1972, a landmark year for British entertainment.
Jesus Christ Superstar made its West End debut...
..and rural soap Emmerdale and quiz show Mastermind
had their first TV outings.
And it was the year that a certain fictional department store
opened its doors...
It was like cartoonish end-of-the-pier sense of humour
that really appealed across the board.
..and Britain's bawdiest TV comedy exploded on to our screens,
grabbing every opportunity for innuendo,
and milking it with gay abandon.
Trousers are at a complete standstill.
You're lucky to get your tape up once a day.
LAUGHTER
Well...my corsets have been down for over a fortnight.
It was proper quintessential British slapstick humour.
Tonight, we remember exactly why we loved Are You Being Served?
The side-splitting and cleverly worded double entendres.
One minute late.
You're lucky to have me at all, Captain Peacock!
I had to sort me pussy out before I came.
It was fabulously consistent.
It was brilliantly written, brilliantly performed,
it was classic comedy.
The iconic and perfectly delivered catchphrase...
I'm free!
..and some truly extraordinary costumes.
Oh, it was just as camp as anything I can remember.
It was like a pantomime in a department store.
We hear the backstage secrets...
Trevor used to come back and say, "Oh, my God,
you won't BELIEVE what I've got to do with Mollie this week!"
..and remember the actors, who brought
these wonderful characters to life.
John Inman was very capable of doing the jazz hands
that we would expect from the pantomime dame.
Prepare to have your ribs well and truly tickled,
as tonight we're reopening the store and going up
to celebrate all the fun, frivolity, and that infamous feline.
You would never get away with it now.
With its instantly recognisable and fabulously evocative opening theme,
Are You Being Served? ran for an astonishing 13 years,
with audiences of over 20 million
glued to the latest goings on at Grace Brothers.
It's proper sort of vaudeville tradition of performance
and of comedy. There's no subtlety,
they are all over-the-top characters.
And when ludicrous costumes were added,
it became even more outrageous.
Well... Hello, cheeky.
Oh! Sauce box!
Oh! It's the masked stranger!
Take my body, but leave my jewels alone.
It wasn't just double entendres,
it was every entendre that was, possibly, multiplied by eight.
Are You Being Served? starred John Inman, Mollie Sugden,
and a young lady in a very different role
to the soap matriarch she would become.
She had a wicked sense of humour, she was very kind,
very generous, beautiful person.
Set in the clothing department of the antiquated store Grace Brothers,
the show followed the antics of an eccentric bunch of shop workers
and their long-suffering bosses.
Are You Being Served? was very bawdy
and it was very full of sexual innuendo, and the whole thing
actually kind of almost revolved around sex or some aspect of sex.
And I hope we're not going to be late tonight,
because I've left Winston clinging to the curtain rail.
He refuses to come down, the mere sight of my pussy drives him mad.
LAUGHTER
Filthy, farcical and over-the-top,
this true blue British comedy showcased the talents
of some of the country's finest comic actors.
Ensemble comedy's one of the hardest, but it's also the best.
When people bounce off each other,
when there is a chemistry amongst the actors,
that just comes through the screen and hits you in the face,
and these guys had it in buckets.
Only this morning, Mrs Slocombe informed me
that she'd had a skirt lifted.
Oh!
Some people have all the luck!
LAUGHTER
And I seem to remember that Miss Brahms lost something last week.
It wasn't me.
Do you know, only the other day,
a customer reached across the counter
and put his hands in my Fair Isle drawers?
But the truth is, that the BBC never really wanted
Are You Being Served? in the first place.
The show was the brainchild of writer and actor, Jeremy Lloyd,
but the inspiration for the sitcom
came from a rather unexpected source.
Really, I think what, what persuaded me to write Are You Being Served?
was Joanna Lumley, who's my rather dear great friend and ex-wife.
She said "Well, look, you've run out of money,
"you've come back from America and you don't appear to be able
"to get a job, why don't you write about something
"you really know about and you did, you know,
"you were very amusing about your time at Simpsons in Piccadilly,
"why don't you write about that?"
Lloyd hatched the plan for his shop-floor sitcom
while starring with his fiancee in the long-forgotten comedy,
It's Awfully Bad For Your Eyes, Darling.
Oh.
Oh! Oh!
Come on, I'll help you.
Oh, careful, darling.
Oh. There we are.
Stop! I think I've had a stroke.
My leg's gone dead.
That's my leg you're holding.
Oh, so it is.
Oh.
I feel terrible.
Oh, I'm not surprised, if that's what we were drinking, look at that.
Luckily for Lloyd, working alongside him on that sitcom
was hotshot BBC comedy producer, David Croft,
who had recently scored a direct hit with Dad's Army.
He told me about a show he was doing about a department store,
point of fact is I think he had written it as
just a gentleman's department
because that's the thing he had experience of.
I thought it'd be more fun if we brought the ladies in,
the gentlemen had to give away half their department
and so it was a conflict straight away,
and that's how Are You Being Served was born actually.
That really made the show, I must say,
because there was all the conflict between the ladies and gentlemen.
A brilliant writer, a brilliant writer to not only create
those characters but also feed those characters every single week.
Not only did he write amazing stuff,
his great skill in casting was unbelievable, really.
You can't imagine other people in those parts.
Happily for the newly established Croft/Lloyd writing partnership,
the BBC were on the hunt for original sitcom ideas.
In those early days, the BBC used to do a series of pilot shows
under the banner of Comedy Playhouse.
And they were half-hour pilots that people had thought might have a bit
of mileage and were worth exploring with a view to running in to series.
And so they'd all be shown and according to audience reaction
or the way things went, they'd say,
"Yeah, I think that's the one we're going to go for this year."
And give it a try.
The pilot episode of the provocatively titled
Are You Being Served? was written, cast and filmed
in a matter of weeks.
Its broad slapstick comedy delightfully evident
from the opening minutes.
Oh, is that the best you can do, Miss Brahms?
Well, it's not my job, is it?
I'll try again.
The pilot episode was a great success, with witty a script
and some truly inventive sight gags right from the start.
Has anyone got a ladder?
Honestly, is that the best you can do?
It's the nearest I've been to it all morning.
The chemistry between the cast was phenomenal.
