Are You Being Served?


Are You Being Served? is a British television sitcom that was broadcast from 1972 to 1985. It was created and written by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd. Croft also served as executive producer and director. Michael Knowles and John Chapman also wrote certain episodes. Produced by the BBC, the series starred Mollie Sugden, Trevor Bannister, Frank Thornton, John Inman, Wendy Richard, Arthur Brough, Nicholas Smith, Larry Martyn, Harold Bennett, Arthur English, and Mike Berry.
Set in London, the show followed the misadventures and mishaps of the staff and their regular rotating series of customers at the retail ladies' and gentlemen's clothing departments in the flagship department store of a fictional chain called Grace Brothers.
The series was broadcast on the BBC for 10 series, totalling 69 episodes between 8 September 1972 and 1 April 1985, including five Christmas specials. The sitcom proved a ratings hit with UK audiences, and gained international recognition when broadcast across several English-speaking countries, including Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the Republic of Ireland, and the United States; the latter gaining it a loyal following when PBS television stations began airing reruns in the mid-1980s, along with other British sitcoms.
Are You Being Served? was one of several television series predominant at the time that were adapted for the cinema screen, and a feature film of the same title was released in 1977. A spin-off television series, Grace & Favour ran from 1992 to 1993 with the same main cast. In 2004, Are You Being Served? was ranked 20th in a television countdown of Britain's Best Sitcom. A one-off revival episode with a new cast was created in 2016. The sitcom – including its pilot and Christmas specials – the spin-off and the film have since been released on DVD.

Premise

Are You Being Served? depicted the lives of the staff of a fictional department store, Grace Brothers. Its main characters served in the clothing departments for men and women, alongside their senior staff, maintenance workers and the store's owner. The sitcom focused on the relationships among staff, their attempts to improve sales, and the effects of local events that impacted the store's running.
A key humorous aspect of the series was a parody of the British class system, which permeated the interactions among management, sales personnel and the maintenance staff. The episodes rarely featured locations outside the store, with most of the action taking place on the shop floor and the staff-only areas. Characters also rarely addressed each other by their first names, even after work, instead using their surnames in the manner of "Mr", "Miss", or "Mrs".
The sitcom featured humour based on sexual innuendo, misunderstanding, mistaken identity, farce, and occasional slapstick. In addition, there were sight gags generated by outrageous costumes which the characters were sometimes required to wear for store promotions, and gaudy store displays sometimes featuring malfunctioning robotic mannequins. The show is remembered for its prolific use of double entendres. Alongside the comedy, some episodes also conducted specialised dance routines which were choreographed either to be natural or sometimes comedic in effect.

Production

Programme conception

The idea for the show came from Lloyd's brief period in the early 1950s working at Simpsons of Piccadilly, a clothing store which traded for over 60 years until its closure in 1999. The inspiration for the store has also been credited to the former Clements of Watford where the concept of the floor walker character Captain Peacock was devised.

Broadcast

Are You Being Served? was originally produced as a standalone pilot episode for the BBC Television Comedy Playhouse series, but the episode was not selected for broadcast. During the 1972 Summer Olympics, television coverage of the games was interrupted by the Munich massacre. The BBC, faced with a gap in the schedules, selected the unused pilot episode to fill a 30-minute slot on Friday 8 September. The episode was not well received by critics, but David Croft's reputation as a writer enabled him to gain support from the BBC's Head of Light Entertainment, Bill Cotton, to turn the pilot into a series. After Croft agreed to a limited budget and a short production schedule, a first series of five further episodes was commissioned. The series was broadcast with the repeated pilot episode as episode one on Wednesday 14 March 1973. Cotton expressed some dissatisfaction with the character of Mr Humphries, and reportedly told Croft to "get rid of the poof". Croft refused to alter his scripts and threatened to quit, telling Cotton, "If the poof goes, I go".
The first series was initially aired on a Wednesday timeslot, in competition with the ITV soap opera Coronation Street. As a consequence, Are You Being Served? received relatively little attention, but when the BBC later repeated the show on a Friday evenings primetime slot, its popularity soared.
The sitcom was recorded at BBC Television Centre in London in front of a live studio audience, on two main adjoining sets, the Grace Bros shop floor and the staff canteen. The cast and crew rehearsed and filmed one episode each week.
After a successful 13-year run, Are You Being Served? came to an end on 1 April 1985.
Of the original cast, only John Inman, Mollie Sugden, Frank Thornton, Wendy Richard and Nicholas Smith appeared in all 69 episodes. The same five later featured in the sequel sitcom, Grace & Favour. The cast performed in character for a stage sketch on the BBC1 programme Variety on 19 June 1976.

