Are You Being Served? (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Mar 31, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Bob KellettRelease Date(s)
1977 (February 18, 2025)Studio(s)
Anglo-EMI/EMI Film Distributors (Kino Lorber Studio Classics)- Film/Program Grade: C+
- Video Grade: A-
- Audio Grade: A-
- Extras Grade: B+
Review
If you’re a fan of the long-running British sitcom Are You Being Served?, chances are reasonably good you’ll enjoy this 1977 theatrical feature adaptation starring the original ensemble cast. Those unfamiliar with the series, however, may find themselves bemused by its broad, eccentric stereotypes, double-entendre and sophomoric humor, not limited to flatulence, gay stereotypes, urination, etc.
The TV show was derived from two unexpected sources. Co-creator Jeremy Lloyd was, in the early-‘70s, married to actress Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous), and plum out of ideas when she suggested a sitcom set at a typically English department store. The pilot originally aired as part of the BBC’s anthology series Comedy Playhouse but not picked up as a series. However, during the extensive news coverage of the Munich Massacre during the 1972 Summer Olympics, the show was broadcast as filler and, no doubt, a welcome relief from all that tragedy, resulting in a change of heart from the network.
Ten seasons aired between 1972 and 1985, and most of the core original cast returned for Grace & Favour, a 1992-93 spin-off. There were also Christmas specials and, at the height of the show’s success, this feature film, itself adapted from a successful London stage production, also with the original actors.
The movie Are You Being Served? was, like other films based on popular British sitcoms, cheaply made, and its origins as a play are especially obvious during the first half-hour. Like the TV series, it follows the misadventures of the staff at the flagship Grace Brothers Department Store, specifically the ladies’ and gentlemen’s clothing departments. The main characters are Mrs. Slocombe (Mollie Sugden), the middle-aged head of the ladies department; Mr. Humphries (John Inman), the flamboyantly gay—though his sexual orientation is never explicitly stated—sales assistant of the men’s clothing department; Miss Brahams (Wendy Richard), the Cockney junior assistant to Mrs. Slocombe; Captain Peacock (Frank Thornton), the dignified, sometimes haughty floorwalker; Mr. Grainger (Arthur Brough), veteran head of the men’s department, who resembles an elderly Winston Churchill; Mr. Lucas (Trevor Bannister), the womanizing junior salesman of the men’s department; Mr. Rumbold (Nicholas Smith), the bald, bumbling floor manager; Mr. Harman (Arthur English), the working class stock and maintenance man; and “Young” Mr. Grace (Harold Bennett), the ancient, stingy owner of Grace Brothers.
The stagey first half-hour follows the usual antics of the TV show, as the staff prepares to embark on a two-week paid holiday to the resort of Costa Plonka, on the Spanish coast. Reportedly the cast was initially quite excited by the idea of shooting the film on location in Spain, only to be crushed to learn that the resort, exteriors as well as interiors would, with the brief exception of them boarding a plane, be shot entirely on a soundstage at Shepperton Studios. (The production used a stage vacated only the week before by the Star Wars crew.)
The film closely resembles Carry On Abroad (1972), in which the Carry On regulars converge on Costa Bomm, a similarly threadbare soundstage resort. Perhaps the best of the later Carry On films, the jokes are much the same, but for my money it’s several notches funnier than Are You Being Served? As with Carry On Abroad, the staff from Grace Brothers find the resort less than idyllic, the stuffy English tourists inflexible or confused by Mediterranean customs and cuisine; due to a mix-up they’re housed in tents outside the hotel by hotel manager Don Carlos Bernardo (Andrew Sachs, playing a more coherent, less excitable version of his Manuel character from Fawlty Towers), leading to a Byzantine series of misunderstandings as various characters try to arrange various sexual rendezvous.
And like the Carry On films, the screenplay is driven by endless double-entendres. When Mrs. Slocombe expects one such liaison with Captain Peacock “until the moon rises,” she asks the confused floorwalker “What time does it come up?” and “[They] tell me it looks bigger on the continent!”
During the 1970s, about the only British-made movies making money were crude, low-budget sex comedies like Confessions of a Window Cleaner and those based on popular British TV shows, particularly sitcoms: Steptoe and Son, On the Buses, Bless This House, etc. Their appeal was almost entirely limited to Great Britain and precious few were released in the U.S., but they were so cheaply made most turned a tidy profit. But expanding 30-minute programs into 90-minute movies rarely resulted in comedy gold; most were routine or worse, with some, like the film version of Love Thy Neighbour, being excruciatingly unfunny. (I’ve seen most of them; the best one seems to be Up Pompei, also directed by Bob Kellett, from the Frankie Howerd series.)
Like other such films, it presupposes a familiarity with its characters; in their audio commentary track, Gemma and Robert Ross suggest watching the first five seasons of the sitcom first before watching the film, which makes sense.
Kino’s Blu-ray, licensed from StudioCanal, is derived from a 2019 4K scan of the original camera negative. The 1.85:1 widescreen presentation—possibly incorrect; it looks framed for 1.66:1 to me—is notably crisp with excellent color. The DTS-HD Master Audio is 2.0 mono, but I did notice a bit of audio “leaking” into the surround speakers, clearly not intended. Optional English subtitles are provided on this Region “A” disc.
Extras consist of a theatrical trailer, up-rezzed from standard-def, and the aforementioned commentary by Gemma and Robert Ross, the latter well-known for his writings on British comedy of that era; both clearly know their stuff.
Are You Being Served? is harmless enough, if very dated in its sexual attitudes and British and foreign stereotypes. If you’ve never seen the original TV show you might find it unendurably unfunny, but it’s not a bad example of its type.
- Stuart Galbraith IV