It would be a no go today and even in 1969 it was possibly on dodgy ground.

Episode 1 aired 20th November 1969

Episode 2 aired 27th November 1969

Episode 3 aired 4th December 1969

Episode 4 aired 11th December 1969

Episode 5 aired 18th December 1969

Episode 6 aired 26th December 1969

and that was it...

Set in the staff canteen and on the factory floor at Lillicrap Ltd, makers of seaside novelties, Curry & Chips was a Johnny Speight comedy about Kevin O'Grady - a bizarrely named Pakistani immigrant (a blacked-up Spike Milligan) being "civilised" by working class Brits, led by the liberal-minded but somewhat confused factory foreman, Arthur (Eric Sykes). 

Sam Kydd featured as the malodorous Smellie, with Norman Rossington and Geoffrey Hughes as racist white Liverpudlians, and singer/actor Kenny Lynch as a black anti-Pakistani. In addition to the liberal slinging about of racist terms there was a good deal of (mostly harmless) swearing, one viewer noting that the word "bloody" was said 59 times in a single episode. (Only Eric Sykes didn't swear in the show - he simply refused to do so).

Produced and Directed by Keith Beckett, this sitcom was very much a product of the 60s. It tried (not always successfully) to deal with racism, bigotry and class hatred in a light-hearted manner, and this series would not (could not) have been made today.

Political correctness ensured that two similar series - The Melting Pot, also starring Milligan as a Pakistani (six episodes of which were made in 1975), and Jewel In The Crown, for which a pilot was shot in 1985 - were scrapped, although one episode of the former was shown in June 1975 (the BBC refused to show the subsequent five episodes as the ingredients constituted way too much of a heady brew for the Beeb to handle).

Ironically Curry & Chips was LWT's first sitcom made in colour . . .

Based on an idea by Spike Milligan and written by Johnny Speight, Curry and Chips (ITV, 1969) is very much a product of its day. The sight of Spike Milligan, blacked up, and sporting a ludicrous Pakistani accent, would today doubtless have provoked an even greater outcry than it did at the time. Nevertheless his comic creation, the half-Pakistani, half-Irish Kevin O'Grady, aka Paki Paddy, does at least frequently display superior intellect to his bigoted white co-workers.

Some of the statements beggar belief in their vitriol and, at times, pure racial hatred. When commenting on the British Raj, Norman is keen to explain to Kevin that, " we were out there educating you lot... a bloody rotten job we made of it too." As with his previous creation, the hugely successful Till Death Us Do Part (BBC 1966-74), in which the character of Kevin O'Grady originally appeared, writer Speight insisted that he intended to lampoon the racism of his characters. But the criticism levelled against Till Death - that the prejudices of its characters reinforced, rather than challenged, those of its audience - seemed even more pertinent here. It is interesting to note the delighted response of the studio audience to off-hand racist comments.

The treatment of the character Kenny, also of Asian descent, is also intriguing. Spared much of the abuse leveled at Kevin because of his British birth, initially he turns against Kevin. As he remarks to Arthur, "I might be a bit brown, but I'm not a wog like him." It is the casual abandon with which words like 'wog', 'coon' and 'Paki' are endlessly repeated by the characters that is most worrying. Even when attempting to dilute the vitriol with humour, as in Norman's line, "If they sent all the wogs back home, there'd be an extra hour's daylight," there is a distinctly uneasy sense of where the writer's sentiments lie, particularly when viewed through contemporary eyes. Even the sympathetic Arthur, who hires Kevin and frequently comes to his defence, is not above using words like 'wogs' and 'coons'.

It is some measure of the show's failure that it was cancelled after only six episodes, a humiliation considering the stature of both its writer and star at the time.

Ali Jaafar from screenonline

Cast:
ERIC SYKES - Arthur Blenkinsop
SPIKE MILLIGAN - Kevin O' Grady
NORMAN ROSSINGTON - Shop Steward
FANNY CARBY - Mrs Bartok
KENNY LYNCH - Kenny
GEOFFREY HUGHES - Young Dick
JEROLD WELLS - Tom
RONNIE BRODY - Kelly
FRED HUGH - Publican