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Warren Mitchell

Warren Mitchell (born Warren Misell; 14 January 1926 – 14 November 2015) was a British actor, best known for playing bigoted cockney Alf Garnett in television, film and stage productions from the 1960s to the 1990s. He was a BAFTA TV Award winner and twice a Laurence Olivier Award winner.

In the 1950s, Mitchell appeared on the radio programmes Educating Archie and Hancock's Half Hour. He also performed minor roles in several films. In the 1960s, he rose to prominence in the role of Alf Garnett in the BBC television sitcom Till Death Us Do Part (1965–75), created by Johnny Speight, which won him a Best TV Actor BAFTA in 1967. He reprised the role in the television sequels Till Death... (ATV, 1981) and In Sickness and in Health (BBC, 1985–92), and in the films Till Death Us Do Part (1969) and The Alf Garnett Saga (1972).

His other film appearances include Three Crooked Men (1958), Carry On Cleo (1964), The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965), The Assassination Bureau (1969) and Norman Loves Rose (1982). He held both British and Australian citizenship and enjoyed considerable success in stage performances in both countries, winning Olivier Awards in 1979 for Death of a Salesman and in 2004 for The Price.

Early life
Mitchell was born and raised in Stoke Newington, London. His father was a glass and china merchant. His family were Russian Jews (originally called "Misell").

He was interested in acting from an early age and attended Gladys Gordon's Academy of Dramatic Arts in Walthamstow from the age of seven. He did well at Southgate County School (became Minchenden School a different school to Southgate School ), a state grammar school at Palmers Green, North London. He then studied physical chemistry at University College, Oxford, as a Royal Air Force cadet student on a six-month university short course which the armed services sponsored for potential officers. There he met his contemporary, Richard Burton, and together they joined the RAF in October 1944. He completed his navigator training in Canada just as the Second World War ended.

His wife, Constance Wake (1928–2017) was a film and TV actress in Behind the Headlines (1956 film), Maigret (1960 TV series) and others.

Career
Richard Burton's description of the acting profession had convinced him that it would be better than completing his chemistry degree and so Mitchell attended RADA for two years, performing in the evening with London's Unity Theatre. After a short stint as a DJ on Radio Luxembourg, in 1951, Mitchell became a versatile professional actor with straight and comedy roles on stage, radio, film and television. His first broadcast was as a regular on the radio show Educating Archie, and this led to appearances in both the radio and television versions of Hancock's Half Hour.

By the late 1950s, he regularly appeared on television: as Sean Connery's trainer in boxing drama Requiem for a Heavyweight (1957), with Charlie Drake in the sitcom Drake's Progress (BBC, 1957) and a title role in Three 'Tough' Guys (ITV, 1957), in which he played a bungling criminal. He also appeared in several episodes of Armchair Theatre. During the first of these, Underground (1958), one of the lead actors died during the live performance. He also had roles in The Avengers in addition to many ITC drama series including: William Tell, The Four Just Men, Sir Francis Drake, Danger Man and as a recurrent guest in The Saint, as in the second episode of the first season, "The Latin Touch" in 1962, depicting an Italian taxi driver.

His cinema début was in Guy Hamilton's Manuela (1957), and he began a career of minor roles as sinister foreign agents, assisted by his premature baldness and facility with Eastern European accents. He appeared in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961), the Hammer horror The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), Carry On Cleo (1964), Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? (Gerry Levy, 1964), and Help! (Richard Lester, 1965) and played leads in All the Way Up (James MacTaggart, 1970), The Chain (Jack Gold, 1984), The Dunera Boys (Ben Lewin, 1985) and Foreign Body (Ronald Neame, 1986).

In 1965, Mitchell was cast in the role for which he became best known, as the Conservative-voting, bigoted cockney West Ham United supporter Alf Garnett in a play for the BBC Comedy Playhouse series, broadcast on 22 July 1965. This was the pilot edition of the long-running series Till Death Us Do Part, with Gretchen Franklin, Una Stubbs and Anthony Booth. The part of Mum, played by Franklin, was recast with Dandy Nichols in the role when the programme was commissioned as a series. Mitchell's real life persona was different from Alf Garnett, being Jewish, Labour-voting and a staunch supporter of Tottenham Hotspur. The show ran from 1966 to 1975, in seven series, making a total of 53 30-minute episodes. While the series aimed to satirise racism, it actually also gained the support of many bigoted racists who perceived Alf as "the voice of reason".

Mitchell reprised the role of Alf Garnett in the films Till Death Us Do Part (1969) and The Alf Garnett Saga (1972), in the ATV series Till Death... (1981), and in the BBC series In Sickness and in Health (1985–92). He also reprised his role as Alf Garnett in 1983 in the television series The Main Attraction where comedians recreated their famous acts from their past in front of a live and television audience (similar to An Audience with... that began in 1976). In 1997 he played the role in An Audience with Alf Garnett. The same year, ITV aired a series of mini-episodes called A Word With Alf, featuring Alf and his friends. All the TV shows and both films were written by Johnny Speight. When Speight died in 1998, the character of Alf Garnett was retired at Mitchell's request.

Mitchell had a long and distinguished career on stage and television. Other small screen roles included a 13-episode series, Men of Affairs with Brian Rix (ITV, 1973–74), based on the West End hit farce Don't Just Lie There, Say Something! There were also performances in 1975 in Play for Today (showing that he could play a serious character role in the episode, Moss ),  as William Wardle, a crooked accountant in The Sweeney episode Big Spender (Thames Television for ITV, 1978), Lovejoy (BBC), Waking the Dead (BBC), Kavanagh QC (Central Television for ITV, he played a concentration camp survivor in the episode Ancient History), as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (BBC, 1980) and Gormenghast (BBC, 2000). In 1991 he starred as Ivan Fox, a Jewish atheist from London living in Belfast in So You Think You've Got Troubles, a BBC One comedy series written by Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks.

In 2001, he appeared in a Christmas Special episode of Last of the Summer Wine, "Potts in Pole Position".

He was a subject of the television programme This Is Your Life in 1972 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.

On stage he received extensive critical acclaim for his performances as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman at the National Theatre directed by Michael Rudman (1979, being originally cast in the role by Stephen Barry at the Playhouse in Perth, Australia); Harold Pinter's The Caretaker at the National Theatre; Pinter's The Homecoming at London's Comedy Theatre (1991) and Miller's The Price at the Apollo Theatre in 2003.