They all had a great sense of timing, all of them, without fail.
They knew exactly what they were up to.
With your personality,
I'm sure you could charm the very birds off the tree.
Oh, oh, I wouldn't say that.
Neither would I.
Lucas, while you're down there, straighten those seams.
I hate to see crooked seams.
Yes, Mr Peacock.
Hm? Captain Peacock.
Aargh!
Everybody involved believed they had a sure-fire hit on their hands.
Everybody, that is, apart from the BBC.
Apparently the pilot episode of Are You Being Served? was shelved,
the BBC didn't want it, and I could see you know, looking back,
that, at the time, they would be quite sort of wary of screening
something that was quite, you know, quite so broad.
To the astonishment of cast and crew, the pilot was rejected.
It seemed that only a miracle could save Are You Being Served?
But tragically, what it took was a massacre.
Definitely had his hands tied, I saw him.
On September 5th 1972, at the Munich Olympics,
a Palestinian terrorist group took 11 Israeli team members hostage
and murdered them, along with a German police officer.
The German negotiators' case is that from the start
of the siege of the Israeli flats on Tuesday morning,
they were faced with an impossible situation.
The BBC were desperate with the blank screens
to put something on and they had, they had a shelf with tapes on.
Rifling through their un-transmitted shows, they found the perfect thing,
the shelved pilot of Are You Being Served? was just what was required.
Something fabulously fun, and gloriously risque.
Anyway, the upper part should be obscured.
I'm sorry, Mr Grainger.
How long have you been with Grace Brothers, Mr Lucas?
One month, Mr Grainger.
I'm, I'm still, sort of, feeling my way around, as you might say.
Coming up, we reveal the man behind one of British sitcoms'
most legendary characters.
If I'm going to be honest, I think he was the star of the show,
I mean, his performance really was unbelievable.
Almost 50 years after it hit our screens,
everyone still loves Are You Being Served?
Rude, risque and delighting in delivering some truly
outstanding innuendo.
Before we go any further Mr Rumbold,
Miss Brahms and I would like to complain
about the state of our drawers,
They're a positive disgrace.
You what, Mrs Slocombe?
Our drawers, they're sticking.
Always the same in damp weather.
Really?
Miss Brahms could hardly shift hers at all, just now.
No wonder she was late.
The show starred some of our finest comic talent,
and was an instant hit, largely down to producer David Croft's knack
of finding the perfect actor for every role.
He seemed to get people that you wouldn't expect to be able to
do things and that genius of casting and putting the right person
in the right part, that's a great, great art, great talent.
Of course, that's one of David Croft's strengths, you see,
he sees somebody that will fit the part, he casts them,
and then lets them get on with it.
And the rapport between this group of seasoned actors
was evident from the outset.
I mean, there were a lot of people on the crowded floor of Grace Brothers
Menswear and Ladies' Wear, and they worked together extremely well.
And there, there are moments in it where you can see the actor
waiting for the laugh to die down, so he can deliver,
or she can deliver the next line.
And that's when you know it's a good show.
I mean, you've got to be in the mood for cooking, haven't you?
I got a bit cross and slammed the oven door and, well, me
Yorkshires wouldn't rise.
Do you know, I didn't know which way to turn,
which is very unusual for me.
It wasn't as if, you know, there was sort of,
three main characters and the rest were just ensemble,
it was a whole ensemble piece, so every week,
those writers had to write for every single one of those characters.
Although Are You Being Served? was very much a team effort,
audiences immediately took one character to their hearts,
John Inman as Mr Humphries,
the mincing mummy's boy of menswear soon became a cornerstone of the
show, his quick quips delivered in a magnificently throwaway fashion.
Let out waist.
Mm. And ease seat.
Ah, the professional touch Mr Grainger.
I couldn't have done it better myself.
And I think the rise is a little short.
Yes, I was just thinking that, Mr Grainger.
The son of a Blackpool landlady, before Are You Being Served?,
Inman had never been given an opportunity to shine.
I'd been doing pantomimes, I'd been doing summer seasons.
I'd worked with wonderful people like Sid James and comics, you know.
A comic's crutch, I think I was known as.
But, it wasn't really until Mr Humphries came along,
that ladies with prams used to attack me in Woolworths.
He managed to get this role in television,
which all those years of experience in summer seasons
and pantomime came to the fore, I mean, he was quite fantastic.
And the joy of him was that he, he knew exactly how to get a laugh.
But when the pilot turned in to a series,
they hit a potential problem with Mr Humphries.
The head of the BBC or whoever it was said "Yes, it's all right."
he said, "But get rid of the poof." I mean, could you believe it?
I mean, David Croft just, his jaw dropped and he said,
"Well if the poof goes, the show goes."
And they knew they had a winner, and I think so they,
they backpedalled like mad, said "Well, well, well, hrmph, hrmph,"
you know and all that.
Luckily for us, Mr Humphries sashayed back behind the counter
and stayed there for the next 13 years.
When John leapt on to the screen and brought camp to the nation,
he was actually loved by everybody from old aunties to young people
cos they didn't know about camp.
Mr Humphries, he obviously had the right shoes to enable him
to do that mincing walk across the set from one counter to the other,
which brought the house down.
I did a little stint at Austin Reed's in my youth,
and there was a young fella there who worked on the cufflink counter,
and he used to mince round this counter.
One day at rehearsals, I had to go from one side of the counter
to the other, and I did this, really to make the cast laugh.
John didn't walk, he minced.
He minced, dear.
People say sometimes, "How can you describe camp?"
You'd say "Well, John Inman, there you are, that's camp."
The irrepressible Mr Humphries soon became Grace Brothers'
most popular employee.
John Inman brilliantly using all the skills he learnt
as a pantomime dame.
I thought he was a superb actor, he just, the delivery of those
very cutting, very specific lines was, was excellent.
I was saving these to take home, I was going to use them tonight.
What were you going to do with a pair of falsies?
I wear them on my knees when I'm polishing the parquet.
He was very much in that pantomime dame tradition.
He was very much an aunt.
If I'm going to be honest, I think he was the star of the show,
I mean, his performance really was unbelievable.
RECORDED VOICE: Stay just where you are.
Don't move a muscle.
If you want a real he-man...
