‘Gumnut-flavoured’ British comedies and the representation of race, sexuality and suburb in Love Thy Neighbour in Australia

Abstract

In the 1970s, Australians with non-Anglo-Celtic backgrounds were successfully arguing for acceptance of their cultural roots as part of modern Australia. For many, ‘British’ Australia was dying; a more cosmopolitan Australia was – or appeared to be – emerging. Australian television of the 1970s-80s saw a short-run sitcom on the commercial Seven network, built around comedic tropes of the unrealised, egocentric, tyrannical, racist and verbally abusive white suburban male. Love Thy Neighbour in Australia was based on the long-running British comedy Love Thy Neighbour (1972-76). It intersected with a recently-launched and far more successful local ‘take’ dealing with many of the same themes, Kingswood Country (1980-84). Based on archival print sources and close readings of Love Thy Neighbour in Australia and contemporary sitcoms, this article explores the show’s representation of homosexuality, race and class and the attitudes and ideals attributed to female and straight and gay male characters; the value and meaning of suburbia; and the attitudes of audiences and critics.

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Russell Newman in researching this piece.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Gavin Schaffer, The Vision of a Nation: Making Multiculturalism on British Television, 1960–80 (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 181.

2 Albert Moran, ‘All in the Family: Situation Comedy’, in Moran, Images and Industry: Television Drama Production in Australia Sydney (Currency Press, 1985), 176–89.

3 John Murray, The Box in the Corner (Melbourne: Georgian House, 1969), 20.

4 George Patterson Pty Ltd., Television Report 17 (Melbourne: George Patterson, 1963), 3.

5 Peter Beilby, ed., Australian TV: The First 23 Years (Melbourne: Nelson, 1981), 27.

6 Beilby, 29.

7 Beilby, 31, 33.

8 Schaffer, 191.

9 ‘Sigley, Cash & Co. top surveys’ Melbourne Age 30 October 1975 “TV Radio Guide” section, p. 1.

10 ‘Harry Driver, TV writer’ London Guardian 27 November 1973, p. 7.

11 Jimmy Johnson ‘they love their neighbors’ San Bernadino County Sun 9 July 1973, p. 7.

12 Schaffer, 217.

13 H. G. Kippax, ‘Love Thy Neighbour’, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 May 1978, p. 8.

14 ‘Saurat’; ‘Geoff Ringham’; comments on Love Thy Neighbour Series 2, Episode 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sOLgadNVoc

15 Kunle Olulode, ‘Airbrushing Racism’, Index on Censorship 44, no. 4 (2015): 34–6.

16 Sarah Ilott ‘Encounters with the Neighbour in 1970s’ British Multicultural Comedy’ Postcolonial Interventions: An Interdisciplinary’, Journal of Postcolonial Studies 4, no. 1 (2015): 14–44.

17 ‘The Story Behind Love Thy Neighbour’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC2mio3LU-M

18 Sally Shaw, ‘“Light Entertainment” as Contested Socio-Political Space: Audience and Institutional Responses to Love Thy Neighbour (1972-76)’, Critical Studies in Television 7, no. 1 (2012): 64–78.

19 Albert Moran Copycat Television, Globalisation,programme Formats and Cultural Identity (Luton: University of Luton Press, 1998), 41.

20 Robin Oliver, ‘Going for Goal’, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 April 1991 ‘The Guide’ section, p. 1S, 6S

21 ‘George and Mildred Alone’, Sydney Morning Herald 20 February 1978 ‘Monday Guide’ section, p. 3

22 Don Groves, ‘The World Stage of D. Frost’, Sunday Sun-Herald, 6 May 1979, p. 113.

23 ‘Being a Dumb Sexpot Is Fun’, TV Week, 5 April 1980, p. 73.

24 ‘Mr. Humphries Has That Gold Touch… to Make a Ratings Fortune’, TV Week, 7 June 1980, p. 8.

25 ‘Royal Message Rush’, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 November 1958, p. 3.

26 Tania Lewis ‘From Global to Glocal: Australianizing the Makeover Format’, in TV Formats Worldwide: Localizing Global Programmes, ed. Albert Moran Bristol: Intellect 2009), 301.

27 Sydney Sun-Herald, 5 April 1980, p. 50.

28 TV Week, Victorian edition 3 May 1980, p. 45.

29 ‘A Critical Guide to the Weekend’s Programmes’, Melbourne Age, 17 May 1980, p. 2; ‘A Critical Guide to the Weekend’s Programmes’, Melbourne Age, 14 June 1980, p. 2.

30 Melbourne Herald, 3 May 1980, p. 18.

31 Melbourne Age ‘Green Guide’, Supplement, 4 November 1982, p. 23; Melbourne Age ‘Green Guide’, supplement 11 November 1982, p. 19; Sydney Morning Herald, 20 May 1991 ‘The Guide’ section, p.10s

32 Jacqueline Lee Lewes, ‘Eddie’s One Neighbour You’ll Hate’, Sydney Sun-Herald, 6 April 1980, p. 7

33 Garry Shelley, ‘Re-made in Australia’, Sydney Morning Herald, 7 April 1980, p. 13.

34 Peter Dunne, ‘Escape on a 10 Ticket’, London Observer, 9 June 1963, p. 23.

35 Sue Turnbull, ‘Mapping the Vast Suburban Tundra: Australian Comedy from Dame Edna to Kath and Kim’, International Journal of Cultural Studies 11, no. 1 (2008): 16.

