Showing posts with label Arthur English. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arthur English. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Are You Being Served? (1972-1985)

First broadcast: Friday, September 8th, 1972 (pilot, as part of Comedy Playhouse) in the UK
Final broadcast: Monday, April 1st, 1985 in the UK
Description: BBC TV situation comedy written by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft which ran for 69 episodes over 10 series. It was set in a department store called Grace Brothers and focused on the increasingly ridiculous antics of the shop floor staff. It was one of many sitcoms Croft wrote with Lloyd, as well as other collaborators, with a distinctive ensemble cast.
  • Are You Being Served? also had a stage version, which ran at Blackpool's Winter Gardens Theatre in the Summer of 1976, and this supplied the basic idea for a movie spin-off in 1977.
  • A partial remake of Are You Being Served? ran for two series in Australia, in which John Inman reprised his role as Mr Humphries, but the others were based on the UK characters, renamed, and recast. It ran on Network 10 for 16 episodes between Monday, June 16th, 1980 and an unknown date in early 1981.
  • There was a sequel series entitled Grace and Favour (UK) aka Are You Being Served Again! (North America) which ran for two six-part series between Friday, January 10th, 1992 and Monday, February 8th, 1993.
  • Finally, on Sunday, August 28th, 2016, the BBC celebrated 60 years of British sitcoms by reviving a handful of old favourites, including Are You Being Served? The original characters were the same, but recast, with Only Fools and Horses favourite John Challis as Captain Peacock, Sherrie Hewson as Mrs Slocombe, Jason Watkins as Mr Humphries, Niky Wardley as Miss Brahms, Roy Barraclough as Mr Grainger, Arthur Smith as Mr Harman, and Justin Edwards as Mr Rumbold. There were new characters too, including Young Mr Grace's grandson (also Young Mr Grace) played by Mathew Horne, Mr Conway played by Kayode Ewumi, and Miss Croft, played by Jorgie Porter. This one-off episode was set in 1988, three years after the original run ended. The special attracted 6.3m viewers, and was the fourth most watched show on BBC1 that week.