Mind Your Language

LWT boss Michael Grade considered this sitcom "manifestly irresponsible." As a seven year-old, I thought it was the best programme ever, but more than 30 years later its failure as entertainment is apparent. It gains easy laughs at the expense of foolish foreigners who can't understand English or stand each other. It's more lame than racist, but Asian viewers would probably still recoil from the stereotypes played by Albert Moses, Dino Shafeek and Pik-Sen Lim. The only redeeming feature is the title music by Max Harris, to accompany the animated title sequence by Martin Lambie-Nairn. Our clip is from the first season episode "All Through the Night" (20/01/1978). It's one of the few in which the comedy springs from the characters reacting to a tricky situation, when the tipsy caretaker locks everyone in, rather than their ignorance. Some of the cast thought kindly of it, because Moses produced a revival in 1986. It was screened in the Granada, HTV, Central & Ulster regions, but not by LWT…