Customer Reviews

Are You Being Served 1 [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found this video to be the funniest of all the ones I have bought so far. I laughed through the whole tape and my 14 year old son and husband finally came in to see what was so funny. They came in on the second show and laughed just as much. There is something about the English humor that makes it so funny.

All the shows in the video series are great fun, but this particular tape is especially rewarding. The "Dear Sexy Knickers" trio are real classics of comedy--at once cheeky and innocent, good-natured and yet full of the endless friction of personalities that we quickly come to know and love. Far from being in poor taste, the shows are remarkably clean, civilized, and balanced. There is necessarily a hierarchy in the department store (try running anything without one!), but it is benevolent, and anyone that asserts himself too much is immediately undercut by those above or below him, or both. But it's all in good fun, and everyone's problems are small. If only life were like that.

Are You Being Served? is the story of the staff of the Ladies' and Gentlemen's Wear departments in Grace Brother's department store. While customer's come and go, the staff fights each other and their incompetent superiors with laughs all around. The stories are hilarious and are generally clean, though a running gag involves one lady's constant frettings about her pussy (cat). So, this tape can be watched with younger ones, but some discretion should be exercised.

Tape 1 includes the following three half-hour episodes:

Dear Sexy Knickers - (Series I, episode 2, 1972) - When Mr. Lucas tries to slip a racy note to Miss Brahms, Captain Peacock finds it, and gives it to Mrs. Slocombe. Hilarity follows.

Our Figures Are Slipping - (Series I, episode 3, 1972) - With the sales figures slipping, Mr. Rumbold calls the staff in for an after-hours meeting.

Camping In - (Series I, episode 4, 1972) - When a transport strike strands the staff, Mr. Grace generously allows them to camp down in the store.

I first ran across "Are You Being Served?" a few years ago. It was being aired nightly on the local PBS station and I was fortunate enough to stumble into it. I was captivated immediately and have been a fan ever since. Regretably, it no longer plays on any local stations. Happily, a number of classic episodes are now available on videotape.

Like any good sitcom, the characters in this one become like old friends after a while. If you go for a time without seeing them, you begin to miss them. Also, like all good fictional characters, the inmates of Grace Bros. all have their quirks and foibles, but that's part of their charm and they all become more likeable as they become more familiar. With these videos, the self-important Captain Peacock, irasible Mrs. Slocomb and all the others are there whenever you want to renew the acquintance. You don't have to depend on the whims of a TV station to spend time at Grace Bros. It's available whenever the mood hits. And, if you're anything like me, it hits fairly often.

This is classic British humor. A bit racy, but not as baudy as Benny Hill, and full of double entendre. Because the British idiom is a bit different than the U.S., american viewers may miss a few things. Hang in there, though. You'll pick up on most of it and even learn a few new expressions as you go.

Like most sitcoms, you find yourself liking some episodes better than others. The three on this tape are all very funny, so it's a good place to start. If you like British humor, or if you're just looking a funny video, try "Are You Being Served?" volume one. Do so at your own risk, though. You might just get hooked like I am.

I highly recommend watching the entire series on PBS and buying several videos since they bear repeat viewing. There is something infectious about this camp show and its colorful characters. END

If you're not familiar with British humor, this is a great introduction. The English are masters at poking innocent fun at themselves. You'll find this in Shakespeare, in Gilbert & Sullivan, in George Bernard Shaw. Now, I'm not saying that "Are You Being Served?" is comparable to any of the above, but it is way above what we consider typical sitcom comedy.

There are lots of double entendres here, a certain amount of bawdiness. Again, the bawdiness of English humor goes back at least to Shakespeare and possibly further back for all I know. However, the show hardly depends on this element. The humor comes primarily from the mingling of familiar types together into a work situation, and you see here, as in real life, one's co-workers are definitely family of their own.

The first episode, "Dear Sexy Knickers", is easily the best of the three, relying on the basic comic situation of a letter intended for one person mistakenly ending up in the hands of another. However, each episode has its high point, and again, provides a very nice introduction to English comedy.

The employees of Grace Brothers have made ARE YOU BEING SERVED one of England's most popular exports, and their exploits have been a staple of Public Broadcasting Systems for well over a decade. The characters are classic ...types: the eternal battle ax, the sexy-but-common shopgirl, the pompous ex-military man; the flighty gentleman of uncertain preferences. And together they run riot with management, customers, and each other in some of the most hilarious situations imaginable.

This particular tape offers three of their best episodes: "Dear Sexy Knickers," "Our Figures Are Slipping," and "Camping In." Although all three are excellent, the first is easily among the best of the entire series, with the department ladykiller Mr. Lucas (Trevor Bannister) writing a note to shopgirl Miss Brahms (Wendy Richard) that goes astray--and causes tremendous confusion in the process. "Our Figures Are Slipping" finds sales down and supervisor Mr. Rumbold (Nicholas Smith) keeping the staff after hours in an effort to devise new sales schemes, and "Camping In" finds the entire staff stranded overnight at the store due to a transportation strike.

The situations are farcical, the humor is riske, and the cast is memorable. If you've heard a lot about ARE YOU BEING SERVED but never seen it, this particular tape is the ideal introduction. But word of warning: once you've seen it, you want the whole set!

If you're a newcomer to "Are You Being Served," this is an excellent start. If you're already a fan, you should recognize these titles immediately. It has three of the early episodes including one of my favorites, "Camping In." I bet I've seen some of the AYBS episodes 100 times or more and never tire of them. This is downright silly comedy that never outdates itself. Highly recommended.

The endless double entendres and toilet humour were unfunny in the 1970's and are awful now. If this programme continues to gather a following as a kitsch example of an early sitcom, we will have to realize that ironic bad taste can quite easily become just bad taste again.