Are You Being Served ?

[Charles Bronson]

There was a tribute/documentary about AYBS on TV yesterday. I was never really a fan of the show, but like a lot of other things in life you see things differently later on.
I was watching bits of the programme, and they made a big point of saying that the show had been on so long that they ran out of storylines and ideas, and we're getting a bit desperate, which was the main reason they finished it in the eighties. I had to ask myself what  the heck are they bringing it back now for then if they ran out of storylines then ?
I just looked up the remake and some of the new cast look good. John Challoner plays Captain Peacock, and the guy who was in the TV movie (Can't think of his name right now, but he is a good actor) about that bloke with the mad hair they arrested for murder in the West Of England plays Mr. Humpreys.
I don't even know if it's been on yet, but I might give the new series a go.
Perhaps the BBC feel a bit guilty about not putting shows on for older people, and that's why they're bringing these things back.

Charles.

[Cartman]

I never found the original funny personally. John Inman was the only remotely funny thing on it, it was his programme really. I thought it was dated and predictable even then

[Sam Tyler]

I was still at home with my parents when the show first started. I used to sit through it but never rated it that highly.

For me the best character was Mr Lucas played by Trevor Bannister but ultimately once I'd got married and moved out I never watched it again as that was moving in to the time of the Channel Four launch and the start of The Young Ones.

I think the show now is flogging a dead horse so can't envisage giving it a watch.

Sam.

[Arthur Pringle]

On the Porridge thread I mentioned that I think the real reason for these updates of classic BBC sitcoms is to 'shore up' the pilots that they're showing as part of the 'sitcom season'.
Mrs.Slocombe's pussy, it's not suggestive anymore in an age where that particular word is in common usage. What made things funny then doesn't always apply now & it strikes me as desperate to wring laughs out of what have become comedy cliches. At the time the shows were made these things were not 'catchphrases', they become that way over time & the original context is lost with it. For instance, Mr.Humphries rarely said 'I'm free', just as Regan only said 'shut it' twice I think.

I like AYBS, it's no Dad's Army but most of the cast were great performers ( Wendy Richards grates a bit ) & it's nicely observed. It did get a bit crap towards the end of it's life with Mike Berry replacing Trevor Bannister. I enjoy the film version as well.