Love Thy Neighbour – 1973 | 85 mins | Comedy | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Big screen spin-off of the infamous ITV comedy about racial prejudices which ran for four years. This dated, politically incorrect tale of bigotries and one-upmanship is sprinkled with ignorant comments and insults that are frequently more laughable than offensive when viewed today.

White Labour-voting union leader Eddie Booth (Jack Smethurst) hates his Conservative-voting Jamaican neighbour Bill Reynolds (Rudolph Walker) with a fun-loving vengeance. Despite their wives being close friends, and Eddie and Bill being co-workers, daily life is a game of one-upmanship and traded insults; ranging from “great black ponce” and “Sabu” from Eddie, to “loudmouthed pale-skin poof” and “honky” from Bill. The unhappy family interaction comes to a head when their wives enter the ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ competition in the local Gazette newspaper. Relations sour further when Bill’s father arrives from Trinidad, and strikes up a mutual friendship with Eddie’s mother. Further complications ensue when Eddie calls the workers out on strike and Bill forms an alternative ‘black union’.