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3 Responses to “Are You Being Served?: The Inside Story of Britain’s Funniest–And Public Television’s Favorite–Comedy Series”

1. admin
   06月 11th, 2008 at 1:04 am

   

   By tropic_of_criticism
   _Are You Being Served?_ is arguably the only British comedy show outside of _Monty Python_ which has shown up on every state’s public broadcasting channel. Yet, despite this wider-than-usual American market penetration, the show is obscure to even careful viewers. Why did Mr. Lucas suddenly depart the show? What happened to Mr. Grainger? Are more episodes of the revival show of the staff in retirement forthcoming? Why did the show go through so many Senior Assistants on the men’s counter? This book answers all these questions–and dozens more.
   Its exceptionally well-designed pages–reminiscent of a Grace Brother’s shopping bag–lead you through the beginnings of the show, give a detailed episode guide, and provide lots of behind-the-scenes information and interviews. One of the things I particularly enjoyed was the inclusion about the suprising number of other versions of the show. It was a treat learning there was actually a movie made from the show (and, yes, it’s available on Amazon); that John Inman actually went down under to make a uniquely Australian version of the show; and that the staff of Grace Brothers sometimes appeared on stage in London.

   To be sure, this is no seminal effort on the foundations of British comedy. But it is a fun, bathroom-reading kinda book that would make an excellent, thoughtful stocking stuffer for the anglophile in your life.

2. admin
   06月 11th, 2008 at 1:04 am

   

   By Daniel J. Hamlow (Chikusei City, Japan)

   This might as well be Round About Everything You Wanted To Know About Are You Being Served?. Why write about a TV series? With the exception of soap operas, a TV series that goes on for the good part of a decade isn’t something to brush aside lightly, especially in the UK, with its limited, government-subsidized budgets given to the BBC. Are You Being Served? began with a pilot episode in 1972, then as a series in itself, lasting from 1973 to 1985. 12 years and 10 seasons wasn’t that bad for a British TV series–look at Doctor Who and ‘Allo ‘Allo.
   The inspiration is the most important thing–without it, there wouldn’t have been a show. Leave it to Jeremy Lloyd, one of the co-creators, to work two years at Simpson’s department store and get canned for selling drinks on the floor on a hot day! Two years and he came up with this much output? I’ve been working four years in the same place; what can I come up with?

   For each regular character, there is a description, followed by a short bio of the actor who played said character. Naturally, there is a lot more print on the two most popular characters–John Inman (Mr. Humphries) and Molly Sugden (Ms. Slocombe). The book says that Mr. Humphries was camp, not gay, but doesn’t explain the difference. Camp basically means openly flamboyant and more relaxed in extroverted emotion without the sexual orientation issue. I liked all the characters, though Mr. Humphries and Mr. Lucas were on the top of my list.

   Things I didn’t know that raised my eyebrows was Mike Berry’s past career as a singer, as a contemporary of the Beatles.

   There is also a season by season guide, with a synopsis to the stories, guest cast, original date of transmission, and ratings from * to ****. Going through this part, I realized that with the exception of the first and fourth seasons (1973, 1976), no season was completely pristine–there were bound to be some substandard stories. I agree with most of the ratings, and yes, the overall ratings were a bit uneven during the last three, when each season was every other year instead of every year. The book also includes the episodes of Grace and Favour, titled Are You Being Served Again? for the US, as well as the Australian series never aired here, and the various spinoffs.

   There’s also glossary of British slang in the back of the book as well as in the margins, which is as nice as ninepence for the uninitiated.

   At the end of the day, anyone trying to get behind the scenes of this hit series will get a rattling good time. So read on to the top of your bent.

3. admin
   06月 11th, 2008 at 1:05 am

   

   By Get What We Give (Georgia)

   We Americans have only been discovering Are You Being Served? in the U.S. for about the past ten or so years, but this series has long since been off the air in Britain. Considered by most modern Brits to be dated and terribly broad, AYBS? is not on the top of their favorites list. However, it is on mine.
   This book, which was produced only after America started its love affair with the series, is a great supplement for those who can’t get enough of Grace Bros.’ staff.

   You get introduction to each of the characters and the actors who portrayed them. You are privy to information that you may often have wondered about. You also can try your hand at some trivia. The best for me was the Episode Guide. I have a few personal favorites, but the pinnacle is when Mrs. Slocumb is all trussed up in a gold lame dress for a commercial shoot and the remote microphone gets lost in her cleavage. Hilarious!