Love Thy Neighbour - The Complete Collection (Not Complete Series) [DVD]

Until I bought this boxset, I don't think I'd ever seen an episode of "Love Thy Neighbour" before. It's before my time and I can't remember ever seeing it repeated. I'm a big fan of older sitcoms when characters could call a blackboard a blackboard and sing baa, baa black sheep etc. without receiving two complaints and it appearing on the national news. So I would've given this boxset a five star rating even before I'd watched an episode. Unfortunately though I've only given this boxset two stars and that's for the fact that it's the nearest thing to a complete collection that doesn't use much shelf space.

This is a disappointing and lazy release for various reasons I will mention below.

1) Like the other reviewer said, it's not complete. Series 4 finale episode titled "April Fools" and episode four from series 7 titled "The Coach Outing to Bournemouth" are the missing two episodes. This should be called the collection and not complete collection.

2) These discs are obviously exactly the same discs as the Fremantle individual series dvd releases, as each of the eight discs included says series 1 to 8, when in fact there were seven series made and not eight. This is very lazy of them, I expected them to correct all this and especially for the price of £40. On the back of the box it actually says all episodes included from all eight series on eight discs. So they went to the effort of printing that even though they know it's not true.

3) The box is too small for eight discs and they've only just managed to fit them in. This is about the width of less than two standard dvd cases. Nothing wrong with this size, but not for a series that over 50 episodes were made.

4) No episode title info is included anywhere, not in the box or even on the disc menus and not even at the beginning of an episode. All you get is episode 1, 2, 3 etc.

5) No ad breaks. This one is personal and not everyone will care but I prefer them to be included like the excellent Network releases. The main problem when they are not included is that there is a sudden jump from one scene to the next and it's unnatural and obvious where the ad break was.

Like the other reviewer said, Network are rumoured to be releasing this in the future from what I've read on wikipedia. I know they are not perfect and have made some mistakes themselves plus they never include subtitles which is one good thing that this Fremantle release does have.

Overall though, I'm usually impressed with Network releases, so please Network if you are reading this, release "Love Thy Neighbour" complete collection with episode titles and original airdates and correctly packaged as seven series, then I can get rid of this disappointing Fremantle release. Until that happens though, this collection will have to do.

Love Thy Neighbour - The Complete Series [DVD] [1972]

Edit 5/2/12

Just added two extra stars for this boxset, as I was originally a little harsh. It's very cheap now too compared to what I paid for it, a bargain at under £14. If only I'd waited myself. Only reason I've not given it five stars now is because of the lazy packaging and incorrect info which I mentioned originally.

Having promptly received the box set today I was so disappointed that two episodes are missing. Namely "April Showers" and "The coach trip to Bournemouth". So how can this be classed as a COMPLETE COLLECTION.
The pilot episode IS included but NO MOVIE. I feel so ripped off by the dvd release company when they persist to release box sets as complete when they aren't. Network are rumoured to be releasing the ENTIRE collection with ALL episodes AND the movie in a box set. Wish I had waited.

If you remember this from on screen in the 70's you know what to expect. It is based on the difficult time in the early to mid 70's when White British people struggled in their acceptance to the mass immigration of the Black community. They live next door to each other, the women get on and the men don't. The men also work together the White male character is portrayed as being quite working class and lesser educated, and continually calls his counterpart a "nig nog" and Sambo. Whilst the Black Male character is scripted as being more refined and well read; he is also very capable of racism though; he refers to his opposite as a "honky" or "snowflake".

Whilst being very popular during the early to mid 70's it did make rise to a great deal of criticism due to it's complete disregard to social cohesion and acceptance, if you were to study the episodes you do see racism on both parts. This boxset includes all 7 series which ran from 1972-1976, it did create similar controversy as did "till death do us part" due to the (in some cases) harsh racist comments and actions.

This will be something you either love and find hillarious or you hate and would find offensive. If it was to be aired on television these days it would have a continuity announcement warning of the likelihood to offence that may be caused.

I would recommend that you ask someone who knows you well and that remembers it as to whether you would enjoy this.