with a chip on his shoulder and an angry word on everything. Garnett became one of the most memorable characters in British TV history, despite being such an appalling character. The series also starred Dandy Nichols as his long-suffering wife Else. The 1971 US sitcom All In The Family was based on this series. Til Death Us Do Part (also known as Till Death Us do Part)1 was a BBC television sitcom series written by Johnny Speight that ran from 1964 until 1974. ... Warren Mitchell, (born 14 January 1926, Stoke Newington, London) is a British-born actor with Australian citizenship. ... In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply the right, are terms which refer, with no particular precision, to the segment of the political spectrum in opposition to left-wing politics. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... Dandy Nichols (May 21, 1907 – February 6, 1986) was an actress most noted for her role as Else Garnett, the long-suffering wife of the racially bigoted and misogynistic character Alf Garnett in the BBC sitcom Till Death Us Do Part. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about: United States Wikinews has news related to this article: United States United States government CIA World Factbook Entry for United States House. ...

1969 saw the premiere of Curry and Chips, an equally controversial sitcom from LWT for the ITV channel. Despite the apparent anti political correctness, Speight's intention - like Till Death Do Us Part was to highlight discrimination, not promote it. It was a cast of stereotypes, featuring Spike Milligan as blacked-up 'Paki Paddy' Kevin O'Grady, Eric Sykes as a liberal, Kenny Lynch as black, anti-Pakistani and Norman Rossington and Geoffrey Hughes as racist Liverpudlians. (Some people would have objected to the use of blacked-up white actors to play Asian characters, particularly Spike Milligan's parody of an Asian, whatever the writer's subjective intentions.) London Weekend Television logo, 1978-1996 London Weekend Television Limited (LWT) is the ITV contractor for London, Friday 5:15pm to Monday, 5:59am. ... Independent Television (ITV) is the name given to the original network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up to provide competition to the BBC. In England and Wales the channel was recently rebranded ITV1 by ITV plc who own the regional broadcasting licences for the regions. ... Political correctness is the alteration of language to redress real or alleged injustices and discrimination or to avoid offense. ... To discriminate is to make a distinction. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ... Paddy has these meanings:- Paddy is a field for cultivating rice or another crop. ... Eric Sykes, CBE (born May 4, 1923) was born in Oldham, Lancashire (now Greater Manchester) and is a British comedic writer and actor. ... Look up liberal on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Liberal may refer to: Politics: Liberalism American liberalism, a political trend in the USA Political progressivism, a political ideology that is for change, often associated with liberal movements Liberty, the condition of being free from control or restrictions Liberal Party, members of... Kenny Lynch in the 1960s Kenny Lynch, OBE (Born 18 March 1939) is a British 1960s comedian, singer, actor and broadcaster from London. ... Geoffrey Hughes (born February 2, 1944 in Wallasey, Cheshire) is a British actor, best known for his portrayal of Eddie Yeats, Hilda Ogdens scallywag lodger in Granada Televisions Coronation Street, a role he played from 1974 to 1983. ... The term Asian in a geographical sense simply refers to something or someone from Asia. ...

Speight's next major series was 1975's For Richer...For Poorer which featured Harry H Corbett as a left-wing answer to Alf Garnett. After a brief return of Till Death Do Us Part on ITV in 1981 as Till Death..., Alf Garnett returned with a vengeance on the BBC's In Sickness And In Health which ran from 1985 to 1992. Harry H. Corbett (1925-1982) (born Harry Corbett on February 28, 1925 in Rangoon, Burma; died March 21, 1982 in Hastings, East Sussex, England, UK) was a British actor, who was best known for his starring role in the hugely popular and long-running BBC Television sitcom Steptoe and Son... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... Independent Television (ITV) is the name given to the original network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up to provide competition to the BBC. In England and Wales the channel was recently rebranded ITV1 by ITV plc who own the regional broadcasting licences for the regions. ... Corporate logo of the British Broadcasting Corporation The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the national public service broadcaster of the United Kingdom. ...

In 1998 Johnny Speight died of cancer, and LWT put forward a series of specials featuring Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett, giving his thoughts on a variety of subjects. The programmes were originally shelved by ITV controller David Liddiment. When normal cells are damaged or old they undergo apoptosis; cancer cells, however, avoid apoptosis. ... London Weekend Television logo, 1978-1996 London Weekend Television Limited (LWT) is the ITV contractor for London, Friday 5:15pm to Monday, 5:59am. ... Independent Television (ITV) is the name given to the original network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up to provide competition to the BBC. In England and Wales the channel was recently rebranded ITV1 by ITV plc who own the regional broadcasting licences for the regions. ...

TV Writing Credits

• Great Scott - It's Maynard! (1955)
• Evans Abode (1956)
• Frankie Howerd (1956)
• The Dickie Valentine Show (1956)
• Two's Company (1956)
• Early To Braden (1957)
• That's Life, Says Max Wall (1957)
• The Arthur Haynes Show (1957)
• Frankie Howerd In... (1958)
• The April 8th Show (Seven Days Early) (1958)
• The Cyril Fletcher Show (1959)
• Ladies And Gentle-Men (1960)
• Sykes And A... (1960)
• That Was The Week That Was (1962)
• Shamrot (1963)
• The Graham Stark Show (1964)
• Till Death Us Do Part (1965)
• To Lucifer - A Son (1967)
• Curry And Chips (1969)
• Spate Of Speight (1969)
• All In The Family (1971)
• Them (1972)
• Frankie Howerd In Ulster (1973)
• Francis Howerd In Concert (1974)
• Marty Back Together Again (1974)
• For Richer...For Poorer (1975)
• The Mike Reid Show (1976)
• Spooner's Patch (1979)
• The Tea Ladies (1979)
• The Thoughts Of Chairman Alf At Christmas (1980)
• Till Death... (1981)
• The Lady Is A Tramp (1983)
• In Sickness And In Health (1985)
• Carrott Confidential (1987)
• The Nineteenth Hole (1989)
• A Word With Alf (1997)
• An Audience With Alf Garnett (1997)
• The Thoughts Of Chairman Alf (1998)