The Comic Representation of Apartheid on British Television in the Late 1960s

This chapter asks what the comic televisual representation of apartheid in the late 1960s tells us about its perception in Britain, and what it reveals about race relations in the country. To achieve this, this chapter focuses on a single episode from the situation comedy Till Death Us Do Part broadcast on the BBC on 12 January 1968. The chapter illuminates how the comic mode helped to circulate an anti-apartheid message to a large audience, and, inadvertently, to subvert the explicit intent to protest apartheid. It demonstrates how the protest against a racist system of governance in South Africa highlights racism in Britain.