The Comedy Vault – Grace And Favour.

Grace And Favour (BBC1, 1992-1993)

One of the most popular British sitcoms of the 70s was Are You Being Served? (I don’t know why, but it was). There were ten series, and there was also a film made where all of the cast went on holiday together for no particular reason (other than to entertain us of course). When this finally came to an end in the mid-80s, the idea had been exhausted somewhat. But somehow, viewers said… we want more!

So seven years on from the final episode, there was the 90s sequel Grace And Favour. Five of the main cast members returned, including Mr Humphries, Mrs Slocombe, and Captain Peacock (also featuring was Wendy Richard as Miss Brahms, who had since established herself as a big name in EastEnders as Pauline, meaning that she had to leave her husband poor old Arthur on his own for a while to make this).

Such was the excitement for the launch, this even received a Radio Times cover. The idea was that the former staff of the rather threadbare Grace Brothers department store had discovered that in his will the young Mr Grace had given all of his money to charity, and he had also taken their pension money to buy an old house. So the quintet, who have ended up penniless, decide to move into the house and turn this into a hotel.

The early episodes featured the house being refurbished, and the later ones had them starting to accept guests for the hotel. But none of this meant that there couldn’t be an excuse for all of the (very old) catchphrases to be dusted off and gone through one more time (“I’m free!” You don’t work at the store any more, get over it). The situation might have changed, but it seems that none of the characters have really.

One of the more exciting moments when Mrs Slocombe’s husband, who she hadn’t seen for 42 years since he said he was going out to the supermarket one day, turned up at the hotel unexpectedly. Well Mrs Slocombe was so shocked her hair turned purple with fear. And every episode ended with the traditional “you have been watching” credits. Yes we have been watching, and I’m sure that the pleasure was all ours.

There were 12 episodes of Grace And Favour in two series. This has been released on DVD and shown around the world (in America this was renamed Are You Being Served? Again!). I remember several outtakes were also featured on Auntie’s Bloomers, which I recorded and watched a lot at time. Some bumpkin saying “She’s peed all down me trousers” was more amusing than most of the actual episodes. Now that’s comedy.