Everything about Are You Being Served totally explained
Are You Being Served? was a long-running
British sitcom broadcast from 1972 to 1985. It was set in the men's and women's department of a large fictional
London store called
Grace Brothers. It was mainly written by
Jeremy Lloyd and
David Croft, with contributions by
Michael Knowles and
John Chapman. The idea for the show came from Lloyd's brief stint working at
Simpsons of Piccadilly in the early 1950s, a classy clothing store which traded for over 60 years until 1999.
The episodes rarely left the store, and to parody the stereotype of the rigid British class system, characters rarely addressed each other by their given names, even after work. In 2004, it came 20th in
Britain's Best Sitcom.
Cast
Plot
Are You Being Served? featured a lot of humour based on sexual innuendo, misunderstandings, and mistaken identity. In addition there were sight gags generated by outrageous costumes the characters were sometimes required to wear for store promotions, and gaudy store displays frequently featuring malfunctioning robotic mannequins. The show is well remembered for its prolific use of
double entendres.
Despite this abundance of gags, the main humorous base of the series was a merciless attack on the British class system. This permeated every interaction in the show and was especially evident in the conversations between maintenance men Mr. Mash or Mr. Harman and the ostensibly higher-class store personnel.
Characters included such
stereotypes as the
effeminate Mr. Humphries, who lived with his mother; Captain Peacock, the haughty floorwalker who allegedly fought
Rommel in the
North Africa Campaign of
World War II (but was actually in the Service Corps), and the snobbish and boisterous Mrs. Slocombe of the ever-changing hair colour.
The show spawned the
catch phrase "Are you free?", usually said by Captain Peacock to the staff; more often than not, the staff are noticeably free, and each would look solemnly from side to side before saying, "Yes I'm free, Captain Peacock." As
John Inman remarked, when Mr. Humphries trilled "I'm free!" it became his own personal catchphrase.
During its run, the series attracted some mild criticism for its reliance on sexual
stereotypes and sexual
double entendres, including jokes about Mrs. Slocombe's "
pussy" (cat). John Inman's
camp portrayal of Mr. Humphries as an effeminate man whose sexual orientation was never expressed was supposedly offensive to some gay men, but the character quickly developed a cult gay following. Inman pointed out that Mr. Humphries' true sexual orientation was never explicitly stated in the series, and David Croft said in an interview that the character wasn't homosexual, but "just a mother's boy". With a broad mixture of stereotypical gay characteristics and some apparent heterosexual attractions, viewers were left wondering about Mr. Humphries' true sexual orientation. In an episode of the spin-off
Grace & Favour, the character is further described as neither a "woman's man" nor a "man's man" and as being "in limbo".
Characters
Episodes
Are You Being Served? was first broadcast on
8 September 1972 on the BBC, in the form of a pilot for the series
Comedy Playhouse. It only aired when it did because of free airspace created by the
Munich massacre during the
1972 Summer Olympics. The pilot was reshown at the beginning of the first series on
14 March 1973. That first series was aired in the same timeslot as
Coronation Street on
ITV, and consequently received relatively little attention. However, repeats shown later in the year were much more successful. Although the pilot was produced in colour, only a
black-and-white version of this episode remains.
The show went on to receive huge audiences, with later episodes attracting up to 22 million viewers. After 10 series, 69 episodes and a 13-year run,
Are You Being Served? came to an end on
1 April 1985.
In addition, the cast performed in character for a stage sketch on the
BBC1 programme
Variety on
19 June 1976.
Theme song
The theme song, written by the show's co-writer
David Croft and
composer Ronnie Hazlehurst, consists of a female
lift operator (whose voice was provided by
Stephanie Gathercole) announcing each floor over the sounds of a
cash register (which basically serves as the only
percussion instrument) and a simple musical
accompaniment.
A remix of the theme was released in 1998 by a dance act calling itself "Grace Brothers", and featured samples of John Inman and Frank Thornton.
There is a homage to the theme song in the
Ladytron song "Paco!" from the album "
604", and
New Zealand band
Minuit's "I hate guns". A version of the theme song is featured on the album
The Ape Of Naples by the
experimental music group
Coil. The theme song has also been covered by Australian band
Regurgitator on their 1999 album
...art. Pop singer
Jamelia's song "Window Shopping" (from her 2006 album
Walk with Me) begins with a sample of the familiar cash register sound effect as well as Mrs. Slocombe's voice inquiring, "Are you free?". The
Pink Floyd song "
Money" also uses a similar cash register effect.
Film
In 1977, an
Are You Being Served? film was released using the same characters and cast. It was set in the fictional resort of Costa Plonka, in Spain. The film was an adaptation of the very successful stage version of the show, which ran for two years in 1976 and 1977.
Other countries
The series has become very popular in the
United States on
PBS stations and on
BBC America, as well as in many
Commonwealth nations around the world. A U.S. adaptation pilot episode called
Beane's of Boston aired on
5 May 1979 on
CBS, but it didn't make it to a full series. An Australian version, also called
Are You Being Served?, ran for sixteen episodes from 1980 to 1981 and starred
John Inman as Mr Humphries. The show was aired in Canada during the late night on YTV.
Grace & Favour
In 1992, most of the original cast reunited for a spin-off show called
Grace & Favour. This series was called
Are You Being Served? Again! in the United States and Canada.
Books
Seven early episodes were novelised for a book, written by Jeremy Lloyd, called
Are You Being Served? - Camping In and other Fiascos. This was written in 1976, and republished in 1997 by
KQED Books. The seven episodes featured are
Camping In,
Up Captain Peacock,
Wedding Bells,
His and Hers,
Coffee Morning,
The Hand of Fate and
The Clock, and the dialogue from the TV episodes were used. In 1999,
I'm Free! The Complete Are You Being Served?, a guide to the series, was published by
Orion Books. It was written by
Richard Webber, with contributions from David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd.
DVD releases
Series One to Six, including the pilot episode and Christmas specials from those years, are available on DVD in the UK (Region 2) from Cinema Club.
Are You Being Served: the Movie was released in 2002. Series Seven and the 1979 Christmas Special are to be released on
9 June 2008.
All ten series, as well as both series of
Grace & Favour (in packaging titled
Are You Being Served? Again!), are available on DVD in Region 1 (North America).
Currently, the first seven series and the film have been released in Australia (Region 4).
A DVD titled
Are You Being Served? - Best of The Early Years and
Are You Being Served? Christmas Specials have also been released.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Are You Being Served'.
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