Are You Being Served? (UK TV series)

***Are You Being Served?*** is a British sitcom created and written by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft (Croft also directed some episodes), with contributions from Michael Knowles and John Chapman, for the BBC. Set in London, the show follows the misadventures and mishaps of the staff of the retail ladies' and gentlemen's clothing departments, in the flagship department store of a fictional chain called Grace Brothers.

Broadcast between 1972 and 1985 on BBC1, the sitcom spanned ten series totaling 69 episodes – five of which are Christmas specials. There was also a 1977 film, a follow-up series with the same main cast in 1991-92.

Are You Being Served? was a great success in the UK and was also popular in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Israel. In the United States, it gained a loyal and enthusiastic following when PBS television stations began airing reruns of it in the mid 1980s, along with other British sitcoms.

On September 8, 1972 the BBC screened a pilot episode of the show as part of Comedy Playhouse (1961-75; 2014-present). Series 1 began on March 21, 1973.

The theme song, written by the show's co-writer David Croft and composer Ronnie Hazlehurst, consists of a lift girl (whose voice was provided by Stephanie Gathercole) announcing each floor over the musique concrète sounds of a cash register (which effectively serves as the only percussion instrument) and a simple musical accompaniment. 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. Wikipedia

**Main Cast**

* Mr. Humphries (John Inman)
* Mr. Lucas (Trevor Bannister) (series 1–7), replaced by Mr. Spooner (Mike Berry) (series 8–10)
* Mr. Grainger (Arthur Brough) (series 1–5), replaced by Mr. Tebbs (James Hayter) (series 6), and Mr. Goldberg (Alfie Bass) (series 7)
* Mrs. Slocombe (Mollie Sugden)
* Miss Brahms (Wendy Richard) (also appeared in spin-off Grace and Favour)
* Captain Peacock (Frank Thornton)
* Mr. Rumbold (Nicholas Smith)
* The Grace Brothers: "Young" Mr Grace (Harold Bennett, series 1–8) and "Old" Mr Grace (Kenneth Waller) (series 8)
* Mr. Mash (Larry Martyn) (series 1–3), replaced by Mr Harman (Arthur English) (series 4–10)

Guest stars included Michael Knowles (later to star in Jimmy Perry & David Croft's It Ain't Half Hot Mum, 1974-81); Joanna Lumley; Gorden Kaye, Vicki Michelle,Jack Haig and John D Collins (all later stars in Lloyd & Croft's 'Allo 'Allo, 1982-92); Felix Bowness and Jeffrey Holland (both later stars in Perry & Crofts' Hi-de-Hi, 1980-88); Ballard Berkeley (Fawlty Towers); Monty Python's Carol Cleveland; comic actor Robbie Coltrane; and entertainer Jess Conrad. Wikipedia

**Feature Film**

#### ***"THEY'RE FREE!! READY TO SERVE YOU ON THE BIG SCREEN!"***

In 1977, as for many other popular British sitcoms of the time, including On the Buses, a feature film was produced: the ***Are You Being Served?*** film had the same characters and cast. Guest stars include Derek Griffiths, Nadim Sawalha, and Sheila Steafel as various Grace Brothers customers.

The film was released into UK cinemas on June 10, 1977.

It was set in the fictional resort of Costa Plonka, in Spain. The film was an adaptation of the successful stage version of the show, which played at the Winter Gardens Theatre, Blackpool over the summer of 1976.

While Grace Brothers is being redecorated, the management sends the staff on a paid holiday to resort Costa Plonka, in Spain. Their hotel and its surroundings prove to be dismal, and the group tries to pass the time by acting on the crushes they have developed for one another in the workplace. After a dinner of love-note misunderstandings the staff all need the loo after hotel manager Carlos (Andrew Sachs) pours tropical drinks into the glasses with a small jug. Meanwhile, Carlos receives an unwelcome visit from an old acquaintance named Cesar (Glyn Houston) who is after Mrs Slocombe after seeing her (doctored) passport. He is also plotting a revolutionary uprising and wants to use the hotel as his base. The staff then decide to turn in for the night, but a night of tent-swapping disturbs everyone. As Cesar is still after Mrs Slocombe, he goes into her tent to find Mr Humphries instead! After waking up the next morning, the Grace Brothers staff get a nasty surprise, narrowly surviving a gunfight between the revolutionaries and federal troops. During the gunfight, the staff lock Cesar in a bathroom stall and send it floating up into the sky with a parachute. They are inadvertently saved by a group of tanks that arrive on the scene; these prove to have been commandeered by Young Mr. Grace, who wanted to visit his beleaguered underlings, but could not find a taxi.

The 1977 Are You Being Served? film has a different version of the theme song which is longer, in a different key and without the floor announcements.

Wikipedia

**Grace and Favour**

On January 10, 1992, most of the original cast reunited for a spin-off show, titled ***Grace & Favour*** in Britain and Australia, and Are You Being Served Again! in the United States and Canada. It ran for two series. The idea of a spin-off was suggested by the cast of Are You Being Served? almost immediately after the original series ended in 1985. Lloyd and Croft liked the idea, but agreed that the department store format was exhausted and that any spin-off would require a change of location. Despite the enthusiasm of the original cast, it would be almost seven years before Lloyd and Croft brought them back to television.

The plot line that brought the cast from the store to the manor was considered remarkably topical, since it aired just a few months after the death of British publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, who was revealed to have borrowed heavily against his own employees' pensions. The new series had the elderly and womanizing "Young Mr Grace", head of Grace Brothers department store, recently deceased while scuba-diving on holiday in the Caribbean with his personal secretary, Miss Jessica Lovelock. As per the instructions in his will, the remaining workers in each department at Grace Brothers' closing sale find their pensions invested in different things. The members of the Men's and Ladies' Departments, along with Ms Lovelock, inherit the estate that is the locale of the show.

Grace and Favour was different from Are You Being Served? in that it involved a continuous story arc, with certain plot elements, such as the relationship between Mr. Humphries and Mavis Moulterd unfolding throughout each episode. This in turn allowed the series to involve more complex storylines and subplots, making it possible for returning guest stars and location shooting, which was never done on Are You Being Served?

The series name is a double play on words. A "grace and favour" is a home or other property, owned by a monarch but given to the use of a faithful retainer upon his retirement, such as the retired characters in this series. Grace is also the name of the owner of Grace Brothers, the fictional department store where the characters previously worked, and the surname of Mr Grace, who was the previous owner of Millstone Manor. Wikipedia