Mitchell had a number of musical roles in his lengthy career, beginning with the role of Theophile in the original London production of Can-Can and the small role of Crookfinger Jake in The Threepenny Opera. He also sang briefly in the film Till Death Do Us Part and played Alfred Doolittle on the studio album of My Fair Lady, Music Hall Songs, songs of the First World War, and other recordings such as The Writing's on the Wall, from 1967, on CBS, all in the Alf Garnett persona, were released in LP and 45 rpm single form, too, in Britain and Australia.

In 2008, at the age of 82, Mitchell was performing alongside Ross Gardiner at the Trafalgar Studios, in London's West End, as a retired dry-cleaner in Jeff Baron's portrait of Jewish-American life Visiting Mr. Green.

Awards
In 1976, his one-man show The Thoughts of Chairman Alf won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for best comedy in London's West End. In 1982, he received an Australian Film Institute Award for best supporting actor in the film Norman Loves Rose. He received two Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards—for playing Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (National Theatre, 1979) and as best supporting actor in a 2003 performance of The Price, also by Miller. His role in Death of a Salesman also won him an Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor and was highly praised by Peter Hall. Miller reportedly described Mitchell's performance as "one of the best interpretations of the part he had ever seen."

Personal life and death
Mitchell described himself in an interview as an atheist, but also stated that he "enjoy[ed] being Jewish". He was a patron of the British Humanist Association. In 1951, he married Constance Wake, an actress who appeared in early 1960s television dramas such as Maigret. They had three children, son Daniel and daughters Rebecca and Anna.

For over 20 years, Mitchell suffered pain from nerve damage, caused by transverse myelitis, and was a supporter of the Neuropathy Trust. He suffered a mild stroke in August 2004. He was back on stage a week later, reprising his lauded role as a cantankerous old Jew in Arthur Miller's The Price.

In sharp contrast to his signature Alf Garnett character (who was a staunch Conservative), Mitchell was a socialist and Labour Party supporter, who believed that the 2010 Labour Party leadership election had a lack of firebrands.

Mitchell died at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London, on 14 November 2015, two months short of his 90th birthday after a long illness.

Films

 * Five Days (1954) as Laughing Man in Bar (uncredited)
 * The Passing Stranger (1954) (uncredited)
 * Manuela (1957) as Moss
 * Barnacle Bill (1957) as Artie White
 * Girls at Sea (1958) as Arthur
 * The Trollenberg Terror (1958) as Prof. Crevett
 * Three Crooked Men (1959) as Walter Prinn
 * The Stranglers of Bombay (1959) as Merchant (uncredited)
 * Tommy the Toreador (1959) as Waiter
 * Two-Way Stretch (1960) as Tailor
 * Hell Is a City (1960) as Commercial Traveller
 * Doctor in Love (1960) as Haystack Club Manager (uncredited)
 * The Boy Who Stole a Million (1960) as Pedro
 * Surprise Package (1960) as Klimatis
 * The Pure Hell of St Trinian's (1960) as Tailor
 * The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) as Pepe Valiente
 * Don't Bother to Knock (1961) as Waiter
 * The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) as Giorgio
 * The Silent Invasion (1962) as Robert
 * Postman's Knock (1962) as Rupert
 * Operation Snatch (1962) as Contact Man
 * Village of Daughters (1962) as Puccelli (A Father)
 * The Main Attraction (1962) as Cafe Proprietor (uncredited)
 * We Joined the Navy (1962) as 'Honest' Marcel
 * The King's Breakfast (1963) as The Gym Instructor (short)
 * Edgar Wallace Mysteries episode: Incident at Midnight (1963) as Chemist
 * The Small World of Sammy Lee (1963) as Lou Leeman
 * Unearthly Stranger (1963) as Prof. Geoffrey D. Munro
 * Calculated Risk (1963) as Simmie
 * The Sicilians (1964) as O'Leary
 * Seventy Deadly Pills (1964) as Lofty
 * Carry On Cleo (1964) as Spencius
 * Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? (1964) as Emilio Dinelli, the Magician (with Ottilie Patterson)
 * The Intelligence Men (1965) as Prozoroff
 * The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965) as Mr. Zanfrello
 * San Ferry Ann (1965) as Maitre d'Hotel
 * Help! (1965) as Abdul
 * Promise Her Anything (1965) as Frank Focus / Panel Moderator
 * Night Caller from Outer Space (1965) as Reg Lilburn
 * The Sandwich Man (1966) as Gypsy Sid
 * Drop Dead Darling (1966) as Conte de Rienz / Maximillian
 * The Jokers (1967) as Lennie
 * Dying for a Smoke (1967) as Old Nick O'Teen (voice)
 * Diamonds for Breakfast (1968) as Popov
 * Till Death Us Do Part (1969) as Alf Garnett
 * The Assassination Bureau (1969) as Herr Weiss
 * The Best House in London (1969) as Count Pandolfo
 * Moon Zero Two (1969) as Hubbard
 * All the Way Up (1970) as Fred Midway
 * Innocent Bystanders (1972) as Omar
 * The Alf Garnett Saga (1972) as Alf Garnett
 * What Changed Charley Farthing? (1975) as MacGregor
 * Jabberwocky (1977) as Mr. Fishfinger
 * Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers (1977) as Morris Morris
 * Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979) as Gurdjieff's Father
 * Norman Loves Rose (1982) as Morris
 * The Plague Dogs (1982) as Tyson / Wag (voice)
 * The Chain (1984) as Bamber
 * Foreign Body (1986) as I.Q. Patel
 * Knights and Emeralds (1986) as Mr. Kirkpatrick
 * Kokoda Crescent (1988) as Stan
 * Brahms and the Little Singing Girls (1996) as Brahms
 * Crackers (1998) as Albert Hall
 * The 10th Man (2006) as Coleman (short)