..just let me caress you and wrap myself around you.
Who am I?
I'm the Hers Perfume to attract the perfect him.
Glass of water for Mr Humphries.
As well as providing Grace Brothers with instant innuendo,
Mr Humphries also gave the show its legendary catchphrase.
The "I'm free" catchphrase,
I guess that was developed during rehearsals.
And, of course, it stayed with him for life.
With Inman's theatrical delivery often accompanied by a
flailing of hands, it became one of the '70s best-known catchphrases.
I'm free, Captain Peacock.
I'm free.
Mr Humphries, are you free?
I'm busy pricing my ties, Captain Peacock.
The gentleman wishes to try on a dress.
I'm free.
The "I'm free!" was just packed with innuendo and I remember at school,
if the lads wanted to tease another lad that wasn't ladd-y,
or a bit sort of more gentle, that was what they said, "I'm free!"
Mr Humphries, Mr Lucas, are you free?
Yes, we're free, Captain Peacock.
But in those days, homosexuality had only been partly decriminalised,
and so Mr Humphries might've been quite ahead of the curve.
# Are you being served, Sir?
# I'm Humphries and I'm free... #
Such was the popularity of Mr Humphries and his shrill catchphrase
that he entered the charts with a fabulously innuendo-packed pop song.
And one of the cheesiest videos of the entire decade.
# You'd like a suit, well suit yourself
# Our three-piece is first-class
# I'll find one with tight trousers
# That fit well round the...
# Kitchen ware
#Oh, these will do
# I'll take them off the peg
# Now, hold your breath
# And brace yourself
# Here comes the inside leg
# Whoops!
# Are you being served, sir?
# I'm Humphries and I'm free
# Are you being served, sir?
# There's no-one here but me. #
But while audiences loved every flounce and flick of the wrist,
there were some who found the character harder to swallow.
John Inman as Mr Humphries was an absolutely
cliched, cartoon, caricature version of what people thought
a mincing camp gay was.
Hang on a minute.
What's going on?
I'm warming the end a bit.
To be gay publicly was made trickier because of these stereotypes
on such a popular show,
because it wasn't like gay people were visible in any other way,
shape or form.
That was it.
The show was littered with queenie quips,
cleverly devised to be just the right side of acceptable.
Mr Humphries, have you the time?
It depends what you had in mind, Captain Peacock.
Not surprising that there were protests in the early days
of the liberation movement, outside the BBC.
And I think he got a lot of stick playing it as camply as he did,
by saying, "How dare you portray this character?
"There aren't people like that."
Well, I beg to differ, there were lots of people like that,
I'd met them, and I knew them, and I portrayed them.
So, I think he was very, very brave in doing it.
I remember being in New Zealand, and some gay people, bless them,
they, they came to the club I was working at,
and I said to them at the front door, I said, "Why me?"
I said, "Dick Emery," who was playing Honky Tonk then,
"He's much worse than I am, why pick on me?"
and they said, "Well, you're here and Dick Emery isn't."
I think what was different about Mr Humphries was he was a developed
character, he was one of the central characters,
and we got to know more about him and his life,
and his offstage life, and that gave him some kind of grain
and detail, and some humanity, I think.
Away from the menswear counter, the real John Inman was every
bit as funny as his camp creation.
Mr Humphries was John.
His walk, his style, his elegance,
his double takes and sometimes triple takes.
And he was like that in real life.
Tonight, comedy actor John Inman, This Is Your Life.
Oh, I say.
And as the show's popularity grew,
John Inman became one of the decade's most-celebrated stars.
How do the staff regard John in real life?
Oh, well, how could we help but love him?
Oh, bless him, he's never failingly good humoured and he's so witty.
Well, it's more like going to a party than going to work, with John.
Coming up, the truth behind Mrs Slocombe's famous feline.
I don't think it was ever, sort of, really discussed in the family,
it was sort of both parties going,
"We'll pretend it's just about a cat, then."
Are You Being Served? is a one-stop shop for everything
we love about British sitcom.
Chock-full of cheeky humour, the show was a masterclass
in the art of taking a naughty gag and stretching it to breaking point.
How are the sales going, Mrs Slocombe?
Well, in lingerie, pants are up and bras are down.
Better than the other way round, eh, Mrs Slocombe?
Now, now Captain Peacock,
you mustn't say things like that in front of my little assistant.
Don't worry about me, I don't wear 'em.
Bras, I mean.
Attracting audiences of up to 22 million during its 13-year reign,
we couldn't get enough of Are You Being Served?'s
larger-than-life characters.
And towering above them all was the vividly dyed hairdo
of the head of ladies' wear, Mrs Slocombe.
She's indescribable, Mrs Slocombe.
She was camp on skates, one way and another, that hair,
that whole attitude, that attack.
MR LUCAS: How graceful this fashion was.
Mrs Slocombe was wonderful, she was the kind of battle-axe woman
that as a young girl, I would've really liked as my aunt,
she was always a bit naughty, possibly a bit tipsy now and again.
One's eye was always drawn by Mrs Slocombe,
this extraordinary baroque creature.
There was something quite operatic about her over-embellishment.
I think Mollie was amazing.
All my life as an actor, I've learned from actors, I still do,
watching people, and she had the best, oh, the best timing ever.
Plenty of give in the leg.
And completely draught-proof.
No, I don't think I fancy them.
Very few people do.
When scouting for the perfect Mrs Slocombe,
producer David Croft remembered having worked with Mollie Sugden
a decade before, in the long forgotten sitcom, Hugh and I.
And suddenly the show had its head of womenswear.
Abbie, we're going down to the coast.
Oh, how nice. Brighton?
Oh, nothing so common.
Hove.
Mollie Sugden, for instance, I knew and I thought, well,
she'd be marvellous as the sort of frosty old lady
behind the counter, and, you know,
the people come in to a show for that sort of reason,
you know them, and you know they'll make a marvellous job of it.
And he said, "Oh, by the way, there's something coming up that
"we've written especially with you in mind."
And of course, "Oh, what is it?"
He said 'You'll know when the time comes,
"you'll get the script quite soon", and I,
in about two weeks, I got the script, and it was Are You Being Served?