36 Turnbull, 28.

37 Simon Vavladellis, Mark Taylor, Melinda Taylor pers. comm., 26 November 2021.

38 ‘Two Successes: South Auburn Social Club’ Parramatta Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate 11 January 1934, p. 3.

39 Clyde Goldsworthy, ed., Liberty Plains: A History of Auburn (N.S.W. Municipality of Auburn, 1982), 35.

40 Garry Shelley, ‘Re-Made in Australia’, Sydney Morning Herald, 7 April 1980, p. 13; Tony Harrison, Australian Film & TV Companion. 2nd ed. (Broadway: Citrus Press, 2005), 344.

41 Jack Brook, Blacktown: A Name of Character Blacktown and District Historical Society (Blacktown, 1996), 16.

42 Simon Vavladellis, Mark Taylor, Melinda Taylor pers. comm., 26 November 2021

43 Kim Dovey, ‘Dreams on Display: Suburban Ideology in the Model Home’, in Beasts of Suburbia: Reinterpreting Cultures in Australian Suburbs, ed. Sarah Ferber, Chris Healy and Chris McAuliffe (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1994), 133.

44 Schaffer, 186.

45 Marcia Langton ‘Well, I Heard It on the Radio and I Saw It on the Television…’ An Essay for the Australian Film Commission on the Politics and Aesthetics of Filmmaking by and about Aboriginal People and Things Australian Film Commission, Woolloomooloo 1993, p. 34.

46 Shelley, 13.

47 Gavin Schaffer, The Vision of a Nation: Making Multiculturalism on British Television, 1960–80 (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 198; Russell Newman, pers. comm., 19 October 2021

48 Nigel Giles, Number 96 : Australian TV's Most Notorious Address (Melbourne: Melbourne Books, 2017).

49 ‘Women Love the Man Who Plays Don Finlayson: The Many Sides of Joe Hasham’, Sydney Morning Herald TV guide supplement, 5 March 1973, p. 1; see also ‘Joe Hasham Shows His True Colours’, Sydney Morning Herald TV guide supplement, 29 April 1975, p. 1.

50 Whitney Monaghan, ‘Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Representation on Australian Entertainment Television: 1970–2000’, Media International Australia 174, no. 1 (2020): 49–58.

51 Marie Knuckey, ‘Mr. Humphries is a TV Addict’, Sydney Sun-Herald, 30 April 1978, p. 145.

52 ‘Activists in Protest’, Sydney Sun-Herald, 21 May 1978, p. 19.

53 Sandra Hall, Turning On, Turning Off: Australian Television in the Eighties (North Ryde: Cassell 1981), 59.

54 ‘The Angry Eye’, ‘It’s an Ace… the First Serve’, Sydney Sun-Herald, 15 June 1980, p. 49.

55 Lex Marinos, Blood and Circuses: An Irresponsible Memoir (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2014), 144.

56 Lex Marinos, The Jobbing Actor: Rules of Engagement (Platform Papers; Quarterly Essays on the Performing Arts from Currency House, No. 53) Strawberry Hills, 2017 p. 30

57 Marinos, Blood and Circuses, 146–7.

58 Jacqueline Lee Lewes, ‘Eddie’s One Neighbour You’ll Hate’, Sydney Sun-Herald, 6 April 1980, p. 7

59 Richard Harris, Punch Lines: Twenty Years of Australian Comedy (Sydney: ABC Books, 1994), 116.

60 Noeline Brown, Noeline: Longterm Memoir (Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, 2015), 187.

61 Brown, 195.

62 Ibid.

63 Panikos Panayi, ‘The Vision of a Nation: Making Multiculturalism on British Television, 1960–80 (Review)’, Contemporary British History 29, no. 1 (2015): 145–47.

64 Schaffer, 197.

65 Hall, Turning On, Turning Off: Australian Television in the Eighties, 10, 60.

66 Anna-Maria Dell’Oso, ‘Migrants on Australian TV: flamboyant Gestures, Pizza Splutterings… But What About Reality?’ Sydney Morning Herald, 9 May 1983, p. 16.

67 ‘Television/Radio’, London Guardian, 5 January 1980, p. 16.

68 ‘Cleese for Aunty Comedy Series’, TV Week Victorian edition, 3 May 1980, p. 64.

69 Melbourne Age 11 July 1985 ‘Green Guide’ section, p. 25; Gavin Schaffer, The Vision of a Nation: Making Multiculturalism on British Television, 1960–80 (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 219.

70 Jenny Brown, ‘We’re Not Doing Swan Lake, We’re Not Selling Dresses or Waterbeds, and We’re Not Doing Tired Old Comedy Routines… It Contains Nothing about Football’, Melbourne Age, 12 May 1983 ‘Green Guide’ supplement, p. 1.

71 Marjory Bennett ‘Wog in Plenty of Work’, Sydney Sun-Herald, 22 January 1995, p. 122.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Nichols

David Nichols is Associate Professor in Urban Planning at the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. His recent publications include The Alert Grey Twinkling Eyes of C. J. DeGaris (UWA Publishing, 2022) and the co-edited (with Sophie Perillo) collection Urban Australia and Post-Punk: Exploring Dogs in Space (Palgrave, 2020)