Television

 * The Children of the New Forest (1955) as Oliver Cromwell
 * Hancock's Half Hour (1956–9) as Various characters (5 episodes)
 * No Shepherds Watched (1957) as Boxer Baxter (TV Movie)
 * The Man Who Was Two (1957) as Vickery (1 episode)
 * Requiem for a Heavyweight (1957) as Army
 * ''Nicholas Nickleby (1957) as Gentleman in small clothes (1 episode)
 * Big Guns (1958) as Kegworthy (5 episodes)
 * Dick and the Duchess (1958) as Charlie Burrows (1 episode)
 * Starr and Company (1958) as Charlie Rogers (3 episodes)
 * The Larkins (1958) as Maxie Green (1 episode)
 * The Vise (1958) as Ben Chou (1 episode, uncredited)
 * Underground (1958) as Stan
 * William Tell (1959) as Carlo
 * Interpol Calling (1959) as Willi (1 episode)
 * The Four Just Men (1959) as George Rudley (1 episode)
 * No Hiding Place (1960–2) as Miles Webber, Bembo (2 episodes)
 * Knight Errant Limited (1960) as P-lice Chief (1 episode
 * Man from Interpol (1960) as Pilice Chief (1 episode
 * Danger Man (1960–6) as Various characters (5 episodes)
 * Bootsie and Snudge (1961–3) as Various characters (5 episodes)
 * Colonel Trumper’s Private War (1961) as Prof. Pan Malcov (5 episodes)
 * Deadline Midnight  (1961) as Andre Gudenian (1 episode)
 * Sir Francis Drake (1961) as Roberto (1 episode)
 * Maigret (1961) as Aristide (1 episode)
 * Comedy Playhouse: Cliquot et Fils (1961) as Alphonse Lagillarde
 * Comedy Playhouse: The Channel Swimmer (1962) as Austin
 * Suspense (1962) as Mullen (1 episode)
 * Brothers in Law (1962) as George Coles (1 episode)
 * Man of the World (1962) as Alex (1 episode)
 * Ghost Squad (1962–3) as Mahmoud, Alfiat (2 episodes)
 * The Saint  (1962–3) as Marco Di Cesari (3 episodes)
 * Z-Cars (1962) as Morrie Morris (1 episode)
 * Crane (1963) as Julius Dorfmann (1 episode)
 * The Human Jungle  (1963) as Deacon Hobbs (1 episode)
 * Mauspassant (1963) as Monsieur Dubois (1 episode)
 * Zero One (1963) as Suleman Bey, Captain Awad (2 episodes)
 * Harry's Girls (1963) as The Director (1 episode)
 * Our Man at St. Mark's (1963) as Joe Meyer (1 episode)
 * The Sentimental Agent (1963) as Pugh (1 episode)
 * The Avengers (1963–7) as Various characters (3 episodes)
 * Sergeant. Cork (1964) as Kendrick (1 episode)
 * Detective (1964) as Roscovitch (1 episode)
 * The Graham Stark Show (1964) as Various characters (1 episode)
 * The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling (1964) as Dina Da (1 episode)
 * The Big Noise (1964) as Willy Lyman (1 episode)
 * Redcap (1964) as Inspector Grigoriou (1 episode)
 * A Little Big Business (1965) as Dr. Froehling (1 episode)
 * Comedy Playhouse: Till Death Us Do Part (1965) as Alf Ramsey
 * Gaslight Theatre (1965) as Various characters (5 episodes)
 * Out of the Unknown: The Fox and the Forest (1965) as Kendrick
 * The Wednesday Play: Calf Love (1966) as Herr Westermann
 * Court Martial (1966) as Guido Orsini (1 episode)
 * Frankie Howerd (1966) as Francis' Agent (1 episode)
 * Lee Oswald Assassin (1966) as Spas T.Raikin
 * Pardon the Expression (1966) as Harvey Clawson (1 episode)
 * The Man in Room 17 (1966) as Petropolous (1 episode)
 * Till Death Us Do Part (1966–75) as Alf Garnett (All 53 episodes)
 * Intrigue (1966) as Schumminge (1 episode)
 * Life with Cooper (1967) as Various characters (1 episode)
 * Misleading Cases (1967) as Professor Lindquist (1 episode)
 * Marriage and Henry Sunday (1967) as Henry Sunday
 * Comedy Playhouse: Tooth and Claw (1969) as Reuben Tooth
 * The Frankie Howerd Show (1969) as Various characters (1 episode)
 * Comedy Playhouse: No Peace on the Western Front (1972) as Fritz Van Scharganau Clausewitz
 * Black and Blue: Secrets (1973) as Rose
 * Men of Affairs (1973–4) as Sir William Mainwaring-Brown MP (All 15 episodes)
 * The Sweeney (1975) as William Wardle (1 episode)
 * Play For Today: Moss (1975) as Moss (1 episode)
 * Big Deal in New York City (1977) as Albert Cakebread
 * The Mechant of Venice (1980) as Shylock
 * The Caretaker (1981) as Davies
 * Till Death... (1981) as Alf Garnett (All 6 episodes)
 * Lady Is a Tramp (1984) as Tramp (1 episode)
 * Waterfront (1984) as Laughing Les (Mini Series)
 * Men of Letters (1984) as Sir Dorton Serry (TV Movie)
 * The Last Bastion (1984) as Franklin D Roosevelt (Mini Series)
 * The Dunera Boys (1985) as Mr Baum (Mini Series)
 * In Sickness and in Health (1985–92) as Alf Garnett (All 47 episodes)
 * Tickets for the Titanic (1988) as George (1 episode)
 * Acropolis Now (1989) as Kostas Stephanidis (1 episode)
 * Jackaroo (1990) as Ambrose Barberton (1 episode)
 * So You Think You've Got Troubles? (1991) as Ivan Fox (4 episodes)
 * Lovejoy (1993) as Uncle Jack (1 episode)
 * Screen One: Wall of Silence (1993) as Samuel Singer (1 episode)
 * Death of a Salesman (1996) as Willy Loman (TV Movie)
 * Gobble (1997) as Waterboard Chairman (TV Movie)
 * Kavanagh QC (1997) as Avran Rypin (1 episode)
 * Ain't Misbehavin' (1997) as Ray Smiles (Mini Series)
 * A Word with Alf (1997) as Alf Garnett
 * The Thoughts of Chairman Alf (1998) as Alf Garnett (All 6 episodes)
 * Gormenghast (2000) as Barquentine (4 episodes)
 * Monsignor Renard (2000) as Marshall Petain (1 episode, voice)
 * A Christmas Carol (2000) as James Scrooge (Eddie's Dad)
 * Last of the Summer Wine (2001) as Potts (1 episode)
 * Waking the Dead (2003) as Edgar Truelove (2 episodes)
 * The Shark Net (2003) as Ralph Wheatley (2 episodes)

title: Warren Mitchell


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Till Death Us Do Part

Till Death Us Do Part is a British television sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1965 to 1975. The show was first broadcast in 1965 as a Comedy Playhouse pilot, then as seven series between 1966 and 1975. In 1981, ITV continued the sitcom for six episodes, calling it Till Death.... The BBC produced a sequel from 1985 until 1992, In Sickness and in Health.

