Johnny Speight was a British

British nationality law

British nationality law is the law of the United Kingdom that concerns citizenship and other categories of British nationality. The law is complex because of the United Kingdom's former status as an imperial power.-History:...

 television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 scriptwriter of many classic British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 sitcoms.

He emerged in the mid 1950s. He wrote for the radio comics; Frankie Howerd

Frankie Howerd

Francis Alick "Frankie" Howerd OBE was an English comedian and comic actor whose career, described by fellow comedian Barry Cryer as "a series of comebacks", spanned six decades.-Early career:...

, Vic Oliver

Vic Oliver

Vic Oliver was an actor and radio comedian.He was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of Viktor von Samek and came to England via America....

, Arthur Askey

Arthur Askey

Arthur Bowden Askey CBE was a prominent English comedian.- Life and career :Askey was born at 29 Moses Street, Liverpool, the eldest child and only son of Samuel Askey , secretary of the firm Sugar Products of Liverpool, and his wife, Betsy Bowden , of Knutsford, Cheshire...

, and Cyril Fletcher

Cyril Fletcher

Cyril Fletcher was an English comedian; his catchphrase was 'Pin back your lugholes'. He was most famous for his Odd Odes, which was a section of the television show That's Life!. Fletcher had first begun performing the Odd Odes in 1937, long before they first appeared on television...

. For television he wrote for the Arthur Haynes Show, Morecambe & Wise, and Peter Sellers

Peter Sellers

Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...

. Then he began to write Till Death Us Do Part, which included his most famous creation, the controversial bigot Alf Garnett

Alf Garnett

Alf Garnett is a fictional character in the British sitcoms Till Death Us Do Part, Till Death... and In Sickness and in Health, and chat show The Thoughts of Chairman Alf. He was created by Johnny Speight and played by Warren Mitchell....

. His shows often explored the themes of racism

Racism

Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

 and sexism

Sexism

Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...

 through satire, and many are regarded as classics.

Life and career

John Speight was born in Canning Town

Canning Town

Canning Town is an area of east London, England. It is part of the London Borough of Newham and is situated in the area of the former London docks on the north side of the River Thames. It is the location of Rathbone Market...

, West Ham

West Ham

West Ham is in the London Borough of Newham in London, England. In the west it is a post-industrial neighbourhood abutting the site of the London Olympic Park and in the east it is mostly residential, consisting of Victorian terraced housing interspersed with higher density post-War social housing...

, Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

 (now Greater London

Greater London

Greater London is the top-level administrative division of England covering London. It was created in 1965 and spans the City of London, including Middle Temple and Inner Temple, and the 32 London boroughs. This territory is coterminate with the London Government Office Region and the London...

), and began contributing scripts to comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 shows in 1955, starting with Great Scott - It's Maynard!. His first major series was Sykes And A... (1961), which starred Eric Sykes

Eric Sykes

Eric Sykes, CBE is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter...

, Hattie Jacques

Hattie Jacques

Josephine Edwina Jaques was an English comedy actress, known as Hattie Jacques.Starting her career in the 1940s, Jacques first gained attention through her radio appearances with Tommy Handley on ITMA and later with Tony Hancock on Hancock's Half Hour...

 and Richard Wattis

Richard Wattis

Richard Cameron Wattis , was an English character actor.He attended King Edward's School, Birmingham and Bromsgrove School, after which he worked for the family electrical engineering firm before becoming a professional actor. After his debut with Croydon Repertory Theatre he made many stage...

 (see Sykes

Sykes

Sykes is a British sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1972 to 1979. Starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques, it was written by Eric Sykes, who had previously starred with Jacques in Sykes and A... and Sykes and a Big, Big Show ....

). Speight was one of many great writing talents on that series which also included the star Sykes, John Antrobus

John Antrobus

John Antrobus is an English playwright and script writer. He has written extensively for stage, screen, TV and radio, including the epic World War II play, Crete and Sergeant Pepper at the Royal Court...

 and Spike Milligan

Spike Milligan

Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...

.

He created the iconic working class tramp figure played by Arthur Haynes

Arthur Haynes

Arthur Haynes was an English comedian and star of The Arthur Haynes Show, a comedy sketch series produced by ATV from 1957 until his death from a heart attack in 1966...

 in the latter's long-running and top-rating ATV

Associated TeleVision

Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...

 comedy series. Haynes died in 1966.

In 1965, Speight wrote a BBC TV pilot which became the 1966 series Till Death Us Do Part featuring Warren Mitchell

Warren Mitchell

Warren Mitchell is an English actor who rose to initial prominence in the role of bigoted cockney Alf Garnett in the BBC television sitcom Till Death Us Do Part , and its sequels Till Death... and In Sickness and in Health , all of which were written by Johnny Speight...

 as Alf Garnett, a reactionary

Reactionary

The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...

 Conservative-voting

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 working class

Working class

Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...

