PROFILPELAJAR.COM

The Alf Garnett Saga
The Alf Garnett Saga
Directed by	Bob Kellett
Written by	Johnny Speight
Produced by	Terry Glinwood; Ned Sherrin
Starring	Warren Mitchell; Dandy Nichols; Adrienne Posta
Cinematography	Nicholas D. Knowland
Edited by	Al Gell
Music by	Georgie Fame; Colin Green
Production; company	Associated London Films
Distributed by	Columbia-Warner Distributors
Release date	3 August 1972;
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Alf Garnett Saga is a 1972 British comedy film directed by Bob Kellett and starring Warren Mitchell, Dandy Nichols, Paul Angelis and Adrienne Posta.^[1]^[2] The film was the second spin-off from the BBC TV series Till Death Us Do Part (1965–1975).^[3] It starts where the first film finished, but with Angelis and Posta now playing Mike and Rita, the roles previously played by Anthony Booth and Una Stubbs.

Producer Ned Sherrin said the film "was memorable for a close-up chance to observe the detail which Warren Mitchell and Dandy Nichols put into their characterisations, for a gallery of cameos, and for two curious guest appearances by the football stars Bobby Moore and George Best."^[4]

Plot

With the Garnetts' Wapping home demolished, Alf and his family are installed in a high-rise council flat. Alf struggles with "living in the sky", using lifts (which frequently break down due to power cuts "caused by the striking miners") and walking long distances to the local pub. Alf also swallows LSD thinking it's a sugar cube and walks across his neighbours balcony handrail ^[5]

Cast

Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett
Dandy Nichols as Else Garnett
Paul Angelis as Mike Rawlins
Adrienne Posta as Rita Rawlins
John Le Mesurier as Mr Frewin
John Bird as Willis
Roy Hudd as milkman
Roy Kinnear as Wally
Joan Sims as Gran
Arthur Askey as himself
George Best as himself
Max Bygraves as himself
Julie Ege as herself
Bobby Moore as himself
Eric Sykes as himself
Kenny Lynch as himself
Patsy Byrne as Mrs Frewin
Ellis Dale as Clerk
Derek Griffiths as Rex
Cleo Sylvestre as conductress
Tom Chadbon as Jim
Margaret Heald as 1st bird
Patricia Quinn as 2nd bird
Ken Wynne as non-smoker
Ahmed Khalil as Pakistani
Mary Pratt as receptionist
Will Stampe as publican
Jumoke Debayo as coloured mother
Elroy Josephs as coloured father
Arnold Diamond as policeman
Maurice Bush as docker
Jackie Donachie as girl
Richard Speight as boy
Johnny Speight as Barmy Harry

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Sadly, The Alf Garnet Saga, which follows directly on from Till Death Us Do Part [1968], is an equally unsuccessful attempt to translate to the cinema what is on the small screen a marvellous, larger-than-life comic creation. Inevitably, other characters ... tend to pale beside that of Alf, as he bulldozes his way through a series of static set-pieces, giving vent to his opinions about the council, strikes, the IRA, 'coons', and so on. Varied locations, however, don't prevent the film from seeming one long repetitive and unfunny diatribe, occasionally broken up by some irrelevant scenes apparently tacked on as an afterthought. ... Johnny Speight's script only occasionally rises above the crudity of its protagonist, as when Alf, with the twisted logic of the true bigot, admits that smoking is dangerous but justifies it by saying he's smoking for Queen and Country, since the tobacco tax supports the National Health Service."^[6]

Leslie Halliwell said: "Second inflation of the TV series Till Death Us Do Part, even cruder and less funny than the first; listlessly written and developed."^[7]

References

^ "The Alf Garnett Saga". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
^ The Alf Garnett Saga at BFI Film and TV Database
^ "The Alf Garnett Saga". Moovida DB. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
^ Sherrin, Ned (2006). Ned Sherrin : the autobiography. Time Warner. p. 214. ISBN 978-0-7515-3424-5.
^ "The Alf Garnett Saga". British Classic Comedy. 10 June 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
^ "The Alf Garnett Saga". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 39 (456): 207. 1 January 1972. ProQuest 1305833603 – via ProQuest.
^ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 20. ISBN 0586088946.