Grace Brothers

I’ve been a bad A-Z blogger the past few days, missing both E and F and not following up on comments, but in my defense, I’ve been busy with every single minute of my day getting soaked up by one task after another.  Hopefully this week will be a little calmer.

I struggled with the letter G. I couldn’t come up with any good G words off the top of my head, or G themed ideas. Then I dug through my DVD collection and spotted my Are You Being Served dvd’s. Inspiration struck.

BBC aired the show during the 70’s and early 80’s. Like most Americans, I fell in love with the show when PBS aired it. A few years ago I was delighted to find Amazon selling the entire collection.

The show was brilliant in its simplicity. With only a few exceptions (I can only think of one) the cast never left the property of Grace Brothers, the department store they worked for.

The store was run by Young Mr. Grace (Harold Bennet),                         

The amazing Young Mr. Grace. It was often said that old Mr. Grace doesn't get around much anymore.

and was a dated establishment with questionable business practices It was a depressing place. The wages were subpar, the management was horrible, and the working conditions were often undesirable. In other words, the perfect setting for a comedy. As an adult who writes, the show has taught be how important a good simple setting can be, especially when it comes to comedy. 

Grace Brothers was constantly looking for new ways to promote product but refused to spend much money. As a result display models were constantly blowing up or making lewd gestures. The products were cheap and poorly made, but the staff was desperate for commissions so they came up with creative ways to convince customers to make purchases and for refusing to accept returns.

Desperation for more money also led to some fun side jobs that never quite panned out.

Some of the best episodes involved the staff members (incredibly talented actors who shared an amazing chemistry, and who clearly loved what they were doing) doing something humiliating, unusually to help promote the store. Although the gimmicks never worked, they never fail to make me laugh, especially if Mrs. Slocomb was into the booze.

Years after Are You Being Served ended, the BBC brought the cast back together, this time setting the show on a English farm which was the only thing left of the Grace Brothers pension fun. 

If you’ve never had the chance to watch Are You Being Served, I urge you to add it to your NetFlix cue, you won’t be disappointed.  

This clips comes from the “Grace Brother’s German Week” episode, when the crew was trying to promote the German products they were being forced to sell.