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Are YOU free for the new Are You Being Served?
It’s one of the classic sitcoms being rebooted for a BBC season, along with Porridge and Keeping Up Appearances. Here, their stars tell what it was like stepping into such legendary shoes
Actress Sherrie Hewson was part-thrilled, partmiffed to be told she’d make a perfect Mrs Slocombe. What woman wouldn’t have a moment of hesitation about how to take that one? After all, the inimitable Mrs S, perhaps the brightest star of the classic 1970s sitcom Are You Being Served? (and not just on account of her lurid hair), was as famous for her matronly figure as she was for her love of her, ahem, cat. ‘I remember saying, “What do you mean?”’ laughs Sherrie as she recalls the casting process. ‘No one wants to hear that.’
On the other hand, she’d desperately wanted the role ever since she heard that Are You Being Served? was being remade for a new audience. ‘I was obsessed with the original show, I still am, and I actually knew the late Mollie Sugden and John Inman [who played Mrs S and camp shop assistant Mr Humphries]. I also knew that world of the oldfashioned depar tment stores. My mother used to work in one called Griffin And Spalding in Nottingham. It was just like Grace Brothers – all wood panelling and full of terrifying shop ladies like Mrs Slocombe. Those are lovely warm memories.’
The audition was less lovely. She admits she was ‘beyond nervous’. She was also recovering from an infection and had lost her voice. ‘So I auditioned with a husky, gravelly voice. But it worked. When I heard I’d got the part, I screamed down the phone.’ Mercifully for her self-esteem, she needed copious padding to make a convincing Mrs S. The hair was synthetic too. ‘When the pink wig and make-up went on I looked in the mirror and shrieked. Mrs S was looking back at me. The wigs for the show were actually made by the same wig-makers who provided the one for Mollie.’
When we speak, publicity photos from the new show have just been released – and Sherrie’s reeling from the feedback. A veteran of Emmerdale, Coronation Street and, more recently, Benidorm and Loose Women, you’d think she was used to displays of public affection. This is in another league, she says. ‘I’ve never worked on a show that’s as loved as this. When we walked on to the set – which is exactly as it was in the original – for the first time there was a gasp from the studio audience. Then they exploded. The show’s remembered with such affection and it was nerve-racking to bring it back. Once we’d finished I burst into tears.’
The revamped Are You Being Served? is the flagship of the BBC’s ambitious Landmark Sitcom Season to mark 60 years of TV comedy, where classic shows are brought back to life for one-off episodes using new or old scripts. Treats include remakes of old episodes of Hancock’s Half Hour, Steptoe And Son and Till Death Us Do Part, a new adventure for the original cast of time-travelling favourite Goodnight Sweetheart, and totally new versions of Porridge and Keeping Up Appearances (see panels).
Are You Being Served? is a new episode, written by Benidorm writer Derren Litten, that picks up a few years after the original series ended in 1985. It’s now the late 1980s and fusty department store Grace Brothers is facing upheaval. The original owner’s grandson Young Mr Grace (played by Mathew Horne) is now in charge and feels it needs to be dragged into the 20th century.
When we rejoin the staff the first Amstrad computer has just arrived in store and is treated like an unexploded bomb. All the old favourites are there – Captain Peacock (the floorwalker played by the late Frank Thornton in the original, portrayed here by Only Fools And Horses star John Chal l is), Miss Bra hms ( Mrs Slocombe’s assistant, originally played by the late Wendy Richard and now taken over by Niky Wardley from In With The Flynns), Mr Grainger (the bumbling head of the gents’ department played by the late Arthur Brough and now brought back to life by Roy Barraclough) and, of course, Mr Humphries (now played by Jason Watkins).
Jason says everyone keeps asking him for a rendition of Mr Humphries’ catchphrase ‘I’m free!’ He declines, of course. ‘You’ll have to wait and see if that’s part of the new show,’ he says (it is, we’re reliably informed – how could it not be?). Jason – a BAFTA-winning actor whose credits have included W1A, Trollied and the lead role in The Lost Honour Of Christopher Jefferies – admits that he studied old episodes of the show to prepare for the part. He concluded, astonishingly, that Mr Humphries wasn’t as camp as we all remember him being. ‘Obviously there was a lot of mincing,’ he says. ‘But what amazed me was how restrained John Inman’s delivery was. Every line could have dripped with innuendo but it didn’t – his performance was very nuanced, which is why it worked. It would have been OTT otherwise.’
Actually there might be more mincing in this version, given that the storyline involves Mr Humphries teetering about in a pair of kitten heels he’s wearing in for his mother. Mr Humphries is remembered as one of the most famous gay figures in TV history (and the original series was criticised for reinforcing gay
stereotypes), but, as Jason points out, in the script his sexuality was never made clear. His challenge was to play the same part as John Inman without trying to John Inman. ‘It’s not an impersonation, but you have to take on board what went before. It’s a huge challenge, but a wonderful one. Everyone remembers the show. I watched it with my family.’
The original AYBS? had an inauspicious start. A pilot episode had been made but was sitting on the BBC shelves gathering dust when suddenly a hole appeared in the TV schedules – made, tragically, by the suspension of coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympics after 11 Israeli athletes were killed. The risqué comedy was a runaway success though, with 22 million viewers at its peak in 1979. The innu- endo seems shocking today but Mary Whitehouse, that keeper of the nation’s moral values, never complained.
What fans will want to know, of course, is how much innuendo there’ll be this time round, and how it can possibly work with a modern audience. Sherrie jokes about having spent hours looking at online tributes to Mrs Slocombe. ‘ There’s one site that’s entirely about her pussy,’ she says. ‘It relays every line she ever said about it. I think the reason they got away with so much was that it was done in complete innocence.’
For Sherrie, 65, the role of Mrs S actually proved to be a lifechanger. Anyone who’s watched her on Loose Women – she’s been a regular presenter since 2003 but will quit the show next week – will know she has issues about ageing. She’s had multiple facelifts and talks candidly today about how taking the part of Mrs S helped her confront what sounds like a phobia about her own looks. ‘I remember looking in the mirror when I was wearing the costume and thinking, “This should be everything I hate: me looking fat and older” – but I was delighted. As Mrs Slocombe I can be this slightly larger lady with a wig. It’s quite liberating.’ Landing the role of her life, as she calls it, has also proved cathartic. For the first time, she says, she’s starting to look in the mirror as Sherrie Hewson, rather than a character she’s playing, and not be repulsed. ‘Now, rather than seeing the problems, I can say, “OK, not bad, girl” because actually I’m very lucky. I have everything to be grateful for.’ Will the fans be grateful to have a much-loved show back though? The stakes are high. No doubt many will tune in due to nostalgia and curiosity. Will they like it enough to support the idea of a full series, as has been mooted? Only time will tell.
Are You Being Served?, tomorrow, 9pm, BBC1.