Are You Being Served?

Are You Being Served? (1972)

6 corrected entries

(5 votes)

Correction: Actually, the episode "Takeover" (series 5, episode 5) does not feature any scenes on the sales floor, either.

Top Hat and Tails - S4-E2

Corrected entry: At the beginning when Mr. Harman brings in the male robot, he says that Mr. Lucas is coming up with the female one in the goods lift. Actually, one can see Mr. Lucas standing with the robot behind Mr. Harman waiting to come on.

Correction: Mr. Harman indicates that Mr. Lucas is following "up close with Ginger Rogers," not that he's on the goods lift.

Anything You Can Do - S7-E6

Corrected entry: At the end, when they come up with their net loss, Mr. Goldberg, in his head, makes the loss eight pounds, 45 pence. But rudimentary arithmetic reveals that the figures make a net loss of eight pounds, 75 pence.

Correction: He probably made a mistake - most people will make errors in arithmetic at least once, especially when working with several values.

Andy Benham

New Look - S3-E8

Corrected entry: When Mr. Lucas and Mr. Humphries come in and see the water fountain, Mr. Lucas asks whose idea it was. Mr. Rumbold comes in and asks what they think about his idea of having a fountain in the department. When Mr. Grainger arrives and sees the fountain, he asks whose idea it was and is told it was Capt. Peacocks'.

Correction: Mr. Rumbold tends to takes credit for everything his staff thinks of or does, so here he doubtless was bragging about one of Cpt. Peacock's ideas.

Show generally

Corrected entry: Throughout the series Mrs. Slocombe's first name changes numerous times. It is Betty in some, Margaret in another, Mary Elizabeth in one and finally Rachel in a few.

Correction: As far as is known, her name actually only changed once (Margaret), but officially her name is as follows: Mary Elizabeth Jennifer Rachel Yiddel Abergavenny Slocombe, thereby the Betty (nickname for Elizabeth), Rachel, and Mary Elizabeth. Her full name is sung in an episode where they celebrate what is thought to be her 50th birthday, but according to her, she is only 46. There is also a book about this program that contains this information.

Correction: Many stores close for lunch time (a half hour, or full hour). This is particularly true for stores that have a "canteen". They don't want to cook all day, so they serve all meals at once.

German Week - S3-E6

Revealing mistake: When Mr. Humphries and Mr. Lucas make their toast with the German mugs, Mr. Lucas' mug breaks but Mr. Humphries' does not. A moment later, when Mr. Humphries notices the mug has not broken, you can see that he crushes the mug with his hand.

More mistakes in Are You Being Served?

German Week - S3-E6

Miss Brahms: I think Mr. Rumbold should dress up as something.
Mrs. Slocombe: Yes. Wasn't Frankenstein a German?
Miss Brahms: That's right. With his nuts in his neck. [Makes twisting motions with her fingers near her neck.] Like that.
Mr. Rumbold: I wouldn't be able to take part, of course, in case I was summoned to a board meeting. But I see no reason why Captain Peacock shouldn't participate.
Captain Peacock: I can think of lots of reason why I shouldn't participate. Somebody has to have authority over the floor and these clothes that I wear symbolize that authority.
Mr Lucas: Why don't you dress up as Hitler?

More quotes from Are You Being Served?

Trivia: The "lift voice" heard during the theme song in each episode is that of Stephanie Gathercole, who played Mr. Rumbold's secretary in the earliest episodes.

More trivia for Are You Being Served?

Roots? - S8-E8

Question: Does anyone know why Wendy Richard (Ms. Brahms) is the only one not wearing blackface for the musical number at the end of the episode?

Answer: In minstrel shows there was also a stereotype of black men preying on white women, so that's probably why she was not in black face. Also, Mrs. Slocombe is in blackface because she is an older, stout woman and she fits the "mammy" stereotype.

Answer: In Britain, there was the show Black and White Minstrels which was very popular until the late 70s. The men were all blacked up, but the women weren't - hence Black and White Minstrels. It's been a while since I saw the episode to know if Mrs Slocombe was blacked up as well, but technically she shouldn't have been.

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