Twenty five years ago, a former roommate (who was from London) introduced me to this classic British sitcom which he happened to discover was on PBS. Being in customer service at the time, I loved its sometimes acidic view of life behind the counter. It was also a crash course in British slang which became a part of my lingo and over the years has made me seem a bit of an eccentric. The regular characters here were certainly all a bit eccentric, but in quite different ways. From store owner Young Mr. Grace (the delightfully adorable and seemingly much older Harold Bennett) all the way down to the cockney handymen who were constantly being ordered off the floor by the imperious Captain Peacock, resulting in a delightful insult at his expense, these characters became a part of my TV history memories, as memorable to me as Lucy and Ethel, Laverne and Shirley, all the Golden Girls & Designing Women, and many, many others.
The heart and soul of the show and oft' scene stealers were Mollie Sugden's Mrs. Betty Slocum, the "Get Stuffed!" spouting senior clerk "for the ladies' department" who was always complaining about something in regards to her "cat" (utilizing a word which gave quite a different impression of what she was talking about) and John Inman's very gay Mr. Humphries who would answer the phone in a very butch manner ("Men's Wear") then respond to Captain Peacock's "Are You Free?" with a very high pitched "I'm Free!". The characters argued quite a bit as most co-workers who work together for a long time do, but it is obvious that they couldn't imagine working with anybody else. Wendy Richard's Miss Brahams is a "dead common" working class girl anxious to be a little more high class, but when she took elocution lessons, she ended up sounding like she was making fun of an upper class customer. Mr. Lucas over in Men's Wear had fun flirting with Miss Brahams in a very un-PC way and insulting Mrs. Slocum in an even more delicious manner. The gay references from the other characters towards Mr. Humphreys were never homophobic, and came off often as endearing like a friendly little slap on the butt rather than something you'd compare to a hate crime.
Then, there was "Jug Ears", Mr. Rumbolt, the prim and proper department manager who often got confused as to the on floor misunderstandings and usually made it out to be something more than it was. Trying to be a peacemaker, he usually ended up causing more trouble. Then, when Mr. Grace made suggestions for the department, "Jug Ears" would turn the suggestion into a big production which usually put the staff in campy costumes and over the top situations that kept the audiences in stitches. One example was a store commercial with Mrs. Slocum wearing over-sized eye lashes that kept getting stuck and Mr. Rumbolt wearing the wrong wig which seemed more appropriate for Liza Minnelli than the character he was playing. The show did utilize American references so that when it did come to American T.V., it ended up being as acceptable to them as it was to the BBC audiences.
Replacements for various actors were necessary (usually due to the older cast member's sudden deaths) but they weren't as successful as the original. "Old Mr. Grace" didn't have the cute quality of "Young Mr. Grace", and Mr. Spooner just seemed a pale imitation of Trevor Bannister's Mr. Lucas. Fortunately, the majority of the cast remained the same and the quality of the writing never changed its patterns. 40 years later, the series is as fresh as ever and proves to us American audiences that the humor of the British doesn't have to be droll or "stiff upper lip" and that they can get as down and dirty (in fact even dirtier) than the unfortunate political correctness of American TV has taken over the years. Censorship didn't stop this show from being delightfully witty and even with its slightly obscene insinuations, there is absolutely nothing to offend anybody.
The heart and soul of the show and oft' scene stealers were Mollie Sugden's Mrs. Betty Slocum, the "Get Stuffed!" spouting senior clerk "for the ladies' department" who was always complaining about something in regards to her "cat" (utilizing a word which gave quite a different impression of what she was talking about) and John Inman's very gay Mr. Humphries who would answer the phone in a very butch manner ("Men's Wear") then respond to Captain Peacock's "Are You Free?" with a very high pitched "I'm Free!". The characters argued quite a bit as most co-workers who work together for a long time do, but it is obvious that they couldn't imagine working with anybody else. Wendy Richard's Miss Brahams is a "dead common" working class girl anxious to be a little more high class, but when she took elocution lessons, she ended up sounding like she was making fun of an upper class customer. Mr. Lucas over in Men's Wear had fun flirting with Miss Brahams in a very un-PC way and insulting Mrs. Slocum in an even more delicious manner. The gay references from the other characters towards Mr. Humphreys were never homophobic, and came off often as endearing like a friendly little slap on the butt rather than something you'd compare to a hate crime.
Then, there was "Jug Ears", Mr. Rumbolt, the prim and proper department manager who often got confused as to the on floor misunderstandings and usually made it out to be something more than it was. Trying to be a peacemaker, he usually ended up causing more trouble. Then, when Mr. Grace made suggestions for the department, "Jug Ears" would turn the suggestion into a big production which usually put the staff in campy costumes and over the top situations that kept the audiences in stitches. One example was a store commercial with Mrs. Slocum wearing over-sized eye lashes that kept getting stuck and Mr. Rumbolt wearing the wrong wig which seemed more appropriate for Liza Minnelli than the character he was playing. The show did utilize American references so that when it did come to American T.V., it ended up being as acceptable to them as it was to the BBC audiences.
Replacements for various actors were necessary (usually due to the older cast member's sudden deaths) but they weren't as successful as the original. "Old Mr. Grace" didn't have the cute quality of "Young Mr. Grace", and Mr. Spooner just seemed a pale imitation of Trevor Bannister's Mr. Lucas. Fortunately, the majority of the cast remained the same and the quality of the writing never changed its patterns. 40 years later, the series is as fresh as ever and proves to us American audiences that the humor of the British doesn't have to be droll or "stiff upper lip" and that they can get as down and dirty (in fact even dirtier) than the unfortunate political correctness of American TV has taken over the years. Censorship didn't stop this show from being delightfully witty and even with its slightly obscene insinuations, there is absolutely nothing to offend anybody.