Alf Garnett

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Alf Garnett was a fictional character on the BBC television sitcom Till Death Us Do Part and later In Sickness and in Health. Both series' titles come from the traditional Anglican marriage service.

The character, played by actor Warren Mitchell, was reactionary, mean-spirited, selfish, bigoted, racist, misogynistic, and anti-Semitic, despite allegedly being Jewish himself. In In Sickness and in Health he also displays homophobia. Generally he blamed his problems on everybody else. His family was the usual target of his anger and frustration. On the show, Garnett was regularly ridiculed for his illogical views and hypocrisy by his family, but he stubbornly refused to admit he was wrong.

To add entertainment to the show, Alf was outraged when his daughter, Rita (played by Una Stubbs), decided to marry Michael, her long-haired, unemployed boyfriend (played by Anthony Booth) from Liverpool, a Catholic of Irish descent; precisely the type of person Alf most hated.

Alf was generally a staunch supporter of the Conservative Party (though not Margaret Thatcher) and he supported West Ham United as well as being an admirer of the Queen and the Royal Family.

The British public loved Alf Garnett, although the television show was heavily criticised for the character's prejudices. Writer Johnny Speight often commented that the character was supposed to be a figure of ridicule, but admits that not all viewers saw the satiric elements of the character.

It is perhaps not a complete coincidence that Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett looks very similar to Sir Rudyard Kipling, who has also been perceived as paternalistic racist; however, Mitchell was not the first choice of producer Dennis Main Wilson for the part. It was initially offered to Peter Sellers, Leo McKern and Lionel Jeffries, but they all turned it down or were unavailable.

Alf Garnett was the direct inspiration for Archie Bunker in the American sitcom All in the Family.

External link

• Alf Garnett has also been featured on rathergood.com in one of their humourous flash presentations. [1]