Created by Johnny Speight, Till Death Us Do Part centred on the East End Garnett family, led by patriarch Alf Garnett (Warren Mitchell), a reactionary white working-class man who holds racist and anti-socialist views. His long-suffering wife Else was played by Dandy Nichols, and his daughter Rita by Una Stubbs. Rita's husband Mike Rawlins (Anthony Booth) is a socialist "layabout" from Liverpool who frequently locks horns with Garnett. Alf Garnett became a well-known character in British culture, and Mitchell played him on stage and television until Speight's death in 1998.

In addition to the spin-off In Sickness and in Health, Till Death Us Do Part was remade in several countries including Germany (Ein Herz und eine Seele), and the Netherlands (as Tot de dood ons scheidt) in 1969 and as Met goed fatsoen in 1975, the latter was never broadcast; In Sickness and in Health was adapted as In voor- en tegenspoed in 1991–1997). It is also the show that inspired All in the Family in the United States, which, in turn, inspired the Brazilian A Grande Família. Many episodes from the first three series are thought to no longer exist, having been destroyed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as was the policy at the time.

In 2000, the show was ranked number 88 on the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes list compiled by the British Film Institute. The title is a reference to the Marriage Liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer.

Success years
The series became an instant hit because, although a comedy, it dealt with aspects of working-class life comparatively realistically and in the context of its time. It addressed racial and political issues that had been becoming increasingly prevalent in British society. Mitchell imbued the character of Alf Garnett with an earthy charm that served to humanise Alf and make him likeable. According to interviews he gave, the fact that some viewers overlooked Alf's racist views and regarded him as a "rough diamond" disappointed Speight.

The show captured a key feature of Britain in the 1960s — the public perception that the generation gap was widening. Alf, and to a lesser degree his wife, represented the old guard, the traditional and conservative attitudes of the older generation. Alf's battles with his left-wing son-in-law were not just ideological but generational and cultural. His son-in-law and daughter represented the younger generation. They supported the aspects of the new era, such as relaxed sexual norms, fashions, music, etc. The same things were anathema to Alf and in his opinion indicative of everything that was wrong with the younger generation and the liberal attitudes they embraced.

Alf was portrayed as the archetypal working-class Conservative. His two primary passions were football and politics, though his actual knowledge of either was limited. He used language considered unacceptable for television in the 1960s. He often referred to racial minorities as "coons" and similar terms. He referred to his Liverpudlian son-in-law as "Shirley Temple" or a "randy Scouse git" ("Randy Scouse Git"), as a phrase, caught the ear of Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, who heard it while on tour in the UK and used it as the title of the group's next single — though their record label renamed it "Alternate Title" in the UK market to avoid controversy), and to his wife as a "silly [old] moo" (a substitute for "cow" which was vetoed by the BBC's head of comedy Frank Muir). However, Michael Palin writes in his diary for 16 July 1976 that Warren Mitchell told him that "silly moo" was not scripted, "It came out during a rehearsal when he forgot the line 'Silly old mare'." Controversially, the show was one of the earliest mainstream programmes to feature the swear word "bloody". The show was one of many held up by Mary Whitehouse as an example of the BBC's "moral laxity".

In a demonstration of Speight's satirical skills — after a successful libel action brought against Speight by Whitehouse — he created an episode, first broadcast on 27 February 1967, in which Alf Garnett is depicted as an admirer of Whitehouse. Garnett was seen proudly reading her first book. "What are you reading?" his son-in-law asks. When he relates that it is Mary Whitehouse, his son-in-law sniggers. Alf's response is "She's concerned for the bleedin' moral fibre of the nation!" The episode ends with the book being burnt.

Ultimately "silly moo" became a comic catchphrase. Another Garnett phrase was "it stands to reason", usually before making some patently unreasonable comment. Alf was portrayed as an admirer of Enoch Powell, a right-wing Conservative politician known particularly for his strong opposition to the immigration of immigrants from non-white countries. Alf was also a supporter of West Ham United (a football club based in the East End) and known to make derogatory remarks about "the Jews up at Spurs" (referring to Tottenham Hotspur, a north London club with a sizeable Jewish following). This was a playful touch by Speight, as Warren Mitchell was both Jewish and a Tottenham Hotspur supporter.

In interviews, Speight explained he had originally based Alf on his father, an East End docker who was staunchly reactionary and held "unenlightened" attitudes toward black people. Speight made clear that he regretted that his father held such attitudes, which Speight regarded as reprehensible. Speight saw the show as a way of ridiculing such views and dealing with his complex feelings about his father.

However, it was later claimed in the book about the series, A Family at War by Mark Ward, that the only similarities between Alf and Speight's father were that his father was a hard-working, working-class East End docker and manual labourer who voted Conservative, revered traditional British values, and was very polite to everyone he met, no matter their background. It is claimed that Speight picked up the idea for Alf's bigoted personality from railway station porters he met when he had worked in temporary jobs for British Rail in the London area. The political views of both Alf and Mike were reflective of Speight's own perception of people both on the left and the right, with the ignorance and bigotry of those on the right represented by Alf and the idealism of many sections of the left represented by Mike.

Original decline
Johnny Speight gained a reputation for late delivery of scripts, sometimes unfinished and still in the form of rough notes (which would be finished and finalised as a script by the script editor and cast during rehearsals), either close to, on, or occasionally past the deadline. This was claimed by Speight to ensure maximum topicality for the series, although this was disputed by the programme's first producer, Dennis Main Wilson, who stated that Speight was frequently found late at night in a regular selection of West End bars, and that on more than one occasion the writer had to be physically dragged out of such establishments by Wilson and driven home to get the scripts typed up and finished.

This was the reason for the second series consisting of ten episodes rather than the commissioned thirteen. As three scripts that were scheduled to be recorded and broadcast towards the end of that series were not ready and actors, crew and Speight had already been paid in advance for thirteen episodes, it was decided that an Easter Monday bank holiday special – "Till Closing Time Us Do Part" – would be made and that this would mostly be made up of the cast and crew ad-libbing within the broad confines of a plot. For accounting reasons, this would be considered an 11th episode of the second series. At double the usual length, it also made up for screen time of a 12th episode. The addition of this episode meant that only one week's worth of pay was wasted, rather than three. Normally, a sitcom would have plenty of time (ranging from several weeks to several months) between recording and transmission to iron out any such script delivery problems. However, to ensure maximum topicality, most episodes of the second series of Till Death Us Do Part were recorded less than seven days before their intended transmission date, and as all studios would be booked on other nights for other – sometimes more important – productions, this meant that the recording of Till Death Us Do Part episodes could not be moved to another night or another studio should the script not be ready in time for rehearsals or recording. Should this happen (which it did towards the end of the second series), this would mean no episode ready for transmission that week and – because of the very short gap between recording and transmission and lack of unbroadcast episodes to replace them, other programmes had to be used to fill in the schedule in the last three planned weeks of the second series' thirteen-episode run. It is because of these problems of topicality delaying (sometimes cancelling) scripts that the third series is noticeably less topical than the second and had some weeks between recording and transmission to act as a "cushion" to ensure continuity of the series should one or more episodes fall through.

