Jack Smethurst, who has died aged 89, achieved national fame in Love Thy Neighbour, a television sitcom that ran for a phenomenally successful eight series during the 1970s – but was looked back on as racist and, even for its time, anachronistic. He starred as Eddie Booth, the white, Labour-voting, union-supporting factory worker outraged when Bill Reynolds (played by Rudolph Walker), a Conservative-voting black man, not only gets a job in his workplace but also moves in next door to him.
The programme’s creators, Vince Powell and Harry Driver, insisted accusations of bigotry were unwarranted because Bill’s views were presented as ignorance and there was prejudice on both sides. Smethurst also said he took the role on the assurance that Eddie would be seen as the one in the wrong.
