Linford Christie: 70s sitcom Love Thy Neighbour was one of my family's favourite shows
The British sprinter loved the comedy which is now frowned upon for featuring a racist central character: "It was fun and good banter"
In late July, TV That Made Me – a kind of Desert Island Discs of the small screen – will see the likes of Eamonn Holmes, Lesley Joseph, Gok Wan and Duncan Bannatyne spend and hour in a mocked up 1970s living room discussing the shows that influenced them growing up.
Sandi Toksvig provides a particularly moving programme (the second in the series after Holmes) in which she reacts very emotionally to watching footage of her late father – venerated Danish broadcaster Claus Toksvig – reporting on the 1969 Apollo moon landings.
But perhaps the most surprising pick comes from Linford Christie.
The British runner cites the controversial sitcom Love thy Neighbour – now frowned upon for its overt use of derogatory racist terms – as one of his favourite shows when growing up. Apparently the future running ace and his whole family simply roared with laughter.
So why did they like a show where the main (incessant) gag was unreconstructed factory worker Eddie’s bigoted dislike of black neighbour and colleague Bill?
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Christie tells host Brian Conley that he and his family loved “the jokes” on the show and names it as his "family favourite".
“The way the programme was it was a black guy [Rudolph Walker] and a white guy [Jack Smethurst] and they just throw insults at each other. We wouldn’t be allowed to show it now. It’s not PC. [But] in those days people didn’t care, people just watched things for what it was. We enjoyed it.”
Asked by Conley if it was racist, Christie replied: “No, not at all. In those days it was a big thing for the whole family to sit together. In those days there weren’t many black people on TV. They allowed the Black and White Minstrels at the time and I supposed that was a lot worse. We thought it was fun and it was, I suppose, good banter.”
He added that he – and his Dad – would "still watch" the show now.
TV That Made Me is due to air on BBC1 in late July
