大象传媒

Image: Warren Mitchell as Alf , Dandy Nichols as Else, Anthony Booth as Mike, Una Stubbs as Rita.

Till Death Us Do Part began on 6 June 1966, following a successful pilot the previous year. The sitcom - written by Johnny Speight and produced by Dennis Main Wilson - became a big success, drawing audiences of 20 million. But it was always controversial, and the central character of Alf Garnett, the opinionated cockney bigot brought to life by Warren Mitchell, attracted complaints from politicians and Mary Whitehouse.

Dandy Nichols played Alf's wife Else, quieter that Alf but able to hold her own against him. Una Stubbs was their daughter Rita, married to Mike, played by Tony Booth. Mike was young, bright, unemployed, and from Liverpool, and represented everything Alf hated. Speight hoped that by making Alf "pig ignorant", his views would be exposed as ridiculous, though some felt that Alf's use of offensive language validated it.

The programme's success translated around the world, with several versions made, particularly All In the Family, in America. Till Death Us Do Part was retired in 1975 but Mitchell and Nicholls returned ten years later with In Sickness and In Health, in which viewers discovered that Alf had not mellowed with age. Nichols died in 1986 and Speight in 1998, but their comedy legacy can be seen in The Royle Family.