The Story of 'Are You Being Served?'

Absolutely lovely documentary. Really nice to see the interviews with the cast members, too. I only wish I watched this when I was younger.

Fascinating account of the classic British sitcom ARE YOU BEING SERVED? with creators David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd telling us how the series started out as a "pilot" show that only went into after the tragedy of the 1972 Munich Olympics left a hole in the BBC schedule. The pilot was shown and was an instant hit.

Several cast member appear in interviews, including Mollie Sugden, John Inman, Trevor Bannister, Frank Thornton, Wendy Richard, Nicholas Smith, Mike Berry, and Doremy Vernon. Others seen in clips from the show, which ran from 1972 to 1985, include Arthur Brough, Harold Bennett, Larry Martyn, Arthur English, Alfie Bass, James Hayter, and more briefly Vivienne Johnson, Penny Irving, Milo Sperber, and Benny Lee.

There's even an interview with Michael Knowles, who played the first store customer in the pilot episode. Tony Sympson and Mavis Pugh also show up i clips as customers.

Croft and Lloyd discuss their battles with the BBC over the show's "double entendres," the gayness of Mr. Humphries, the various cast changes, and the chore of churning out scripts as the series went on and on.

They also discuss how the series changed after John Inman and Mollie Sugden shot to stardom, leaving Trevor Bannister (the show's nominal star) in the dust, and their ill-fated attempts at starring series of their own. Both Inman's ODD MAN OUT and Sugden's COME BACK MRS. NOAH were huge bombs.

Finally, they discuss the tepid results of spinning off Sugden, Inman, Thornton, Richard, and Smith into GRACE AND FAVOUR in 1992. That series ran for two years.

Lots of background information on creating the series and its characters. A fine companion piece for fans of the series.

ARE YOU BEING SERVED? began life as a COMEDY PLAYHOUSE episode similar to STEPTOE AND SON. The entire idea looked to have been shelved were it not for the terrorist act at the Munich Olympics of 1972 in which several Israeli athletes lost their lives. With acres of time to fill in their schedules, the BBC turned to the sitcom pilot and transformed it into a series.

Ten series and thirteen years later ARE YOU BEING SERVED? ended. It was never a particularly up-market series - as the co-script writers David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd recalled, its humor was largely dependent on double-entendres. Although based on Lloyd's real-life experience working at London's Simpson's department store, its true roots were in the seaside postcard tradition of bawdy if sexist humor.

After a tentative start the series settled into a long run, even though the BBC's senior staff disliked it on account of its alleged "populism." Several executives thought it was more suitable for ITV. Despite their reservations, the series made a star out of John Inman, while re-establishing the careers of comedy stalwarts such as Mollie Sugden and Frank Thornton.

The series quite literally ran out of steam by the mid-Eighties; by comparison with newer products such as FRENCH AND SAUNDERS, it seemed a little old-fashioned. The cast re-assembled in 1992 for two series of a sequel entitled GRACE AND FAVOUR, but their type of humor had had its day.

This documentary offers a valuable account of the series, with archive interviews with many of the cast - the majority of whom have now passed away. ARE YOU BEING SERVED? continues to be broadcast on the BBC as well as on other stations worldwide - living proof, no doubt, of its durability. Fashions change: perhaps its style of humor is now back in vogue.