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Are You Being Served?

Are You Being Served? was a long-running British sitcom broadcast from 1972 to 1985. It was set in the men's and women's department of Grace Brothers, a large, fictional London store. It was written mainly by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, with contributions by Michael Knowles and John Chapman. The idea for the show came from Lloyd's brief period working at Simpsons of Piccadilly in the early 1950s, a clothing store which traded for over 60 years until 1999.[1]

The episodes rarely left the store, and to parody the stereotype of the British class system, characters rarely addressed each other by their given names, even after work. In 2004, it came 20th in Britain's Best Sitcom.

Are You Being Served? featured humour based on sexual innuendo, misunderstandings, and mistaken identity. In addition, there were sight gags generated by outrageous costumes the characters were sometimes required to wear for store promotions, and gaudy store displays frequently featuring malfunctioning robotic mannequins. The show is remembered for its prolific use of double entendres.

The main humorous base of the series was a merciless parody of the British class system. This permeated every interaction and was especially evident in the conversations between the maintenance men and the ostensibly higher-class store personnel.

Characters included stereotypes as the effeminate Mr. Humphries, who lived with his mother; Captain Peacock, the haughty floorwalker who purportedly fought in the North Africa Campaign of World War II (but was actually in the Service Corps), and the snobbish and boisterous Mrs. Slocombe with her ever-changing hair colour.

The show spawned the catch phrase "Are you free?", usually said by Captain Peacock to the staff; more often than not, the staff are noticeably free, and each would look solemnly from side to side before answering, "Yes, I'm free, Captain Peacock." John Inman remarked, when Mr. Humphries trilled, "I'm free!", it became his own personal catchphrase.