The Short Life ofCurry and Chips: Racial Comedy on British Television in the 1960s

Abstract

This article analyses Curry and Chips (ITV, 1969), a situation comedy that relied heavily on racial humour to satisfy its audiences. Like other sitcoms during this era in British television, it capitalised on extant anxieties about the increasing migration of formerly colonised subjects to Britain. Johnny Speight and Spike Milligan, the programme's creators, believed that forwarding vulgar racial epithets and bigoted humour put English attitudes to immigration under examination. But the programme proved popular because of its appeal to white workers, who viewed depictions of the challenges of integrating non-white workers in a comedic context with some pleasure. Under the thin guise of political satire, the programme recirculated ethnic stereotypes and racist discourses to make its humour apparent. Audience research and letters of complaint also reveal that Curry and Chips appealed to audiences sympathetic to the racist attitudes forwarded by the programme's characters and failed to change white Britons’ perspectives on migration and integration. Because of the debate it caused about the appropriateness of its humour, Curry and Chips lasted only a single series before being banned by the Independent Television Authority. Like other forms of racial humour, the comedy resonated with working-class anxieties but negated the programme's utility as progressive parody.