By the time she took her position at Grace Brothers,
Mollie Sugden was already a familiar face on television.
Playing Nellie Harvey in Coronation Street,
and Mrs Hutchinson in The Liver Birds.
Well, seeing as it's just the Hennesseys,
I should be able to wear something simple.
That's right.
I mean, I don't want to embarrass them,
not that anything would embarrass her.
Oh, did you see that mini she wore at the wedding?
I thought it quite suited her.
Every time she went to kneel, the priest lost his place.
Mollie Sugden was a brilliant comic actress
with decades of experience.
And just a wonderful ensemble player.
The exciting thing was that they brought in all these wonderful,
wonderful actors from the repertory companies all over the country,
and made them into television stars, which was brilliant.
Having landed the part, Mollie set about making Mrs Slocombe her own,
starting with her crowning glory.
When David rang and said, "We're going to do a series", I thought,
"Well I've got to do something about my hair,"
and that was when I got the idea of, at the first rehearsal, I said,
"David, do you think it would be a good idea if I had
"different-coloured hair every week?"
and he went...
..that means yes.
Oh, my goodness, those wigs.
And the colours, I mean, there was one where she looked like an
Oompa Loompa, I mean, the colours of the wigs were just incredible.
Hello, Captain Peacock.
This is sexy knickers.
Yeah, but she just was outrageous, it was pink, it was blue,
it was this, it was that, it was always very, very, very bouffant.
What we really want is one of them millionaires
who's looking for a young Girl Friday.
Yeah, or in Mrs Slocombe's case, an old Girl Saturday.
For the first few series of Are You Being Served?,
she used to have to dye her hair,
which was a bit of a drama because try then washing that out afterwards.
And, you know, I can remember being collected from school with mum
with some hair that was, let's just say, a little bit interesting.
And when the lurid wigs were teamed with extravagant costume,
it was even more over the top.
Would you like to tell the judges your name
and what planet you come from?
She had the look, now she needed the voice to match.
She's got a very fake posh accent, you know,
and she's got a telephone voice,
which a lot of people had in the '80s,
if you talk about a telephone voice
now, to millennials, they don't know what you're talking about.
But in the '80s, it was very common to speak completely differently
when you were on the phone.
Will you connect me with Captain Peacock, please?
It's all very posh and then she'd have a bit of a temper,
it would revert back to her Northern roots, I mean, it was,
it was a wonderful study of that, of a woman of that period.
I'm just trying to think of the best way of handling it.
Tell her to push off!
And when it came to withering glares,
Mrs Slocombe was second to none.
Mollie as Mrs Slocombe, when she was getting cheek
from Mr Lucas or Mr Spooner,
has a look that can freeze an ox at 100 yards.
and I've been practising it because, now I'm Pauline Fowler,
I must admit, I have used it a few times, myself.
But, no, she was absolutely brilliant,
I think it's - one of the eyes used to close slightly and that was it,
you know. And you knew it was, she didn't have to say anything.
Oh, I say, you look exhausted.
I gave up my seat on the train to some stupid woman.
The only thing that did read across was some of the looks,
and if you did something wrong,
which, let's face it, you do occasionally,
especially when you've got a twin brother,
although it'd be usually him.
That, sort of, disapproving look, that was genuine.
And Mollie was always happy to throw herself into any situation,
quite literally.
And you know, Mollie never ever objected.
God, she was game for anything that David could throw at her,
she, she was amazing.
Don't say a word, Mr Lucas.
I taught them, I did the choreography.
Had to get Mrs Slocombe's leg up on that bar, dear.
Yes, whoops, yeah.
Now, this is for you, Mrs Slocombe, and up, and down.
And up.
And I mean Mollie, bless her, such a good sport,
when you look at some of the things they made her do.
Trevor used to come back and say, "Oh, my God, you won't believe
"what I've got to do with Mollie this week.
"Oh, I've got to pick her up and spin her round."
I remember we did a Christmas special,
we had this Scottish reel, you know, you join arms
and you spin each other round,
and cos I was keeping in mind that she, she's no chicken any more and I...
Anyway, we were doing this reel and linking arms and spinning round,
going far too fast, and I said, "I'm terrified of hurting you."
She said, "Oh, I'm all right, I'm a tough old bird," she said.
But there's one thing above all else that we love Mrs Slocombe for.
It's funny every time, and it's her delivery of the line.
It's just class, it's just, that's the only word I have for it.
It's a wonder I'm here at all, you know.
My pussy got soaking wet.
I had to dry it out in front of the fire before I left.
How did they ever get away with Mrs Slocombe's pussy?
I mean, how, who wasn't looking?
I mean, why, why did it get through?
Hello, is that Mr Akbar?
Mrs Slocombe here, your next-door neighbour,
I wonder, would you do me a favour?
Would you go to my front door, bend down
and look through the letterbox.
And if you can see my pussy...
..would you drop a sardine on the mat?
We had to pretend not really to understand that, my brother and I.
And Mum also had to pretend not to understand it.
So, I don't think it was ever sort of really discussed in the family,
it was sort of both parties going,
"We'll pretend it's just about a cat, then."
Away from the candy-coloured wigs, evil glares, and problems with her
pussy, the real Mollie Sugden bore no resemblance to Betty Slocombe.
I think everybody that met her really did appreciate her,
cos she was a genuine person, you know,
she was a genuinely kind, warm, generous person.
I was leading morning prayer at St Paul's, Knightsbridge,
when news broke of her death, I think in 2009.
Now, the end of morning prayer, it's customary to pray for the departed,
particularly those who have just departed.
So, at the end, I mentioned Mollie Sugden,
and we prayed for her departed soul, which I described as going up,
which made all... Everybody else burst out laughing
in a most inappropriate way - I was slightly told off.
Back in the salacious 1970s, we loved nothing more than an
eye-watering double entendre.
So, Mrs Slocombe's pussy and Are You Being Served?'s
bawdy brand of comedy was the perfect fit.
On the big screen, the Carry On movies were cleaning up.
Now really let's see those chests come out.
And fling, and in.
And fling.
Oh.
Oh, Matron, take them away.
Oh.
Whilst on TV, there was a selection of spicy sitcoms
to tickle our fancies.
How do you do?
I'm Robin Trip and I shall be moving in here.
