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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2022 13:18:31 GMT
Veteran actor Jack Smethurst best known for playing the original Snowflake in Love Thy Neighbour in the 1970's has passed away aged 89 after a long and successful career spanning well over 50 years.
There is a lovely tribute to him by his actor son Adam on Twitter and also his daughter in law BAFTA winner Rakie Ayola as well as a lot of other performers who worked with him over the years.
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Post by Jan on Feb 20, 2022 16:38:18 GMT
I remember a rather strange spin-off series Love Thy Neighbour in Australia which was also shown in UK where he was the only original cast member and the entire premise of the series (such as it was) was changed.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2022 12:46:37 GMT
I read there was a spin off series it was before my time but to take a bigoted English character and move him to Australia would give the potential for humour but move it away from the colour themes of the original series. If you had wanted to spin it on its head you'd have had him going to say Carribean.
I guess they kept the show title as the original was popular in it's day so it draws people in. But minus the other characters I doubt it had the appeal of the original which was the dynamic between the two families.
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Post by Jan on Feb 21, 2022 14:38:19 GMT
There was a minor trend at the time for having Australian versions of British comedy shows involving some of the original cast (unlike in USA where entirely re-cast and adapted versions were preferred) - for example there was an Australian "Are You Being Served" with (only) the John Inman character from the original improbably being sent to work in an Australian store. The same writers too who, needless to say, tended to recycle their old material.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2022 15:09:49 GMT
I did think of the Are You Being Served spin off Jan. Wasn't that done for Australian TV but as Mr Humphreys was so popular they got John to appear in it. I don't think I ever saw that spin off but certainly used to enjoy Are You Being Served and the thought of Mr Humphreys around the lager drinking Australian male stereotype would seem to have had a lot of comic potential.
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Post by Jan on Feb 21, 2022 15:36:20 GMT
I did think of the Are You Being Served spin off Jan. Wasn't that done for Australian TV but as Mr Humphreys was so popular they got John to appear in it. I don't think I ever saw that spin off but certainly used to enjoy Are You Being Served and the thought of Mr Humphreys around the lager drinking Australian male stereotype would seem to have had a lot of comic potential. As far as I recall it was never shown in UK. I think all they did was recast the original characters with Australian actors and gave them different names - that would make script recycling easy. The Love Thy Neighbour spin-off which I did see was more like you say, a culture clash between the Aussies and Eddie Booth. |
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