# Are You Being Served? (1972)

> A 1970s British sitcom about the staff of a London department store, where class pretensions and innuendo drive the comedy.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/153

## Facts

- Seasons: 10
- Episodes: 69
- Episode runtime: 30 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: comedy
- Created by: David Croft, Jeremy Lloyd
- Network: BBC One
- Cast: Frank Thornton, John Inman, Mollie Sugden, Wendy Richard, Trevor Bannister, Arthur Brough, Nicholas Smith, James Hayter
- TMDB rating: 8.0/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068040/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: none
- Tone: camp, cheerful, innuendo driven, whimsical, affectionate

## What critics say

Audiences regard the series as a warm, well-loved British sitcom whose farce and character comedy hold up across its run.

## Synopsis

Are You Being Served? (1972-1985) is a British national-television workplace sitcom created by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd for BBC One. Set among the staff of London's fictional Grace Brothers department store, the series follows a lineup of shopfloor and management employees whose daily routines revolve around rivalry, petty ambition and the stuffy hierarchy of a grand old shop. John Inman plays the fussy menswear assistant Mr. Humphries, whose flamboyant mannerisms and sharp retorts make him the show's most recognisable figure, while Frank Thornton's Captain Peacock embodies the pompous floorwalker who guards his standing above all else. Mollie Sugden's Mrs. Slocombe and Wendy Richard's Miss Brahms round out the principal cast, each trading barbed remarks across the counters. The engine of each episode is simple: a minor crisis, a customer's odd request or a managerial whim sets the staff against one another, and the comedy comes from quick wordplay, sexual innuendo, slapstick and visual gags. Running for ten seasons and sixty-nine half-hour episodes, it is a loosely connected sitcom rather than a serialized drama. Its tone is cheerful, camp and deliberately old-fashioned, with a sly satire of British class snobbery underneath. Fans of Fawlty Towers, Dad's Army and Allo Allo! will find the same blend of stock characters, farce and affectionate mockery of institutional pretension.

## Shows like Are You Being Served?

- [George and Mildred (1976)](https://ember.film/tv/2296)
- [Yes, Prime Minister (1986)](https://ember.film/tv/11746)
- [To the Manor Born (1979)](https://ember.film/tv/112)
- [Benson (1979)](https://ember.film/tv/1745)
- [Dad's Army (1968)](https://ember.film/tv/475)
- [Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973)](https://ember.film/tv/5635)
- [The Good Life (1975)](https://ember.film/tv/2628)
- [Last of the Summer Wine (1973)](https://ember.film/tv/4037)
- [Keeping Up Appearances (1990)](https://ember.film/tv/27)
- [Steptoe and Son (1962)](https://ember.film/tv/3171)

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