No, the one I saw had completely... You'll be doing no such thing.
No?
What, a fella moving in with two birds?
I suppose you thought I wouldn't realise, dressed up like that.
Oh, look, it would be purely platonic.
I don't care, what's that mean?
Well, like you and me, George.
So the bawdy antics at Grace Brothers were absolutely
in step with the decade.
When I first saw it, it did occur to me
that actually it was slightly more outrageous than the Carry On films.
For a young child, I got all the pantomime jokes,
and it was mildly kind of bums and willies jokes.
Which, frankly, is funny.
And to ramp it all up even further, Grace Brothers always employed
an assortment of sexy secretaries and nurses, who were the
perfect target for some shamelessly crude 1970s-style comedy.
Enter.
Ah, Peacock, this is my new secretary, Miss Thorpe.
I thought I couldn't quite place the face.
Well, anyway, I'm sure you're going to be much better than the
last girl, she hadn't got much up top.
Don't you agree, Peacock?
No comparison at all.
There was the, sort of, the dolly birds that came out of the lift,
you got the sense that, actually, these were young starlets
that had literally come straight from some casting couch somewhere.
But it wasn't very PC when you think, those gorgeous girls,
very underdressed,
and they were underdressed in their own profession.
They worked in the modelling game and all the rest of it,
but, oh, very frowned-on now.
And I think rightly so.
Young Mr Grace was pretty much close to death,
but he was assisted in staying alive by these, you know,
real cliched, fabulous, you know, curvy nurses.
Now, you understand how this works, Mr Grace, it's like your pacemaker.
Every time you feel any stress, this little light will flash, like this.
BUZZES
And you know what to do, then.
Yes, I know.
When I start flashing, I call for you.
That's right.
Now, this is the battery for the spare charger, and it plugs in here.
BUZZES
I remember Vivienne Johnson, she was a very tall, blonde,
stunning-looking woman.
She was a nurse, that's right,
she was young Mr Grace's nurse.
She was enough to give him a heart attack, anyway.
There's no point in watching it and getting upset about the way
Mr Humphries is portrayed, or Mrs Slocombe going on about her pussy,
or anything like that, because it is what it is.
And if you enjoy it for what it is, then fine.
Coming up, we salute Miss Brahms, the sexpot of Grace Brothers,
and the legendary actress who played her.
She was one of the blokes, if something annoyed her, she swore,
didn't hold back, and I mean every swear word you want to hear.
It's been over 30 years since Grace Brothers shut-up shop.
But we still can't get enough of Are You Being Served?
The great British sitcom which revelled in some exceedingly
cringeworthy puns.
Am I to take it that you refuse me
permission to give my pussy facilities for her confinement?
I'm afraid there's no pussability.
They had a ball.
They had an absolute ball.
And Trevor used to come back on Monday and say,
"Oh, you're going to love this episode,
"oh, you're going to love this."
The show was a family favourite,
but for 1970s dads in particular, it was Miss Brahms,
the first lady of lingerie, whose combination of laidback sex appeal
and shrill East End accent, who pushed all the right buttons.
What happened to that man you met on the bus, you know,
the one that you gave your phone number to, didn't he ring you?
I think he did.
What do you mean you think he did?
Well, it sounded like his heavy breathing but I couldn't be certain.
Oh, look, they're back, I wonder what Mr Lucas has done now?
He put his knee in a customer's trousers.
Oh, was the customer still in them?
No.
Miss Brahms was a real sexy cockney girl,
but no dimwit.
She used to pretend, there'd be a little bit of daffiness going on
but you could see actually that she was very bright.
Miss Brahms is this sort of very eye-catching, very deliberately
one for the dads,
this is something that's going to keep the dads watching.
She was fabulous-looking,
she had the best legs in the country I think, Wendy.
Morning, Shirley.
Hey, do you know you've got a ladder in your tights?
Oh, trust you to notice.
Does it go all the way up?
Well, there's one person who'll never find out.
She was someone who was obviously the object of endless
fascination from the younger, more red-blooded members of the cast.
But she did keep them in line.
She had her own view, she had her own life.
The hard-edged charm which Wendy brought to the character
of Miss Brahms was something she learnt growing up
in the tough London of the 1950s.
"My mother used to have a brotel", she said.
And you can, you can try and imagine what brotel means,
and so Wendy was brought up in this brotel.
And so she'd seen life in every way, shape and form.
And so, nothing could shock Wendy.
Before her big break at Grace Brothers,
Wendy Richard had a brief pop career in the early 1960s.
It was a recording about a man
trying to get his "bird" to go outside,
you imagine for a bit of slap and tickle,
and then, all of a sudden, Wendy Richards,
so unmistakable just from her voice alone,
puts up a resistance, but it's definitely her,
and you can hear again that kind of deadpan nobody's fool.
# Come outside What for?
# Come outside What's the rush?
# There's a lovely moon out there It's cold outside.
# Come outside Why?
# Come outside You do keep on
# While we got time to spare... #
Moving in to acting, she had cameos in various shows throughout the '60s,
including alongside Frankie Howerd in Up Pompeii.
You having another raffle? Having a what? Another raffle?
Yes, and this time you aren't the prize, so don't bother.
Yeah... Oh, dear, poor soul.
LAUGHTER
What a weight to have to carry around all day.
But things began to happen, when David Croft cast her
in a small role in Dad's Army, where she gave a coolly knowing
and feisty performance as Private Walker's girlfriend.
Hello, this is, er, a friend of mine erm, Mr Mainwaring, Edith Parish.
Miss Parish.
Have you an occupation, Miss Parish? Yes, I'm an usherette.
That's right, down at the Tivoli Cinema, you know,
they're the ones with the torches.
Oh, then you must see a lot of pictures.
Oh, yes!
I see a lot of other things an' all.
LAUGHTER
If you look at Wendy in the Dad's Army phase,
when she was just starting out, she was gorgeous-looking, really,
I mean, fantastic bone structure and...
But then as soon as she said, "Ere", you thought "Oh, Christ!".
So, when Croft was recruiting staff for Grace Brothers,
he knew immediately where to put his hands on the perfect Miss Brahms.
