Still scripted by Speight but with Stubbs and Booth unaccountably replaced by Michael Angelis and Adrienne Posta, this second stab at getting Till Death… up amongst the King Cones was a bit of a shambles, especially since the situation – rather a crucial constituent of any situation comedy – was changed dramatically to relocate the family to a block of high-rise flats. By doing so Speight falls into the worst sitcom spin-off trap, that being the relocation of action to another place for no real reason, the most diabolical example of which is Are You Being Served? (1977) when the entire cast goes on holiday together at the same time to the same resort – no need to explain why! Similarly, the characters themselves were altered needlessly. Angelis plays son-in-law Mike as a sort of feckless drug-addled womaniser, probably only to expedite the diabolical sequence where Alf takes an acid trip. Even the briefest of viewings, however, suggests if anyone had some sort of run in with narcotics during the film’s production process, it was probably Speight.
Glenn A
August 4, 2017 at 8:13 pm
This makes Performance look normal, and that’s saying something. Would Garnett ever be interested in taking acid, being that he loathed the permissive society, and the whole scene where he hallucinates about meeting the West Ham team is bizarre.
However, The Alf Garnett Sage did give Michael Angelis his first big break and playing a hippyish Liverpudlian would set him up for his next and best remembered role.
THX 1139
August 4, 2017 at 11:58 pm
Alf accidentally drops the acid (I believe that’s the terminology) when he puts Angelis’s LSD laced sugarcube into his tea. It makes him think he’s West Indian in a pub. Funny, but funny peculiar, deeply peculiar.
Droogie
August 6, 2017 at 3:11 pm
I decided to watch this on YouTube just to see the acid trip. What a depressing movie! Also it’s Paul Angelis playing the randy scouse git, not Michael from Liver Birds fame. (his brother). Some bizarre cameos too by George Best, Bobby Moore, and Max Bygraves all playing themselves. The worst thing is the amount of times the racist c-word is used – especially by Garnett’s son-in-law when he thinks his wife is having an affair with Kenny Lynch. He was always a socialist who stood up to Garnett’s racist rants in the tv show, so his blatant racism in the movie makes no sense. A grubby little film.