“If you are going to solve a racial problem in a half-hour comedy series, then you don’t have a problem at all You should not intellectualise something like that. The classic example is that in black countries such as the West Indies and Nigeria, they play the series and people still kill themselves with laughter when they see it.” Walker says that the success of Love Thy Neighbour with such audiences is “testimony to the fact that it was a funny series”.”It was never done to solve the racial problem; it was done purely for entertainment,” he says. We have become very politically correct.” He says that, rather than castigate him for subjecting himself to the racial abuse his character suffered in Love Thy Neighbour, older black people in Britain often approach him to ask: “Why can’t they bring it back?”The actor says: “Obviously, we know they can’t bring it back in this climate. Rudolph Walker, now best known as Patrick Trueman in EastEnders, says that the joke was always on the racist, Eddie Booth (played by Jack Smethurst), and his own narrow-minded character, Bill Reynolds.”These days, we can’t take the piss out of each other and laugh,” says Walker “The whole climate in this country has changed.
But the racially charged humour of the Seventies series Love Thy Neighbour still brings the house down in Nigeria, parts of the Caribbean and Australia, where a newly released DVD is selling strongly.
What’s more, the actor who played the West Indian neighbour feels that it’s a great shame that broadcasters wouldn’t dare screen the show any more in Britain. The sight of a bigot trying to win a limbo-dancing competition against a West Indian neighbour whom he habitually refers to as “nignog” may not sound like everyone’s idea of a rib-tickling storyline for a television situation comedy. Every day is a battle, and they have to be hard enough to win it.”. Bullying is the result of the mixture between the real pressure of the job and people’s desperate desire to break into the industry.”The unhappy reality is that there are senior executives who believe that intimidation works One successful editor insists it is essential As he once told me: “Journalists are not civilians. Some editors and senior executives are actively trying to drive people over the edge. Sometimes they do it to get rid of people without paying compensation But it is a power thing, too.
It is intended to intimidate other members of staff.”According to Greg Philo, of Glasgow University’s media unit, that sense of being trapped and unable to protest pervades the industry “It is a pretty insecure profession Vast numbers of people want to get into it. The days are numbered for people like you.’ “Holleran continues: “There is more malice in it these days. “A book reviewer got up to speak about plans for a special supplement The new editor said: ‘Shut up, c***-face. What did he do? “Nothing, I put the chair back.” Did it hurt? “Of course, but that’s Richard for you.” Boycott characterises Ashford as “an abused wife whose self-esteem has been eroded by a bullying husband until she cannot bring herself to leave”.Paul Holleran, of the National Union of Journalists, remembers one editor who made his mark on his first day at the helm. He has spoken of Desmond’s “wonderful, admirable vulgarity” and “raw, animal presence”. Richard Barber, a former editor of Desmond’s OK! magazine, once gave an account of an episode in which Desmond threw a chair because he was angry with his editorial director, Paul Ashford.Rosie Boycott, former editor of the Daily Express, asked Ashford about the experience.