He will see someone in a very small part, small role,
and then he'll, he'll give them a role in something of his,
and it's as though he has this massive filing cabinet,
I mean, we're all part of Crofty's repertory company, really,
and then when the right thing comes along, you're there.
Wendy threw herself into the role of Miss Brahms,
giving her an offhand and effortless allure.
Brahms.
Yes, I know, Captain Peacock, I'm late.
Have you an explanation?
Yes, it's Friday, I haven't got any money
and I couldn't afford the bus fare, I had to hitchhike.
Then you should've left home earlier. I did.
I stood on the corner and I lifted my skirt
and showed a bit of stocking, like Marilyn Monroe did in Bus Stop.
What happened?
LAUGHTER
The bus crashed. And I had to make a statement.
The same thing happened to me once, with a Centurion tank.
That's the clever thing about Wendy, I mean,
to be that stern-looking, yet be a siren,
and yet be kind of coy when she needs to be coy,
and yet get her slaps in when she needs to, and be the strong woman.
I tell you what, you pretend to faint and I'll carry you out.
I can't faint without an excuse. Well, tell 'em you're having a baby.
What a pity your ear 'oles aren't a bit bigger. Why?
Cos then you could shove a toothbrush in 'em
and clean out that filthy mind of yours!
And working together, Wendy Richard and Mollie Sugden gave the writers
an opportunity to create a unique comic partnership.
The double act of Wendy and Mollie was just perfect.
Well, Miss Brahms and Mrs Slocombe,
she was like an old, like, aunt wasn't she, really, Mrs Slocombe.
It was probably a little bit like Wendy and me!
At EastEnders!
I love the relationship with Mrs Slocombe,
because they were allies and yet also enemies,
and there was something about the unending tension of that
that kept you watching.
If you get promotion, does that mean I'll get your job?
Well, normally, they'd give my job to somebody of my age.
What's the matter? You look very depressed!
I was just thinking, I might not live that long.
If you watched them together, which I often do on that counter,
Wendy was a feed and a foil, and she fed Mollie all her lines.
Just don't understand young people nowadays,
I don't understand what you're talking about!
I just like going out, that's all.
My dear girl, I could be wined and dined every night if I wanted to,
if it wasn't for that awful wrestling match in the car
when you got home... Those roving hands and the sloppy kisses
and the fight to get the door open and escape.
Did many of them get away, Mrs Slocombe?
But when she walked out of the store at the end of the day,
the real Wendy Richard was quite unlike her comedy character.
She was one of the blokes, you know, one, one of the boys
and she used to swear, well, if something annoyed her, she swore,
didn't hold back, and I mean every swear word you want to hear.
My first impression was, yeah, she didn't, she didn't speak to me.
She didn't say hello or anything.
And I was a little bit starstruck.
When you actually got to know Wendy, she was very kind,
beautiful woman, very professional and really generous.
I mean, enormous credit to Wendy Richards, as an actor
that she was able to, so kind of, bind herself
into our national lives, but in two completely different characters,
and went on to have another brilliant success,
as Pauline Fowler in EastEnders, not many people can do that,
not many people can pull it off, but she did seemingly effortlessly.
She was, like, a great woman.
I don't think she was anything like any of her characters, really.
As with many of David Croft's sitcoms,
much of the comedy in Are You Being Served?
sprang from an idea of the pecking order.
To me, it was a little bit like the kind of caste system in India,
and the hierarchy led to, you know, giving the writers the ability
to come up with lots more comedy situations,
you know, to create them.
There were the sort of, like, the bottom rank,
who would rebel against the more senior members of staff,
and that's where, as an audience, you always rooted for them,
cos no-one likes the people in authority.
May I suggest, sir, one of our silk handkerchiefs for your top pocket?
Quite a good match, I think you'll agree. Yes.
What do you think of that, Mr Grace? Oh, I prefer it.
The chief target of discontent among Grace Brothers' staff,
was the store's floorwalker, Captain Peacock,
played immaculately, by Frank Thornton.
He sort of patrolled the floor, with a slightly military air,
and he was completely unlikeable really, so, he was the one
set up to be knocked down by the more cheeky members of staff.
Captain Peacock always looked as if he had a cricket bat
down his trouser leg, I mean he was always so ridiculously straight.
I mean, he was impeccably turned out.
I can remember, always a carnation in his buttonhole,
always immaculate, as you, as I'm sure he would've been
when he was serving in the Army.
Are you sure you want to question
the decision of your superior, Mrs Slocombe?
Captain Peacock, you may have the key to the top person's toilet,
but you are in no way my superior.
And women live longer than men.
I don't see what that has to do with it.
I know, but I just thought I'd tell you.
Away from his character,
Frank Thornton was also a stickler for smart dress.
He adopted the red carnation, I gather, he wasn't a hat person,
until he got older, when he wore a hat to keep himself warm,
but he always had a, a smartly-rolled umbrella,
and his knowledge of how to wear hats
and how to wear uniform was endless.
And the exquisitely dressed Captain Peacock merely had to glare
at his subordinates to keep them in line.
Still, I'm always prepared to look the other way.
Yeah, you could've fooled me.
That look, that supercilious look that he gave, was just wonderful.
The, the stare, when anyone does anything wrong,
I'm very familiar with, I grew up with that,
and when I displeased him, I got that stare,
which shut me up straight away, I can tell you.
I mean, I think he commanded great respect, Frank.
He had that sort of air about him,
but he... Captain Peacock had no sense of humour at all
and, of course, Frank had a fabulous sense of humour,
so, totally differed in that way.
Frank's mischievous sense of fun was evident
when it came to one of his private passions.
A hugely, hugely dry wit.
Frank used to write the most amazing limericks.
And, in the show, his character occasionally had the chance
to deliver a limerick in Peacock's inimitably deadpan fashion.
If you're wanting to sell ladies' knickers,
here's a gimmick that's brimming with fun,
get Miss Brahms to wear a very brief pair,
and we'll all have a look at her, one by one.
I think it was a young lady from Penge,
who did something, something and Stonehenge,
she lay on a sarsen and poxed up a parson,
they call it the druids' revenge.
There's a vital bit missing and I'm not sure, but I loved that one.
On the shop floor, however much authority Captain Peacock
commanded, there was an easy way to disarm him.