 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 the now-deceased veteran British actress, Dandy Nichols

Dandy Nichols

-References:* Dandy Nichols at screenonline.* Dandy Nichols at The Museum of Broadcast Communications.-External links:...

, as his long-suffering wife Elsie. The 1971 US sitcom All in the Family

All in the Family

All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...

was based on this series.

It was during the production of Till Death Us Do Part that a BBC bureaucrat, according to legend, attempted to talk Speight into ameliorating his script by bargaining the number of occurrences of "damn", "bloody" and other words held to be offensive. The incident became the basis for a satirical sketch performed by Peter Cook

Peter Cook

Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...

 and Dudley Moore

Dudley Moore

Dudley Stuart John Moore, CBE was an English actor, comedian, composer and musician.Moore first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in the ground-breaking comedy revue Beyond the Fringe in the early 1960s, and then became famous as half of the highly popular television...

, with Cook as the bureaucrat and Moore as a scriptwriter named "Johnny".

1969 saw the premiere of Curry and Chips

Curry and Chips

Curry and Chips is a controversial 1969 British sitcom from London Weekend Television.Set on a factory floor of 'Lillicrap Ltd', it starred a blacked up Spike Milligan as an Asian immigrant who went by the name of Kevin O'Grady. It also featured Eric Sykes as the foreman, Norman Rossington as the...

, an equally controversial sitcom from LWT for the ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 channel. Despite the apparent anti-political correctness

Political correctness

Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...

, Speight's intention - like Till Death Us Do Part was to highlight discrimination

Discrimination

Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...

, not promote it.

It was a cast of stereotypes, featuring a blacked-up Spike Milligan

Spike Milligan

Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...

 as Kevin O'Grady (who was supposed to be half Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, half Pakistani), Eric Sykes

Eric Sykes

Eric Sykes, CBE is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter...

 as a liberal, Kenny Lynch

Kenny Lynch

Kenny Lynch, OBE is an English singer, songwriter, entertainer and actor from London. Lynch appeared in many variety shows in the 1960s...

 as a black man who was prejudiced against Asians

British Asian

British Asian is a term used to describe British citizens who descended from mainly South Asia, also known as South Asians in the United Kingdom...

, and Norman Rossington

Norman Rossington

Norman Rossington was an English actor best remembered for his roles in The Army Game, the Carry On films and the Beatles film A Hard Day's Night.-Early life:...

 and Geoffrey Hughes

Geoffrey Hughes

Geoffrey Hughes, DL is an English actor.As well as a wide range of TV and film appearances, Hughes is best known for a series of supporting roles in popular UK television dramas...

 as racist Liverpudlians.

Speight's next comedy was 1975's For Richer...For Poorer

For Richer...For Poorer

For Richer...For Poorer was a 1975 BBC television pilot starring Harry H Corbett as Bert, a union shop-steward who worships Stalin and has dreams of becoming a major politician....

, a one-off pilot which featured Harry H Corbett as a left-wing answer to Alf Garnett.

After a brief return of Till Death Us Do Part on ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 in 1981 as Till Death...

Till Death...

Till Death... was an ITV sitcom that aired from 22 May to 3 July 1981.-Series:In 1981, the popular TV sitcom Till Death Us Do Part was picked up by ITV company ATV and brought back for a further six episodes, this time under the title Till Death... as the title Till Death Us Do Part was controlled...

, Alf Garnett returned with a vengeance on the BBC's In Sickness and in Health

In Sickness and in Health

In Sickness and in Health was a BBC television sitcom which ran between 1985 and 1992. It was also a sequel to both the highly successful Til Death Us Do Part which ran between 1966 and 1975 and Till Death... which ran for one series in 1981.-Series 1:This comedy series debuted in 1985 and took...

which ran from 1985 to 1992.

In 1998, Speight died of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer refers to a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer, accounting for 95% of these tumors is adenocarcinoma, which arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas. A minority arises from the islet cells and is classified as a...

, aged 78, and LWT put forward a series of specials featuring Warren Mitchell

Warren Mitchell

Warren Mitchell is an English actor who rose to initial prominence in the role of bigoted cockney Alf Garnett in the BBC television sitcom Till Death Us Do Part , and its sequels Till Death... and In Sickness and in Health , all of which were written by Johnny Speight...

 as Alf Garnett, giving his thoughts on a variety of subjects. The programmes were originally shelved by ITV controller, David Liddiment

David Liddiment

David Liddiment is a non-executive director of the independent production company All3Media, the largest independent production house in the UK...

.

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)
• If There Weren't Any Blacks You'd Have to Invent Them (1968)
• 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 (with Ray Galton
  Galton and Simpson
  Ray Galton OBE , and Alan Simpson OBE , are British scriptwriters who met in 1948 at a tuberculosis sanatorium, the Surrey county sanatorium near Godalming, on which the sitcom Get Well Soon was based...
  
   1979)
• The Tea Ladies (with Ray Galton 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)

External links

• screenonline: Speight, Johnny (1920-1998)