The late delivery of scripts had been a problem that had first reared its head during production of the first series. The second series got off to a good start in this respect with the first four scripts being delivered ahead of the deadline, but it became clear as that series wore on that Speight was having these problems again. Amongst a myriad of other problems (detailed below), the final straw for the original run appears to have been a script in the final (third) series of eight episodes not being delivered in time for rehearsals to begin and thus losing one episode. This confirmed to the BBC their suspicions that Speight was not an ideal writer to be writing for a topical sitcom.

To combat these problems, it was suggested by the production team that there be "windows" or "spaces" within the script that could easily be excised and replaced with more topical jokes (a frequent tactic used in other topical sitcoms like Yorkshire Television's The New Statesman twenty years later), a suggestion that was initially refused by Speight in the 1960s run of the series but which was taken up during the 1970s run. This came to be particularly useful to ensure maximum topicality during the 1974 series, some episodes of which reflected and satirised the UK miner's strike and the Three Day Week. However, Speight's initial refusal to accept these suggestions, combined with his constant demands of pay increases (eventually becoming the highest-paid comedy writer and then – after another increase – the highest-paid TV writer, during a time of strict public-sector pay restraints imposed by the Labour government of Harold Wilson, which was a source of particular embarrassment to the BBC) and the increasing clashes he and the BBC were having with Mary Whitehouse, came to a head. Over time, Mary Whitehouse and the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (NVLA) had several court cases with the BBC directly or indirectly related to the series, some of which Whitehouse or the NVLA won. During the first two series, the programme was originally broadcast on weeknights in a 7:30pm timeslot, before the post-9pm "watershed", and both Whitehouse and Speight campaigned for such a change in scheduling, the only aspect of the programme that they agreed upon. The reluctance of the BBC to reschedule the series at first can possibly be explained in the fact that the "watershed" was a relatively new phenomenon at the time and there was no consensus between the BBC and the ITA over what should and should not constitute family-friendly broadcasting, nor when this "watershed" should start, the responsibility over what constituted family-friendly viewing being primarily placed with the child's parents.

Public outcry over the episode "The Blood Donor" as being a particularly distasteful episode and a new Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors – Lord Hill (who had been appointed as Lord Normanbrook's successor when Normanbrook died suddenly in June 1967) – taking a rather different, more conservative approach to the running of the BBC than the liberal and laid-back attitude of his predecessor, were two other factors that turned up the heat of criticism against the series. Lord Hill had previously been the chairman of the Independent Television Authority and ensured that the ITV network remained relatively controversy-free. He shared many of the same opinions as Whitehouse and the wider NVLA, which also clashed with the opinions of the then BBC Director General, Hugh Carleton Greene (he is quoted as having the "utmost contempt" for Hill), who had been the series' biggest champion and gleefully ignored Whitehouse whenever he had to. Many other members of BBC management also voiced their opinions directly to Hill over his appointment, most notably the then Controller of BBC2, David Attenborough, who compared Hill being Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors to "giving Rommel the command of the Eighth Army". It should be added that neither Hill, nor his predecessor, Normanbrook, had any direct influence over the series itself (as the BBC Charter prohibits this), but their relationship with the Director-General indirectly influenced the programme. Because of his total personality and culture clash with Hill, Greene resigned in July 1968 (soon after the series ended its original run) and, with the series' biggest champion now out of the BBC, it looked like the show would be cancelled. Another champion of the series – Head of Comedy output at the BBC, Frank Muir had resigned his post between the second and third series to take up a new, similar, post at David Frost's fledgling new ITV franchise London Weekend Television, which would launch on 2 August 1968. His replacement, Michael Mills, recognised that the series had enormous potential but did not understand why it had to be so topical, controversial or full of swearing and blasphemy, which hugely irritated Speight.

The final straw for the BBC at this time came when a script for the third series, which was intended to be made up of eight episodes, was so late that it missed the scheduled beginning of rehearsals. This episode was intended to be between the fourth and fifth episodes, putting a break in the recording dates and leading to one week's less space between recording and transmission of episodes.

Given the problems the series had given the BBC with steep pay increases in the midst of a government-imposed public sector pay freeze, scripts being delivered in varying degrees of completeness (and sometimes not at all), several court cases (usually libel or blasphemy), hundreds of complaints, several run-ins with Mary Whitehouse and the NVLA, the loss of the series' two biggest champions (first Frank Muir, then Hugh Carleton Greene), the new management having different opinions over the programme and the general stress its production placed on staff (primarily down to the incomplete scripts submitted by Speight), all despite its ratings success over ITV (particularly over Coronation Street) in its first two series and its general popularity as a whole, contributed to the BBC getting cold feet over the programme. A planned fourth series, scheduled for autumn 1968, was scrapped.

Revival
The programme was revived in 1972, during a time when the BBC were reviving some of their more successful sitcoms from the 1960s for colour production (Steptoe and Son being an example). A contributory factor to this decision may have been that, since the ITV franchise changes of the summer of 1968, ITV had paid a lot more attention to making sitcoms, particularly those featuring, and appealing to, the working class, which had previously been the preserve of the BBC during the 1960s. This can be attributed as a direct effect of the popularity of Till Death Us Do Part, The Likely Lads and Steptoe and Son, which were the first sitcoms to truly depict the realities of working-class life in Britain and were not set in typical "middle-class sitcom suburbia". In amongst these programmes, Till Death Us Do Part would not look as out of place as it did in the late 1960s, particularly now as the show would be less topical (bar some 1974 episodes) but no less political or controversial, as it had originally been. This was of great help to Speight, as it now meant that he did not have to wait until the very last minute to submit completed or half-completed scripts.