Restoration of the 1972 pilot

Although the pilot was produced in colour, the videotape was wiped in the 1970s, leaving only a 16mm black-and-white film telerecording, which was made for international syndication to countries where colour television broadcasts had not yet been adopted. In 2009, the pilot episode was restored to colour using the colour recovery technique previously used for the Dad's Army episode "Room at the Bottom". The restored colour version was first shown on BBC2 on 1 January 2010 as part of a special Are You Being Served? night. As of 2025, the colour version has yet to be released on DVD or Blu-ray.

Character development

The 1972 Comedy Playhouse pilot had originally been conceived with Mr Lucas as the lead character, providing a vehicle for Trevor Bannister's acting career. In the early episodes, Lloyd and Croft recognised that the characters of Mr Humphries and Mrs Slocombe were raising the most laughter from the studio audience, and as a result they became breakout characters, receiving the best lines in the scripts of the new series. The phrase "I'm free!" was first spoken by Mrs Slocombe in the pilot. John Inman reportedly first used the phrase behind the scenes which amused his colleagues so much that Mollie Sugden suggested to the writers that Inman should be given the line in future scripts. Inman developed "I'm free!" as his camp catchphrase in Series 2, and it rapidly became one of the most popular catchphrases in British comedy.

Theme tune

The theme tune, written by the show's co-writer David Croft and composer Ronnie Hazlehurst, consists of an imaginary lift girl, voiced by Stephanie Gathercole, also Mr Rumbold's first secretary,,, announcing each floor over the musique concrète sounds of a cash register and a simple musical accompaniment.
The 1977 Are You Being Served? film has a different version of the theme tune which is longer, in a different key and without the floor announcements. A remix of the theme was released in 1996 by a dance act calling itself "Grace Brothers", and featured vocal samples of John Inman and Frank Thornton.
There is an homage to the theme tune in the Ladytron song "Paco!" from the album 604, and New Zealand band Minuit's "I Hate Guns". A lugubrious version of the theme tune is featured on the album The Ape of Naples by the experimental music group Coil. The theme tune has also been covered by Australian band Regurgitator on their 1999 album ...art. Pop singer Jamelia's song "Window Shopping" begins with a sample of the familiar cash register sound effect as well as Mrs Slocombe's voice inquiring, "Good morning, Mr Grainger; are you free?"
The song was also used in a 2016 Audi advertisement for its Quattro range.

