In Sickness And In Health
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- For the Demented Are Go album, see In Sickness & In Health.
| In Sickness And In Health | |
|---|---|
|
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| Genre | Sitcom |
| Creator(s) | Johnny Speight |
| Starring | Warren Mitchell Dandy Nichols Carmel McSharry Eamonn Walker Eileen Kennally Una Stubbs |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 47 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC1 |
| Original run | 1985 – 1992 |
In Sickness and in Health was a BBC television sitcom sequel to the highly successful Til Death Us Do Part.
Contents |
[edit] The First Series
This weekly, comedy series debuted in 1985 and took the former Til Death Us Do Part characters Alf Garnett, played by Warren Mitchell and Else Garnett (Dandy Nichols) from their Wapping slum to a middle class retirement house in the East End. Else is now confined to a wheelchair and Alf grumbles about having to push her around everywhere. Alf hires a black, gay man named Winston, played by Eamonn Walker, to do housework and help care for a sick Else. Despite Alf's dual-prejudices against Winston, eventually the two became used to one another, and Winston took Alf to watch his beloved West Ham United. Alf nevertheless gave Winston the nickname Marigold.
Alf and Else's daughter Rita (played by Una Stubbs) occasionally appeared, and often Alf was seen drinking with his friend Arthur (played by Arthur English) in the local pub.
[edit] Series Two-Six
The first series ended on October 13, 1985 and was very popular in the ratings. On Boxing Day a Christmas special was aired with huge success.[citation needed] But just as plans for a second series began tragedy struck. Dandy Nichols died on February 13, 1986.
When Dandy died, the decision was taken to continue the series, as the ratings and audience appreciation had been excellent. In the series she died from natural causes. This led to one of the most moving scenes in the history of TV comedy. Left alone after all the other mourners have gone home, Alf, the belligerent old curmudgeon who had always treated his wife appallingly, gently touched the handle of her (now empty) wheelchair and sobbed "Silly old moo!" Very powerful stuff for a comedy.
In Series Two, Carmel McSherry joined the cast playing Alfs new landlady, Mrs. Hollingberry. The two were not friends a first but later became close friends.
After the Third Series Eamonn Walker left the show and Mrs. Hollingberry was forced to look after Alf. Eventually, Alf began courting her and they travelled to the Outback to be married. But Alf got jilted and moved back to London.
In 1992 after two years off the air the sitcom returned for one last season of six episodes in which Alf discovers a ton of banknotes and becomes very rich. The last episode aired on April 3, 1992.
[edit] After the cancellation
The series had 47 episodes and, unlike its predecessor, all the episodes are known to have survived. The show pops up from time to time on satellite and cable stations in the UK. Network DVD has considered releasing the first series to DVD, although it hasn't announced any release date.[citation needed]
Although the final show was originally broadcast on April 3, 1992, Warren Mitchell would continue to perform as Alf Garnett on special sets; this meant on stage in front of a live audience, and similarly to an invited audience consisting largely of celebrities and public figures. In 1997, a number of shows were arranged for ITV (Granada). Mitchell also returned to the studio set to act in a number of mini-shows consisting of one scene per presentation; these would either be in his front room in the company of Mrs.Hollingberry or in the pub with a drinking partner. The material was written by Johnny Speight after the end of In Sickness and in Health and is clear from many of Alf's dialogues, these include a reference to the Labour Party returning to power in 1997 with Tony Blair. Following the death of Speight in 1998, Mitchell announced that he would retire from performing as Alf Garnett.[citation needed]
[edit] Theme tune
The theme tune to the programme was written and performed by Chas & Dave, although they changed the lyrics when the character of Else died and Alf was left alone.[citation needed]
[edit] International versions
In 1991 a Dutch version of the series, In voor en tegenspoed ("In good times and in bad"), debuted on Dutch TV. According to the end credits only the first 12 episodes were based on Speight's original scripts. Two more series of episodes were written by Paul-Jan Nelissen and Marc Nelissen. The Dutch Alf Garnett is called Fred Schuit (played by Rijk de Gooyer). [1] He lives in Amsterdam, supports AFC Ajax, drinks jenever for medicinal reasons, and doesn't trust a TV-set unless it's made in Eindhoven. The series was awarded two Awards of the Dutch Academy.[2]
