OBITUARY NOTICE--See index for CTFT sketch. Speight was a British comedy writer who was best known for ceating television series on which the highly successful American television series All in the Family was based. He worked both in a factory and as a drummer for a jazz band before beginninghis career as a comedy writer in the 1950s, when he created material for comedians. Til Death Do Us Part, a series he created and wrote for the British Broadcasting Company beginning in 1966, featured the lead character AlfGarnett, who expressed highly prejudicial opinions on matters of race, society, immigration, and politics, and browbeat his wife. The series was immenselypopular, running until 1975, and lead to the creation of a similar, long -running, American series when the rights to the British show were sold to writer and producer Norman Lear, who based his series' lead character, Archie Bunker, on Alf Garnett. Speight's other writing credits for television series include In Sickness and In Health, a long-running sequel to Till DeathDo Us Part, The Tealadies, and Spooner's Patch, and his television plays, If There Weren't Any Black, You Would Have to Invent Them, and Compartment, which was also performed on stage, were published in book form. He authored two screenplays, Alf and Family, a 1968 film based on the earlier series, and The Secret Policeman's Other Ball, a filmproduced in 1987, and two momoirs, It Stands to Reason: A Kind of Autobiography and Pieces of Speight.
Books
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