Cast

Main cast

  • John Inman as Mr Wilberforce Claybourne Humphries: a camp-acting sales assistant in gents' clothing. Inman often portrayed the character as being implied to have a gay lifestyle, with Humphries frequently using double entendres in episodes.
  • Mollie Sugden as Mrs Betty Slocombe: a senior sales assistant and head of the ladies' department, often portrayed with a different hair colour in each episode. The sitcom frequently saw Sugden's character telling double entendre stories about her pet cat, often referring to it as "my pussy".
  • Wendy Richard as Miss Shirley Brahms: a young, attractive, working-class, cockney junior sales assistant to Mrs Slocombe, who sometimes referred to her as "dead common".
  • Frank Thornton as Captain Stephen Peacock: a haughty floorwalker who purportedly fought in the North Africa Campaign of World War II, although in one episode a wartime acquaintance reveals him to have been a NAAFI corporal. Croft designed the character to command respect and often act as leader during difficult times, with little backstory exploration.
  • Arthur Brough as Mr Ernest Grainger : a 40-year veteran of Grace Brothers, a senior sales assistant and head of the gents' department. Croft devised the character as being somewhat unlikeable and displaying his age such as sleeping during opening hours. Brough made his final appearance as Grainger in the 1977 film, dying before taping began on the sixth series.
  • Trevor Bannister as Mr James/Dick Lucas : a young, penniless, womanising junior salesman in the gents' department, often cheeky and mocking to the female staff in the ladies' department. Bannister maintained his role in the show until the end of the seventh series, before leaving to focus on his other commitments. In an interview held after the sitcom's conclusion, Wendy Richard claimed the sitcom was originally devised to be a platform for Bannister to secure his career on other television programmes.
  • Nicholas Smith as Mr Cuthbert Rumbold an autocratic, obsequious person, but an altogether bumbling and incompetent floor manager. He seemed to never understand explanations, but used his own confused interpretations to create comedy effect.
  • Harold Bennett as "Young" Mr Grace : the elderly but stingy owner of Grace Bros, often portrayed with attractive young women and a running joke of him being respected despite being slightly too old for his position. Bennett died following the eighth series, prior to the broadcast of the 1981 Christmas special; his character was referenced in the first episode of the spinoff series Grace & Favour.
  • Larry Martyn as Mr Mash : a working class stock and maintenance man at Grace Bros, often mistreated by Peacock due to rules regarding the presence of maintenance staff during opening hours. The character was designed to help portray some of the specially designed comedic display units that would feature in episodes. Martyn left the sitcom after the 1975 Christmas special, with his character written out of the programme.
  • Arthur English as Mr Beverley Harman : a working class stock and maintenance man at Grace Bros, who garners more friendly relations with the floor staff than Mr Mash. English's character was created after Martyn's character was written out of the series, with Harman becoming a staple in the sitcom through much of its broadcast.
  • James Hayter as Mr Percival Tebbs : a prominent salesman assigned to the men's department in order to replace Mr Grainger. The character was created following the death of Brough, but lasted only for the sixth series, after which he was paid generously to leave by a snack manufacturer which wanted him to exclusively voice its television adverts.
  • Alfie Bass as Mr Harry Goldberg : a senior salesman, originally a junior, brought in to replace Mr Tebbs after retiring. Bass was brought in to replace Hayter after his departure, but dropped out of the programme following the conclusion of the seventh series.
  • Mike Berry as Mr Bert Spooner : a junior sales assistant, mimicking similar traits to Mr Lucas. Berry was brought in to replace Bannister following his departure from the programme.
  • Kenneth Waller as "Old" Mr Henry Grace : "Young" Mr Grace's even-older brother, who took over the running of Grace Bros while his younger brother took a sabbatical to write his memoirs. Like Dad's Armys Clive Dunn, Waller was much younger than his character's age and so underwent makeup similar to Dunn to "age up". The actor was brought in to replace Bennett, who left the series after the first episode of Series 8 due to declining health. "Old" Mr. Grace wasn't received well by fans, so he was dropped in favour of bringing back "Young" Mr. Grace as an invisible character.
  • Milo Sperber as Mr Grossman : an expert shoe salesman assigned to the shop floor between men's and ladies'. The character was brought in as a replacement for Mr. Goldberg, but Sperber dropped out after four episodes to take a lucrative movie role.
  • Benny Lee as Mr Abraham Klein : a sales assistant assigned to the gents' department to help out with upcoming sales in the store. Like Sperber, Lee lasted only four episodes before writers dropped his character from the sitcom.
  • Candy Davis as Miss Belfridge,: the final and longest-lasting of Mr Rumbold's secretaries, an attractive younger woman heavily implied to be in a relationship with Captain Peacock.