Captain Peacock, of course, very much enjoyed watching Miss Brahms.
If he got a chance, the closer he could get, the better.
Miss Brahms, you're supposed to be buying, not selling.
We have a saying in religion that one must always,
one must always observe custody of the eyes,
and he lacked custody of the eyes if there was a bosomy customer,
and that was one of the jokes, wasn't it,
that his composure, which seemed so unflappable,
would fail sometimes, when he was attracted to a customer.
Is, erm, is everything to your satisfaction?
Yes, it's all fine, thank you.
You certainly caused a stir in the trouser department.
Yes, this outfit usually gets the men going,
it's the gymslip look that does it, that and the stocking tops.
Yes, yes.
Yes, if you're that type, it must have a certain effect.
HE COUGHS HEAVILY
Right, here we go, stand by, please.
Coming up, we reveal what went on behind the scenes of filming
Are You Being Served? Mrs Slocombe!
They rehearsed Monday to Friday but it was always...
Trevor always said it was very tight.
Saucy, smutty and shameless,
Are You Being Served? is one of Britain's
perennially popular sitcoms,
and showcased some exquisite ensemble comedy.
Would you use your senior position
to tell Mr Lucas to shut his cake hole?
Mr Lucas, you are not indispensable,
there are many young men, who would bend over backwards
to get in to Grace Brothers.
That's one of the qualifications.
It was a bit like watching pantomime,
because there were an awful lot of jokes I wasn't getting
and I didn't know that they were jokes,
but my mother and my stepfather were laughing a lot.
For a staggering ten series,
the antics of the staff of Grace Brothers never failed to delight,
and one of the reasons we love the show
was their use of the most extraordinary and occasionally outrageous props.
However wayward your figure,
the Flexi Bra will cling to it and control it.
I know all about them, thank you.
In fact, I wear one.
And I have the matching pants.
The guys at the BBC, their props department was the best.
They used to come up with some incredible stuff.
And the prop maker must've had the time of his life,
coming up with these silly props.
But there was one prop we prized above all the others,
which was used relentlessly to magnificent effect.
As soon as the lift gates open, you all applaud,
and then I shall present Captain Peacock
with his 20-year-service badge.
Hmm? Rather an emotional moment, isn't it?
20 years in this place is almost as much as the Train Robbers got.
How unexpected. Captain Peacock, in acknowledgement of your...
Mr Lucas, the button!
Oh!
Too late, I've lost him. Cut off in his moment of glory.
I always believed they were real, I did,
and how stupid is that, cos I've been in the business,
I'd say, 150 years.
I used to think it was some sort of mechanical lift.
No, there was a set of stairs going up to a set of doors,
that were opened by hand on a couple of rope pulleys, and that was it.
# Happy birthday, Mr Grace # Happy birthday to you. #
I'm stuck!
It was beautifully positioned as a dramatic device,
because there were the stairs up and a kind of mezzanine,
and then the doors, so when they did, boom,
you didn't know who was going to be coming out,
and making a kind of an entrance,
and there was always like a, "Oh, who's next?".
Miss Shirley Brahms and the Duchess of Slocombe.
Drinks, ladies? Why not?
I think you've had enough.
Are you suggesting, Miss Brahms, that four vodka martinis
are beyond my capacity?
Right, here we go, stand by, please.
And, cue.
And for each episode, the cast had less than a week,
to deal with whatever the props department threw at them.
Along with everything else.
They rehearsed Monday to Friday but it was always...
..Trevor always said it was very tight.
David had written it so tight, there was no sort of mucking around.
When we were rehearsing up at the BBC rehearsal rooms in Acton,
where, it was called the Acton Hilton,
it was this terribly doomy charcoal grey building,
and lunchtimes, we used to go round the pub,
John Inman, Wendy Richard and I,
and a lot of the fun was there because John Inman was so funny.
He was a lot funnier off than he was on, I thought,
because I used to come back with my face aching with laughter.
Here goes.
Fore! Oh! Mrs Slocombe!
Recording paused.
LAUGHTER
And on Sundays, the cast gathered at BBC TV Centre in West London,
to prepare for the live recording.
On Sunday, they all took in lunch.
I don't think they could stand the BBC canteen.
I expect my mother cooked any cakes that Pa took in.
She was the cook in our family.
So, yes, I believe they did have those little tea parties.
Well, they had a great sort of lavish picnic every Sunday,
and then go and record the show. Here we go, stand by, please.
And when all the cakes were eaten,
it was time to commit the show to film in front of an audience.
It was terrifying, to start with.
Cos the only filming I'd done acting before, there was no live audience.
It's great fun being part of the audience.
And my mother said, oh, she liked taking me,
and they liked having me in the audience,
cos I had a loud laugh, apparently.
The audience would get slightly hysterical and laugh too much,
and they'd be told to just laugh again, but not quite so madly,
so, it still makes me laugh to see it, I love to see it.
By 1977, Are You Being Served? was one of the most popular shows
on television, attracting huge audiences.
So, it was decided to try the show out on the big screen.
Well, the basic concept of that film would appear to be wrong,
cos they took them out of the Grace Brothers' setting,
and, and there was no, because they were on holiday,
there was, there was no pecking order to, to rebel against,
so, it was all kind of pointless.
You are the English drag show, yes? With the female impressinations.
Yes, now I look, I can tell.
Those are the false boobidoos, oh, very funny!
Get off!
I would have you know these are real boobidoos.
And I object to being ravaged.
Do you want to swap places?
Taking a half-hour show out of its familiar set,
and trying to blow the story up
and make it into an hour-and-a-half film,
it wasn't a huge success. I, I won't repeat what Pa wrote about it.
The thing about these TV comedies,
they made the mistake of thinking they would transfer and translate
to the big screen which they, they never could.
Morecambe and Wise made that mistake,
cos television's somehow a different medium.
HE YELLS
Here, some fella's just dropped in to your tent.
Oh, pity I was out.
Hollywood may not have been calling,
but Britain was certainly not the only country having a love affair
with the staff of Grace Brothers.
It's really interesting what Americans enjoy from British humour.
They really love the sort of seaside kiss-me-quick, squeeze-me-slowly,
sort of postcard humour, and I guess it's because they don't have that.
