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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 384560" data-attributes="member: 23">I'm now three quarters of the way through existing episodes from Till Death Do Us Part's black and white years, having watched the nine remaining episodes from the first two series, plus the Easter Special.Since many black and white episodes were wiped, the visual and sound quality are pretty poor on a lot of those sourced here. This, along with the lack of colour can make them feel ancient. Plus most episodes run a full 30 minutes (some more), and it's hard going at times because of this.And this is not even touching on the content, which brings its own, more deliberate, challenges. Alf's opinionated, bigoted rants aren't meant to be comfortable or pleasant. Satirical as the character may be, there's still the uncovering of things that aren't pleasant to see or hear. Even with Alf as a laughing stock, there's still that part of me that simply doesn't want to be around him. It's to the credit of all concerned that the series still manages to entertain and get laughs.The most recent two episodes have been interesting. The first of these was the "Mary Whitehouse" episode, in which Alf was shown to be a supporter of Mary Whitehouse's campaign, and spent much of the episode reading her book Cleaning Up TV and spouting the wisdom he picked up. This choice is one of genius by Johnny Speight. Since this series was one of her key targets, it would have been easy to simply speak out against her. But using a foolish character that she already despises to epitomise her supporters takes things to another level. It's certain she would have been watching that evening, as usual, pen in hand. Oh, to have been a fly on her wall as she watched. The episode even ends with her book being burnt (by Una Stubbs of all people) as Alf's foolishness and hypocrisy is laughed at by his family. It's even more interesting, though for being a partial episode. Ten minutes are missing, and these are woven into the episode using an audio recording of the relevant sections along with still images. It's certainly a novel way to watch.The latest episode I watched was equally fascinating. It didn't even feature the usual opening titles, just the sub-title Till Closing Time Us Do Part on the screen as the opening scene played. Looking it up afterwards, I've found it was an Easter special, which explains the 40 minute running time, the abundance of guest-stars, and the unusual setup - it took place in real time, all in one set (a pub) and featured regulars and guest stars breaking into song as they took turns accompanying someone playing the Joanna.The real time aspect made me wonder if this actually aired live. It certainly feels as though it was filmed as live. And this gave it a really special energy. It also really captured the feeling of the end of the evening at a busy local. It's fun to see a young Tarby and Kenny Lynch as themselves, doing their thing (Kenny has a lovely voice) and gently mocking Alf as he got drunker and louder. Plus there was Joan Sims in her first outing as "Gran". I knew Joan played Gran in this series but, from the name, had assumed she was playing Else's mother (especially since I'd thought at some point she was seen in the house). But it looks like she's just a random local whom everyone calls "Gran". I think there are only three or four more black and white episodes left.</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?