British Comedy Guide

The Melting Pot

  • TV sitcom
  • BBC One
  • 1975
  • 7 episodes (1 series)

Controversial comedy set in a guest house inhabited by immigrants from far and wide. Stars Spike Milligan, John Bird, Frank Carson, Alexandra Dane, Robert Dorning and more.

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Key details

Genre
Sitcom
Broadcast
1975
Channel
BBC 1
Episodes
7 (1 pilot + 1 series)
Stars
Spike Milligan, John Bird, Frank Carson, Alexandra Dane, Robert Dorning, Trevor Butler, Burt Kwouk, John Bluthal and more
Writers
Spike Milligan and Neil Shand
Director
Ian MacNaughton
Producer
Ian MacNaughton
Company

Having arrived in the "promised land" of London under new names - after rowing all the way from Amsterdam - Pakistani illegal immigrants Mr. Van Gogh and his son Mr. Rembrandt soon find accommodation at No. 7 Piles Road, a boarding house owned by Irish Republican coalman Paddy O'Brien.

Their new residence is also home to Paddy's voluptuous daughter Nefertiti Skupinski, as well as just about every race and nationality under the sun - the other tenants include black Yorkshireman Luigi O'Reilly, Chinese cockney spiv Eric Lee Fung, Orthodox London Jew Richard Armitage, a racist Australian bookie's clerk by the name of Bluey Notts, and Sheik Yamani, an Orthodox Arab who has picked up a Scottish accent learning banking at the Bank of Scotland in Peckham.

Additional details

Part of

BBC1 Comedy Pilots (1975)

Production
Studio
Camera set-up
Multi-camera
Picture
Colour

Website links

Broadcast details

First broadcast
Wednesday 11th June 1975 at 9:25pm on BBC One

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