Cheap Are You Being Served? Volume 1 (DVD) (Jeremy Lloyd, Harold Snoad, Bernard Thompson, Ray Butt, David Croft, Gordon Elsbury, Martin Shardlow, Bob Spiers, Mike Stevens (II), John Kilby) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Are You Being Served? Volume 1

"Are you free?"
If the answer to the question most asked in this series is yes, then watching this hilarious British sit-com about the "misadventures" of a group of salesmen in Grace's Brothers department store is as good a choice as any. This DVD includes the series' pilot, in black and white, and the first five episodes of the series, all in color. During the first two or three episodes most of the jokes are based on double-entendres and in a few cases the authors seem to go as far as overkill. Nevertheless, in the last couple of episodes in this set, the approach changes, and while maintaining the characteristic mentioned, other humorous concepts surface.

The main attraction of this sit-com is its characters, they conform a colorful array of personalities and each has his/her own very distinctive appearance. Mr. Lucas is the junior salesman in the men's department, who has a hard time closing sales, is always on the verge of being fired and has a libido that never ceases to pop up. Mr. Humphries is always picking on Mr. Lucas and always knows the best way to "fix" things for their customers. He knows all the tricks in the business and is clearly attracted by his same gender. Mr. Grainger is the head of the men's department; he is a prude who is shocked frequently by the acts of his two underlings. In the women's department, which shares the same floor with the men's, there are two employees, Mrs. Slocombe who is the one in charge and her subordinate Miss. Brahms. Mrs. Slocombe is the typical middle-aged divorced lady, extremely willing to get involved with any worthy candidate for her affection. She brings in variety through her hair color, which is different in each episode. Miss. Brahms is the "sexy chick", who is always preyed upon by the male personnel, excluding Mr. Humphries, and who tries to get advantage of every possible benefit she can obtain through her looks. Finally, Captain Peacock is the floor manager, a middle-aged man, extremely strict with the employees, but who also likes to flirt with any available woman, doing no distinctions between employees and customers.

Although as I mentioned before some of the jokes are repetitive you can have a really good time watching this series. An example of the repetitiveness is the line "Are you free ?" which is used over and over and over and...It will give you the incentive though to continue watching and see if at any point the answer will be "No, sorry". I am not going to spoil it for you, so if you want the answer, you will have to get the DVD!

---

To "knee" or not to "knee"
This volume is not as solid as volume 2 of the AYBS? set, but it still represents some of the best AYBS? episodes. It starts with the b&w pilot episode that has the ladies department moving onto the floor that has belonged exclusively to the gents ready-made department for the last 25 years. Such intrusion creates much tension between the two sides in the first few episodes but, as the staff get used to each other, the problem is not brought up as much and, after Mr. Grainger leaves, is no longer a problem. Mr. Lucas plays a bigger role in these early episodes (Trevor Bannister having second billing to Mollie Sugden) with Mr. Humphries playing more comedy relief. John Inman will, of course, become the main star of the show later on.

After the ladies move in, Mr. Lucas has his eye on Miss Brahms in "Dear Sexy Knickers." This is the famous episode where the "kneeing" trousers trick is introduced. When trousers and ladies underwear are down, the staff must discuss sale ideas after hours in "Our Figures Are Slipping." In "Camping In," the staff is stranded due to a transport strike and must spend the night in tents in the department. The best part of this episode is when Mrs. Slocombe tells Capt. Peacock that her inflatable mattress takes "puff after puff after puff" and Mr. Humphries peaks out from his tent to ask, "Can I help anybody?" Classic!. The gents and ladies finally ban together to take on an outside perfume saleswomen who is intruding on their sales in "His and Hers." Finally, in "Diamonds...," a customer offers a big reward for the recovery of a diamond she lost in the store and it appears every staff member finds it. The menu pages are very creative with rotating photos of Mrs. Slocombe. A lift conductor's voice even takes you to each episode! Of course, every fan will eventually want the entire 2 sets of this hilarious series, so go buy them now!

---

Great Stuff
As a Britt I have seen the episodes on sky T.V. and although they were funny didn't know that the pilot was actually a never before seen episode thinking it was the one where the ladies and gents have to share counter space (which is why I wrote this review). Although in black and white and without the bells and whistles it was one of the best I have seen, as you get to see the young Mr. Lucas learning the ropes from Mr. Humphreys. The cast are much friendlier than on latter episodes but the freshness of when Mr. Lucas First sees 'Young Mr. Grace' is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

It is terrible that we can't get the DVD on region 2 but most players over here can be made to play region 1 disks. Although inquiring into when a set may be releases by the BBC led me round and round the same email addresses, I suppose it makes the series more valuable having to wait a few weeks for them to come.

All in all I think this is a great purchase and I am definitely going to buy the whole collection one by one. Sorry there is no detailed episode guide but I'm too busy watching the disk :o)