Are You Being Served?

This comedy series, which follows the exploits of employees at London's fictional "Grace Brothers" department store, is full of sexual innuendo, slapstick, visual gags, and double entendres. Much of the show's humor parodies Britain's class system, and many of the show's characters are based on stereotypes of the period, including the effeminate Mr. Humphries and the rich, but stingy, store owner.

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.

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

• Fawlty Towersworkplace sitcom, double entendre humor, class satire, ensemble of eccentric staff
• Dad's ArmyBritish workplace sitcom, ensemble comedy, class-conscious humor
• Allo Allo!small institution ensemble, innuendo-driven farce, long-running British sitcom

Created by

David Croft, Jeremy Lloyd

Release Date

1972-09-08

Episode runtime

30 min

Rating

8.0 / 10 (102)

What is Are You Being Served? about?

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

What is Are You Being Served? like to watch?

Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Are You Being Served? as brisk, its intensity as mild and its storytelling as simple.

Is Are You Being Served? violent?

No — Ember's analysis finds no violence in Are You Being Served?.

What did critics think of Are You Being Served??

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

Which shows are like Are You Being Served??

Shows with a similar feel include Fawlty Towers, Dad's Army, and Allo Allo!.

How long is Are You Being Served??

Are You Being Served?: 10 seasons, 69 episodes.

Is Are You Being Served? still running?

No, Are You Being Served? has ended.

Where can I watch Are You Being Served??

In United States, Are You Being Served? streams on Britbox Apple TV channel, BritBox, BritBox Amazon Channel.