The one night me mother's away, and she has to go and get measles.
Just my luck. I haven't had it.
The way things are going, you're not going to get it!
I think what was...what attracted the Americans was the Britishness,
and I think when they came over to holiday in Great Britain,
they rushed to the department stores to see how true it was.
Or Holland. I mean, it was like
being one of the Beatles or something,
the crowds, there were strong-arm men,
there were crash barricades put up...
I do remember that there was quite a lot of Balls gin drunk on one trip,
and I think somebody nearly missed the aircraft on the way home,
and it wasn't my mother, but I can't remember who it was.
I still get residuals from all over the place,
and got something recently from Tanzania, you know.
What do they make of it in Tanzania?
Coming up... Emotions run high
when, after 30 years, Are You Being Served? makes a comeback.
Mr Humphries, are you free?
I'm free.
As the floor manager said, "Action",
the music came on, and I burst in to tears.
It's been over 30 years since Grace Brothers held its closing-down sale,
but many still miss Are You Being Served?
and the way its writers grabbed any opportunity
to raid the dressing-up box
and make the cast do something delightfully daft.
Here, here, wait a minute, wait a minute!
You don't do it like that!
You're supposed to be gentle!
I was gentle! I just went like that.
You did not! You went like that!
I'll always remember, like, the cast, like,
dressing up in silly costumes,
bursting in to song, doing silly things.
There was a wonderful episode, I can't remember why,
but they were all in lederhosen
and John Inman in lederhosen... I mean, lederhosen were already
kind of the campest hot pants for men you'd ever seen,
and he made them even more camp.
In 1979, after appearing in 48 episodes,
Trevor Bannister left the show, and Grace Brothers lost its lothario,
a firm favourite with the female fans.
If we were in a shop or something and people didn't know
we were together, there'd be all this nudge, nudge, wink, wink,
"Ooh, you go and say", "No, you go and say",
and I'd, I'd be, sort, of 15 feet away just enjoying it all, you know,
while they plucked up the courage to go and say something.
And Trevor wasn't afraid to flash the flesh
in some of the show's most ludicrously costumed sequences.
Blimey, Mick Jagger and Twiggy's mum.
I think Mr Lucas was a cheeky chappie, lived by his wits, really,
and just adored being... taking the mickey and being rude
to Mrs Slocombe and desperately trying to chat-up Miss Brahms.
Has anybody got a tape measure? Oh, search me. Right...
SHE SCREAMS
Just cut that out! If she has got one, it's well hidden.
I remember having a lot of sympathy for Mr Lucas
because I think...he was always getting it wrong,
he was the one that was always somehow the wrong side of both
the men's department and the ladies' department.
He was always panting a bit, really, wasn't he?
That kind of frustration, sexual, personal, in work,
it's such a feature of British comedy, isn't it?
The gap between what we hope for and what we actually get.
I know what, I'll send her a note.
Here, lend me your pencil.
Bit short on lead, aren't you?
What are you going to say? "Dear Sexy Knickers..."
Tch! That's subtle.
Well, if you don't ask, you don't get, do you?
"I don't half...fancy you..."
Well, I'm glad to see romance isn't dead.
And Trevor shared a similar sense of mischief with
the character he created.
I don't know if I should say this,
but he had a fart machine that he'd take round to smart parties
and things, and he became a 12-year-old schoolboy.
Absolutely adored it, but he had a very quick, quick sense of humour.
The vacancy in menswear was filled by Mike Berry as Mr Spooner,
in a thoroughly cheeky and charming performance.
He has sinned.
What are you talking about?
All he did was put his hands down a pair of bristols to get
at the blancmange.
I can understand all the fuss if he'd given her one.
I was a massive fan and when I was asked to be in it - phwoar!
Terrifying.
But it didn't take long for the cast to accept the new recruit.
When I met...John and Wendy and...
..Mollie, they were all so lovely, they were so warm.
We were rehearsing and Wendy Richards said to me, she said,
"I was speaking to John", she said. "Oh, he's all right, he's got it."
So that was the, the seal of approval was John saying,
"He's got it. He can do it". That's right - "He can do it",
and Wendy said... And so, she said, "You're right, there", sort of thing!
The cast were even persuaded to join Mr Spooner for the odd cheesy
song and dance number...
# Chanson... #
..as you do in the clothing section of a department store.
# ..d'amour
# Rat-ta-tat-ta-ta
# Play encore... #
Are You Being Served closed its doors for the last time in 1985,
after a record-breaking 13 years on our screens.
I just can't imagine something running for 69 episodes now,
that wasn't about selling antiques or cooking things,
but to keep that going so fresh, so funny, for so long,
is an amazing achievement, and also it couldn't happen now.
But you can't keep a good comedy down,
and in 2016, Are You Being Served? returned for one night only
with a brand-new cast, paying tribute to its memory.
I've not had lobster since Mr Akbar's flat-warming.
And then it was covered in so many spices, my pussy had a sneezing fit.
As the floor manager said, "Action", the music came on
and I burst in to tears and I went,
"Stop, stop." "What you doing?!
"Sherrie, what are you d...?"
I was so overwhelmed by...
..you know, all that memory.
Mr Humphries, are you free?
I'm free.
My impression of it was that it's not bad actually,
it's not at all bad, considering what they were trying to follow.
And the limitations of the time, cos they couldn't have all that
saucy postcard stuff in there and get away with it.
We were paying homage to them, we were giving it...
Yeah, that's what it was for, we were doing it for them,
and to remember them and saying how much everybody...
..everybody loved them.
Yes, half a century after Grace Brothers first opened
for business, we still love Are You Being Served?
It's nearly 50 years old, I think, the series, now,
and it is still funny, it still stands up.
You will sit there absolutely howling with laughter
and you just go "I..." You know, "..I miss this."
It was somewhere that you wanted to be part of,
that you enjoyed it and...you thought,
"Oh..." When you switched on, it was like home.
Perhaps because it just relies on very deep, enduring
comic characteristics and tropes that will always get our attention
and always be funny.
I do remember when it wasn't there any more, it felt like...
..a bereavement, it felt like a national tragedy
that we didn't have our fix of Grace Brothers.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media