Are You Being Served? 

The misadventures of the staff of a retail floor of a major department store.

Creators:

Jeremy Lloyd, David Croft

Stars:

Mollie Sugden, John Inman, Frank Thornton

1 nomination.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Mollie Sugden	...	Mrs. Slocombe 69 episodes, 1972-1985
John Inman	...	Mr. Humphries / ... 69 episodes, 1972-1985
Frank Thornton	...	Captain Peacock 69 episodes, 1972-1985
Wendy Richard	...	Miss Brahms 69 episodes, 1972-1985
Nicholas Smith	...	Mr. Rumbold / ... 69 episodes, 1972-1985
Trevor Bannister	...	Mr. Lucas 48 episodes, 1972-1979
Arthur English	...	Mr. Harman 48 episodes, 1976-1985
Harold Bennett	...	Young Mr. Grace 46 episodes, 1972-1981
Arthur Brough	...	Mr. Grainger 34 episodes, 1972-1977

Storyline

This quintessentially British sitcom is about Grace Brothers, a department store in London which is owned and kept traditional, almost pre-war (e.g. precise dress code for ladies frills and gentlemen's hats according to rank), by two brothers who look old enough to have fought in the Boer war but rarely appear, as most scenes play on one floor where Mr. Cuthbert Rumbold is the executive (meaning he enjoys an endless parade of foxy but stupid secretaries) in charge of management while his dignified floor walker, Captain Stephen Peacock, has daily charge over two small sales teams. The bossy, implicitly man-hungry widow Mrs. Betty Slocombe supervises the attractive Miss Shirley Brahms (with a terribly common Cockney accent) -with first choice of customers, on commission- the sale of women's clothes and accessories; the sales star at the gentleman's side is Mr. Wilberforce Clayborne Humpries, an implied closet-gay true gentleman, whose successive superiors are first obviously nearly ...

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Plot Keywords:

store | department store | british comedy | workplace | workplace comedy | 

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Taglines:

I'm Free !

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Official Sites:

Official Site

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 September 1972 (UK)

Also Known As:

Are You Being Served?

Filming Locations:

BBC Television Centre, Wood Lane, Shepherd's Bush, London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

28 min (69 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Mrs Slocombe's best friend Mrs Axelby is the only person regularly mentioned by a main character who does not eventually appear in the show (and to a lesser extent, Mr Lucas's mother). Throughout the series, numerous characters are mentioned repeatedly who finally show up onscreen several seasons later. This includes Old Mr Grace, Mrs Peacock, Mrs Rumbold, Mrs Grainger, Miss Hurst of Novelty Candles, Mr Patel of Accounts, Seymour of Maintenance, and Mr Humphries' mother.

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Goofs

Throughout the series, the entire staff of the floor takes breaks together. That would mean that the entire floor would be closed due to lack of employees during break times. Indeed, one episode specifically deals with this problem. Mr. Grace feels that they are losing too much business during this hour, and pushes the lunch break back to later in the afternoon, leading the staff to hit the roof.

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Quotes

Captain Peacock: [Knocking on Mr. Rumbold's door] We're all outside, sir.
Mr. Rumbold: People who knock usually are!

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Crazy Credits

Closing credits were preamble with the caption, "You have been watching" followed by each actor, either breaking the fourth wall to the camera or still in character relating to the episode. Sometimes, like the episode "Camping In", this would include the customer shown in the store at night, long after it was closed, since the episode ended with the store employees spending the night in the store.

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Connections

Featured in Crumpet! A Very British Sex Symbol (2005)

User Reviews

Excellent!

"Are You Being Served?" is one of my favourite comedy programmes.

It involves the working life of the staff in Ladies and Menswear departments on the third floor of Grace Bros store.

The main characters are the hilarious senior saleslady Mrs Slocombe, always worried about her pussy!, played by Mollie Sugden, John Inman as homosexual-type salesman Mr Humphries, pompous floorwalker Capt. Peacock played by Frank Thornton, wisecracking junior salesman Mr Lucas [Trevor Bannister], who was always leering at young saleslady Miss Brahms [Wendy Richard, now Pauline in EastEnders], senior salesman Mr Grainger [Arthur Brough] and tactless manager Mr Rumbold [Nicholas Smith].

The boss was 80 year old Mr Grace, telling everyone "You've all done very well!", played by Harold Bennett. People of all ages will love this series, even thirty years after it's entry to TV, you can still laugh at it over and over again!