Second decline
However, this was also the series' downfall, as viewers noted the increasingly less-topical plots and the satire was much less vicious than it had been in the 1960s, with the style of the series in both 1975 series bearing little semblance to those transmitted in the late 1960s. Speight has put this down not only to reducing the pressures of working on a topical sitcom but also to his own personal declining interest in politics, which may be an explanation of why In Sickness and In Health was much less political, and not as vicious as its predecessor could be.

Additionally, towards the end of the series Dandy Nichols fell ill and was unable to attend the live-audience recordings. So, in a later episode Else was seen leaving for Australia, to Alf's dismay. Her scenes were recorded separately from the rest of the episodes. The plan was for Nichols to tape scenes from time to time set in Australia where she would phone Alf or Rita in short segments, but only one episode featured such a scene and the idea was dropped due to Nichols' poor health.

Patricia Hayes, who had been seen from time to time previously as next-door neighbour Min, became a starring character along with her husband Bert, previously played by Bill Maynard and now by Alfie Bass. The show's rating began to suffer and when it was clear Nichols was not returning as hoped by the writer, in 1975, the series was cancelled. The final episode saw Alf lose his job and receive a telegram from Else asking for a divorce.

Production
As with most BBC sitcoms Till Death Us Do Part was recorded before a live studio audience. The programmes were recorded onto two-inch quadruplex videotape. From 1966 to 1968, the show was transmitted in black and white. When the series returned in 1972, it was transmitted in colour. The opening titles/end credits of the first colour episodes originally used the black-and-white sequence from the 1960s tinted in red, as seen on UKTV Gold repeats in 2006.

The house seen in the opening and closing titles to the 1960s episodes was located on Garnet Street in Wapping (from where writer Johnny Speight took the Garnett family name). This terrace was demolished in June 1968 for road widening (which is why the street used in the 1969 film and the opening titles to the colour episodes do not match with the houses used in the original opening sequence). Subsequent to this, in the 1980s, a terrace of newer multicoloured homes and an estate agents took the places of the terraced estate. They are located on Garnet Street in close proximity to the local Wallace James shop, St Peter's Primary School, Gastronomica bar, Docklands General Store and Crane Wharf.

Missing black and white episodes
Some of the show's 26 episodes from series 1–3 that were videotaped in black and white and broadcast between 1965 and 1968 no longer exist; they were wiped by the BBC during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Currently, most material from thirteen episodes still survives, with one episode on the original tape and the rest on film or domestic formats. The surviving 1960s B&W episodes are: "Arguments, Arguments"; "A House With Love in It"; "Intolerance"; "Peace & Goodwill"; "Sex Before Marriage"; "In Sickness and in Health"; "State Visit"; "Alf's Dilemma"; "Till Closing Time Do Us Part"; "The Phone"; "The Blood Donor"; "Monopoly" and "Aunt Maud". Sequences exist from: the pilot episode; "The Bulldog Breed"; "A Wapping Mythology (The Workers' King)"; and "The Puppy".

The public appeal campaign, the BBC Archive Treasure Hunt, continues to search for lost episodes. In 1997, the long-lost episode "Alf's Dilemma" was found in a private collection on a 21-minute 16mm telerecording. This is the episode featuring Garnett reading Mary Whitehouse's first book. The episode was rebroadcast in 1998 on UK Gold.

In 2001, two episodes from Series 3 were recovered, "The Phone" and "Aunt Maud". Both were taken from off air recordings on a Philips EL3400 open reel videotape by Martin Loach, the latter episode was missing the first two minutes.

In August 2009, two more black and white episodes, "In Sickness and in Health" and "State Visit", were returned by a film collector.

The episode "Intolerance" was recovered in August 2016. It was screened at the BFI's annual "Missing Believed Wiped" event on Saturday 16 December 2016 at their Southbank venue. Network's late 2016 complete DVD box set contains off-air audio recordings of what was then every missing episode. In autumn 2017, a copy of "Sex Before Marriage" was recovered.

Till Death Us Do Part started airing on That's TV on 4 September 2022, as part of a nightly BBC sitcom double bill with The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, with four 'lost episodes' ("Intolerance", "In Sickness and In Health", "State Visit" and "The Phone") included as part of the run by the channel.

In October 2023, Kaleidoscope announced the discovery of the previously lost episode "Monopoly" which was recorded on a domestic 405 line reel to reel tape format, which was donated to the organisation by a member of the cast in 2018. Two further copies of previously recovered episodes were also discovered, including another copy of the episode "The Phone" and a complete copy of "Aunt Maud" which previously existed incomplete.

Differences with All in the Family

 * In contrast with their American counterparts Archie and Edith Bunker, Alf and Else Garnett had a more dysfunctional marriage which involved both constantly hurling insults at each other.
 * Unlike Edith, who usually did not react to Archie whenever he insulted her by calling her "dingbat," Else was less happy with her marriage and would call her husband "pig" after he called her "silly moo." Unlike Else, Edith would refrain from sharing her husband's prejudices.
 * Though both the Garnett and Bunker households were intended to represent working class life, Archie Bunker's house was one of more private, cozier quality. In contrast to the Bunker household, Alf Garnett's family lived in a very modest house which, at least in the series’ early seasons, had only one lavatory (and that outdoors), and no telephone. Unlike the less prosperous Garnett household, the socio-economic status of the Bunker household was considered to be lower-middle class.
 * Like Alf Garnett, Archie Bunker was both conservative-minded and bigoted. However, Alf's attitude and language was more violent. Unlike the more abrasive Alf Garnett, Archie Bunker was regarded as a tamer, watered-down version of his British counterpart, and was even considered a protagonist.
 * Like Mike Rawlins, Michael Stivic lacked religion and had left-wing political views. However, unlike Rawlins, Stivic's political views were not socialist-leaning, as he was a liberal Democrat.

Controversy
Although Speight said he wrote the series to challenge racism, it was felt by some critics that many people watched it because they agreed with Garnett's views. Anthony Clark of Screenonline stated, "Sadly, Speight's defence was far from watertight—having a white actor, Spike Milligan, black up and don a turban in one episode is clearly questionable", and added that "In Till Death Us Do Part, Alf's lengthy rants go largely unchallenged; his wife does little more than raise an eyebrow, while the responses from daughter Rita and the wholly unsympathetic Mike are often little more than impotent quips or frustrated laughter." However, John Cleese defended the series in 2020, saying "We laughed at Alf's reactionary views. Thus, we discredited them, by laughing at him. Of course, there were people — very stupid people — who said, 'Thank God someone is saying these things at last'. We laughed at these people too."

The linguist Alan Crosby has argued that the constant use of the phrase "Scouse git" with reference to Anthony Booth's character spread both the word "Scouse" and negative stereotypes of Liverpudlians.

