Are You Being Served?: The Inside Story of Britain's Funniest and Public Television's... [Paperback]

Adrian Rigelsford (Author), Geoff Tibballs (Author), Anthony Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1995

Illustrated with scores of photographs from the program, a behind-the-scenes chronicle of the making of the popular PBS-TV series includes synopses of all episodes, trivia, and interviews with the actors. Original. 30,000 first printing. TV tie-in. IP.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Kqed Books (August 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0912333049
• ISBN-13: 978-0912333045
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #679,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book which serves fans of the show very well, March 17, 2000

By 

tropic_of_criticism - See all my reviews

This review is from: Are You Being Served?: The Inside Story of Britain's Funniest and Public Television's... (Paperback)

_Are You Being Served?_ is arguably the only British comedy show outside of _Monty Python_ which has shown up on every state's public broadcasting channel. Yet, despite this wider-than-usual American market penetration, the show is obscure to even careful viewers. Why did Mr. Lucas suddenly depart the show? What happened to Mr. Grainger? Are more episodes of the revival show of the staff in retirement forthcoming? Why did the show go through so many Senior Assistants on the men's counter? This book answers all these questions--and dozens more.

Its exceptionally well-designed pages--reminiscent of a Grace Brother's shopping bag--lead you through the beginnings of the show, give a detailed episode guide, and provide lots of behind-the-scenes information and interviews. One of the things I particularly enjoyed was the inclusion about the suprising number of other versions of the show. It was a treat learning there was actually a movie made from the show (and, yes, it's available on Amazon); that John Inman actually went down under to make a uniquely Australian version of the show; and that the staff of Grace Brothers sometimes appeared on stage in London.

To be sure, this is no seminal effort on the foundations of British comedy. But it is a fun, bathroom-reading kinda book that would make an excellent, thoughtful stocking stuffer for the anglophile in your life.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars To Rigelsford et al--You've all done very well!, July 24, 2002

By 

Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Are You Being Served?: The Inside Story of Britain's Funniest and Public Television's... (Paperback)

This might as well be Round About Everything You Wanted To Know About Are You Being Served?. Why write about a TV series? With the exception of soap operas, a TV series that goes on for the good part of a decade isn't something to brush aside lightly, especially in the UK, with its limited, government-subsidized budgets given to the BBC. Are You Being Served? began with a pilot episode in 1972, then as a series in itself, lasting from 1973 to 1985. 12 years and 10 seasons wasn't that bad for a British TV series--look at Doctor Who and 'Allo 'Allo.

The inspiration is the most important thing--without it, there wouldn't have been a show. Leave it to Jeremy Lloyd, one of the co-creators, to work two years at Simpson's department store and get canned for selling drinks on the floor on a hot day! Two years and he came up with this much output? I've been working four years in the same place; what can I come up with?

For each regular character, there is a description, followed by a short bio of the actor who played said character. Naturally, there is a lot more print on the two most popular characters--John Inman (Mr. Humphries) and Molly Sugden (Ms. Slocombe). The book says that Mr. Humphries was camp, not gay, but doesn't explain the difference. Camp basically means openly flamboyant and more relaxed in extroverted emotion without the sexual orientation issue. I liked all the characters, though Mr. Humphries and Mr. Lucas were on the top of my list.

Things I didn't know that raised my eyebrows was Mike Berry's past career as a singer, as a contemporary of the Beatles.

There is also a season by season guide, with a synopsis to the stories, guest cast, original date of transmission, and ratings from * to ****. Going through this part, I realized that with the exception of the first and fourth seasons (1973, 1976), no season was completely pristine--there were bound to be some substandard stories. I agree with most of the ratings, and yes, the overall ratings were a bit uneven during the last three, when each season was every other year instead of every year. The book also includes the episodes of Grace and Favour, titled Are You Being Served Again? for the US, as well as the Australian series never aired here, and the various spinoffs.

There's also glossary of British slang in the back of the book as well as in the margins, which is as nice as ninepence for the uninitiated.

At the end of the day, anyone trying to get behind the scenes of this hit series will get a rattling good time. So read on to the top of your bent.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Excellent, February 1, 2001

By 

Linus (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Are You Being Served?: The Inside Story of Britain's Funniest and Public Television's... (Paperback)

'AYBS?' has many of the distinctions that make it a notable TV show. It boasts both a black-and-white episode (the pilot) and a 'lost' episode. It's been made into a feature film and a stage play. There's a spinoff series, 'Are You Being Served? Again', known as 'Grace and Favour' in the UK. An Australian version of the series was produced, as well as a pilot for an American rendition that never saw release. These little factoids and many other things are in the book for the fan's reference.

Also given are very brief synopses of the episodes, as well as mini-bios of the show's main characters and the actors who portray them. There's Mrs. Slocombe's (Molly Sugden) discussions about her... pet cat, Capt. Peacock's (Frank Thornton) marital woes, the biting wit of Mr. Lucas (Trevor Bannister), and other details. Then there's John Inman and his effeminate and flamboyant portrayal of Mr. Humphries, the quintessential "campy over-the-top allegedly gay" character. A good portion of Inman's bio talks about the controversy regarding Humphries's implied homosexuality. As for Mr. Humphries himself, he has stated many times on the show that he's "neither one way nor the other"...

Another neat addition is the glossary of British terms- the slang and vernacular commonly heard on the show. It's good to have when you're watching the show on the west end of the pond and you're not quite sure what a "till", an "electric fire", or "sacking" is. Unfortunately, not all of the various terms heard on the show are defined. I'm still trying to figure out what an "argybargy" (I think that's how it's spelled) is. And just what is a "bloody palaver" (spelling again) anyway? Can anybody help me out on these ones?