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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 428123" data-attributes="member: 23">Love Thy Neighbour Series Six is getting underway. Mercifully, there hasn't been a noticeable drop in quality from the gap left by Harry Driver's death. I'm sure it helps that there are no new writers - just one half of the former pair running with the baton. All the same, there have been several scenarios that feel rather familiar having watched earlier episodes. I'd say lines about race are being toned down a little, or at least not coming with the frequency of earlier episodes. In one recent episode, Bill didn't feature much until around the halfway point, and it struck me how conventional a sitcom it is without the refrains of "sambo" and "honky". At the same time, it also feels quite bold for the lead character to openly speak about his atheism, as Eddie did. Even two-thirds of the way into the series, it still seems a little odd to me that Bill is a Tory supporter. Of course, Eddie must be a die-hard Labour loyalist, so I suppose it makes sense that Bill would need to have an opposing outlook for its conflict potential. In fact, though, it's barely been mentioned, but it still feels surprising and slightly ill-fitting whenever it's mentioned.The birth of the babies, too, hasn't really changed the tone. Most of the time their respective sons are hidden in their cots upstairs while life continues downstairs as it always did. It's notable that Nina Baden-Semper didn't appear in one or two episodes at the latter end of Series Four, presumably due to her own real life pregnancy, with Bill's cousin Linda an obvious stand-in. She did appear in the last episode where the babies were born, but all her scenes were lying in bed (other than some location work, presumably filmed much earlier).The little "Easter egg" with the actresses showing us their real babies after the end credits was a sweet touch, and was evidently successful or popular enough that the Easter egg motif has continued through Series Five and into Series Six, with Bill throwing in an audio quip relating to the story or last scene after the closing titles of each episode. On a related note, a couple of End Of Part One sequences have ended, then audio has continued to reveal the audience laughing uproariously as Jack Smethurst evidently mucks about or ad libs.</blockquote>

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