Sequels
In 1980, the ITV company ATV picked up the series and produced a solo show starring Alf, titled The Thoughts of Chairman Alf at Christmas, transmitted on 26 December. The master copy has been wiped; however, a home video recording is currently available to view at the National Media Museum in Bradford.

In 1981, ATV made six episodes under the title Till Death.... The series had Alf and Else sharing a bungalow with Min (Patricia Hayes) in Eastbourne following the death of her husband Bert (Alfie Bass). Although Rita remained in the cast, Anthony Booth declined to return. Rita's son Michael was now a teenager and a punk rocker (even though he was born in 1972 and therefore should only have been about nine or ten). The series was not a success and when ATV was restructured as Central Television in 1982, Till Death... was not recommissioned.

Alf Garnett returned to the BBC in 1985 for In Sickness and in Health. This took Alf and Else, who was now in a wheelchair, onward into old age, and some of Alf's more extreme opinions were shown to have mellowed. Una Stubbs made some guest appearances, but Anthony Booth was not interested in reprising his role. Eventually, Mike and Rita divorced, and Rita began dating a doctor. After the first series, Dandy Nichols died, and subsequent episodes showed Alf having to deal with life as a widower.

The loss of Else (and later, Rita) as regulars in the cast meant that new characters had to be brought in as antagonists for Alf. These notably included his home help, Winston (played by Eamonn Walker), who was both black and gay, and Alf's prim upstairs neighbour, Mrs. Hollingbery (played by Carmel McSharry), who eventually agreed to marry Alf.

In 1988, Speight was warned about the use of racist language; after discussion, it was decided that Alf's racist language was to be discontinued and the character of Winston was to be written out. With such improvements helping to update the basic concept, In Sickness and in Health ran until 1992.

Warren Mitchell also appeared solo on stage and TV as Alf Garnett, dispensing variations on Alf's homespun reactionary philosophy and singing old music hall songs, most notably in the London Weekend Television show An Audience with Alf Garnett.

After Johnny Speight's death in July 1998, Mitchell decided to retire the character of Alf Garnett.

Cast

 * Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett
 * Dandy Nichols as Else Garnett
 * Una Stubbs as Rita Rawlins, née Garnett
 * Anthony Booth as Mike Rawlins
 * Joan Sims as Gran
 * Patricia Hayes as Min Reed
 * Alfie Bass as Bert Reed
 * Hugh Lloyd as Wally Carey
 * Pat Coombs as Mrs. Carey
 * Will Stampe as Fred the barman

In the Comedy Playhouse pilot, Alf's family name was Ramsey, but the BBC changed his name to Garnett for the subsequent series, to avoid confusion with the England football manager at the time.

Film adaptations
Two feature films were made based on the series – the first was Till Death Us Do Part (1969), whose first half dealt with the younger Alf and Else during World War II, and whose second half dealt with all the Garnetts in the present day being moved from their East End slum to the new town of Hemel Hempstead, and the adjustments and changes that brought on the family. It gave a nuanced glimpse of British life at the time. The second film, The Alf Garnett Saga (1972), had Adrienne Posta playing the part of Rita and Paul Angelis playing Mike. It is notable for featuring Alf Garnett on an LSD trip.

DVD releases
In the UK, Network previously released the first two colour series (4 and 5) on DVD, but these releases are now discontinued, as the licence has since expired, and rights have reverted to BBC Worldwide, who release their titles through 2 Entertain. On 5 December 2016, Network, under licence with BBC Worldwide and 2 Entertain, released the whole colour series (4 to 7), along with every surviving episode from the black-&-white series (1 to 3) and off-air remastered audio recordings of all lost episodes, on DVD as an eight-disc box-set included with a detailed booklet which includes black-and-white and colour photographs, a "story of" and a full list of episode synopses. The episode Sex Before Marriage, recovered in 2017, was included as an extra on Network's 2019 release of the first film on both DVD and Blu-Ray.

The fourth series was available in the United States and Canada, having been released before the Network edition and featuring some title sequence variations. The 1969 movie is available in both the UK and the US, but the 1972 movie is only available on DVD via bootlegs.

All six series and the Christmas specials of In Sickness and in Health have been released on DVD by 2 Entertain.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Till Death Us Do Part


text:
Today's New International Version

Today's New International Version (TNIV) is an English translation of the Bible which was developed by the Committee on Bible Translation (CBT). The CBT also developed the New International Version (NIV) in the 1970s. The TNIV is based on the NIV. It is explicitly Protestant like its predecessor; the deuterocanonical books are not part of this translation. The TNIV New Testament was published in March 2002. The complete Bible was published in February 2005. The rights to the text are owned by Biblica (formerly International Bible Society). Zondervan published the TNIV in North America. Hodder & Stoughton published the TNIV in the UK and European Union.

A team of 13 translators worked on the translation, with forty additional scholars reviewing the translation work. The team was designed to be cross-denominational.

In 2011, both the 1984 edition of the NIV and the TNIV were discontinued, following the release of a revised and updated version of the NIV.

Translation philosophy
The translation took more than a decade to complete; 13 evangelical scholars worked on the translation: Ronald F. Youngblood, Kenneth L. Barker, John H. Stek, Donald H. Madvig, R. T. France, Gordon Fee, Karen H. Jobes, Walter Liefeld, Douglas J. Moo, Bruce K. Waltke, Larry L. Walker, Herbert M. Wolf and Martin Selman. Forty other scholars, many of them experts on specific books of the Bible, reviewed the translation teams' work. They came from a range of Evangelical denominational backgrounds.

The intent of the TNIV translators was to produce an accurate and readable translation in contemporary English. The Committee on Bible Translation wanted to build a new version on the heritage of the NIV and, like its predecessor, create a balanced mediating version–one that would fall in-between the most literal translation and the most free; between word-for-word (Formal Equivalence) and thought-for-thought (Dynamic Equivalence).

For translation a wide range of manuscripts were reviewed. The Masoretic text, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Greek Septuagint or (LXX), the Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac Peshitta, the Aramaic Targums, and for the Psalms the Juxta Hebraica of Jerome were all consulted for the Old Testament. The Dead Sea Scrolls were occasionally followed where the Masoretic Text seemed inconsistent. The United Bible Societies Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament text was used for the New Testament.

Differences
Approximately 7% of the text was changed from the most recent (1984) version of the NIV. According to Craig Blomberg the TNIV moves in a "more literal direction three times more often than not". Mark L. Strauss has stated that the majority of changes are "based on advances in biblical scholarship, linguistics, and archaeology".

