Take a Letter, Mr. Jones

infobox television


caption=
show_name = Take A Letter, Mr. Jones
format = Sitcom
runtime = 30 minutes
creator = Ronald Wolfe
& Ronald Chesney
starring = John Inman
Rula Lenska
Miriam Margolyes
Gina Maher
Joan Blackham
Christine Ozanne
Claudine Bowyer
Allan Mitchell
country = UK
network = ITV
first_aired = 5 September 1981
last_aired = 10 October 1981
num_episodes = 6
producer = Southern Television
imdb_id = 0161200 |

"Take a Letter, Mr. Jones" was a short-lived British sitcom starring John Inman and Rula Lenska that aired in 1981.

Plot

It starred a not-so-camp John Inman as Graham Jones, able secretary to executive Joan Warner (Rula Lenska). Episodes primarily focused on the office and home of Mrs. Warner, a divorced woman in her 30's trying to balance her career and family in (still-sexist) 1980s England; Margaret Thatcher may have been in 10 Downing Street, but Mrs. Warner was still suffering in a man's world. Mr. Jones and Mrs. Warner worked for the fictional multinational corporation called 8-Star

While "Take A Letter, Mr. Jones" worked to dispel stereotypes about female executives, it seemed to pander to others:

*Mr. Jones could not escape the oddity of being a "male secretary" to a female boss - at least not without insinuation that there was sexual interest between him (a 40-something bachelor) and Mrs. Warner. To the programme's credit (although not very realistically), no one who found it odd that Mr. Jones was a male secretary questioned his sexuality.

*Female secretaries at 8-Star used sex to get along with their male bosses: when one mentions that she laddered her tights in the boss' office and suggests that the company should offer a clothing allowance, Mr. Jones quips that "It might just be cheaper to get him to cut his fingernails".

*Much comedy is culled from Mrs. Warner's "mad Italian" maid Maria, an overweight, over-excitable, Italian woman whose English is below par (played by acclaimed British actress Miriam Margolyes, OBE). Along with being maid, Maria helped care for Mrs. Warner's 6-year old daughter Lucy (Claudine Bowyer).

John Inman starred in "Take A Letter, Mr. Jones" between seasons of the hit BBC comedy "Are You Being Served?". "Take A Letter, Mr. Jones" was never a ratings success (only running one season), though it is enjoyed by John Inman fans. In recent years it has been resurrected by many American PBS stations, where "Are You Being Served?" is also a hit.

External links

*imdb title|id=0161200|title=Take a Letter, Mr. Jones