In Matthew 1:18, where the NIV says that Mary was "with child", the TNIV simply says Mary was "pregnant".

In Luke 12:38, the phrase "second or third watch of the night" employed in the NIV is changed to "middle of the night or toward daybreak" in the TNIV.

The TNIV translators have, at times, opted for more traditional Anglo-Saxon or poetic renderings than those found in the NIV. For example, "the heavens" is sometimes chosen to replace "the sky", as is the case in Isaiah 50:3: "I clothe the heavens with darkness and make sackcloth its covering".

At times the TNIV offers a different or nuanced understanding of a passage. For example, in the NIV, Psalm 26:3 reads, "For your love is ever before me, / and I walk continually in your truth". The TNIV reads, "For I have always been mindful of your unfailing love / and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness". There are several changes in this one verse, but of special note is the TNIV's translation of the Hebrew word ’emet. The TNIV translators took this word to mean more than simple honesty in Psalm 26:3, referring more specifically to reliability or trustworthiness.

Examples of other changes are "truly I tell you" becomes "I tell you the truth;" "fellow workers" become "coworkers;" "the Jews", particularly in John's Gospel, often becomes "Jewish leaders" when the context makes the statement's real meaning apparent; and "miracles", especially in John, become the more literal "signs", "miraculous signs", or "works". The word for "Spirit", where there is a good chance it means the Holy Spirit, is now capitalized. "Peter" is now rendered "Cephas" when the Greek merely transliterates the Hebrew name.

Other notable changes are that "Christ" has regularly been rendered as "Messiah", and "saints" has often been replaced with terms such as "God's people" or "believers".

Gender language and the TNIV
Among other differences from the NIV, the TNIV uses gender-neutral language to refer to people. Two examples of this kind of translation decision are found in Genesis and Matthew:

Genesis 1:27 reads, "So God created human beings in his own image." Older translations use the word "man" to translate the word אָדָם (’adam) employed in the Hebrew language, the same word used as the proper name of the first man married to the first woman, Eve.

Matthew 5:9 reads: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." Here, the Greek word huioi is translated "children" rather than "sons" as found in other modern English translations such as the Revised Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, New King James Version, and the Amplified Bible.

However, the 1611 Authorized King James Version also renders this passage as "children" rather than "sons." Masculine references to God, such as "Father" and "Son," are not modified from the literal translation in the TNIV.

Under 30% of the changes in the TNIV involve the use of inclusive language. The TNIV's approach to gender inclusive language is similar to the New International Version Inclusive Language Edition, New Revised Standard Version, the New Living Translation, the New Century Version, and the Contemporary English Version.

The TNIV and οἱ Ἰουδαίοι (hoi ioudaioi)
In the TNIV some original Greek text references to οἱ Ἰουδαίοι (transliterated hoi ioudaioi), are changed from the original English translation of "the Jews" to "Jewish leaders" or simply "they" (such as in John 18:36). This change has been called for by Jewish leaders as a way of avoiding misunderstanding in the Gospel of John.

A number of evangelical scholars agree with this change. The TNIV is not alone among English Bible versions in following recent biblical scholarship on this matter.

Circulation

 * In 2002, Zondervan published the TNIV New Testament.
 * In 2005, the TNIV New Testament Audio Bible was published by Hodder & Stoughton. It features an Anglicised Version of the Today's New International Version read by a cast including Tyler Butterworth, Susan Sheridan, Joan Walker, Daniel Philpott, and Anna Bentinck. Available in CD and MP3 format. A downloadable MP3 format can also be found at voxbiblia.com
 * In 2005, Zondervan planned to advertise the TNIV in Rolling Stone as part of its campaign to launch the full TNIV Bible to "spiritually intrigued 18 to 34-year-olds." Just weeks before the ad's scheduled run date, Rolling Stone pulled the ad, citing a policy against religious advertisements in its magazine. Beginning with a story in USA Today, media frenzy ensued and two weeks later, Rolling Stone reversed its position and published the ad.
 * In 2006, Zondervan launched the TNIV Study Bible with study notes and a 700-page topical index.
 * In 2007, the International Bible Society released The Books of the Bible, which makes several changes in formatting the text. The TNIV text is used without chapter and verse divisions.  Section headings are removed and footnotes are moved to the end of each book. The books are presented in an alternate order, and longer works that were divided over time are restored to their original unity. (For example, 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings were originally a single book. They are recombined in The Books of the Bible as Samuel-Kings.)
 * Also in 2007, a manga version of the TNIV was released. It was created by British/Nigerian artist Ajibayo Akinsiku who goes by the pseudonym Siku.
 * In 2008, Zondervan released the TNIV Reference Bible. University teacher Rick Mansfield stated in an online review of a preview copy that it is "the edition of the TNIV I wish I had been using from the very beginning."
 * With the 2011 release of an updated version of the NIV, both the TNIV and the 1984 NIV have been discontinued. Keith Danby, president, and chief executive officer of Biblica, said that they erred in presenting past updates — failing to convince people that revisions were needed and underestimating readers' loyalty to the 1984 NIV.

Supporters
Denominations supportive of the TNIV include the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), which officially endorsed the TNIV as an acceptable translation for use, the Evangelical Covenant Church and the Free Methodist Church of North America. Scholars from the Free Methodist Church of North America had a varied response from it "constitutes no threat" to "most accurate ever."

Evangelical scholars and pastoral leaders supporting the project include Mark L. Strauss, Tremper Longman, John Ortberg, Adam Hamilton, Craig Blomberg, Darrell Bock, Don Carson, Peter Furler, Bill Hybels, Ben Witherington III, Lee Strobel,  Philip Yancey, Dan Kimball, Terri Blackstock, Erwin McManus, Ted Haggard and others.

Critics
In June 2002, over 100 evangelical leaders signed a 'Statement of Concern' opposing the TNIV. The Presbyterian Church in America and the Southern Baptist Convention passed resolutions opposing the TNIV and other inclusive-language translations.

Evangelical scholars and various public figures critical of inclusive-language translations include John F. MacArthur, J. I. Packer, Jack T. Chick, Gail Riplinger, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Texe Marrs, Wayne Grudem, Peter Ruckman, D. James Kennedy, Josh McDowell, R. Albert Mohler, Jr., John Piper, Pat Robertson, R.C. Sproul, and Joni Eareckson Tada.

title: Today's New International Version