Are You Being Served? (Australian TV series)

infobox television
show_name = Are You Being Served?
format = Sitcom
runtime = 30 minutes
creator = Jeremy Lloyd & David Croft
starring = John Inman
June Bronhill
Shane Bourne
Christine Amor
country = Australia
network = Network Ten
first_aired = 1980
last_aired = 1981
num_series = Two
num_episodes = 16
imdb_id = 0080192

The Australian version of British sitcom "Are You Being Served?" was produced by Network Ten in 1980-1981. It ran for 16 episodes until 1981. The draw-card was the presence of actor John Inman reprising his role of Mr. Humphries from the original series. The other characters were all directly based on the regular characters in the show's original version, but were all given new names. Stavordale, Peter. "Opera Star June For New Comedy Series.", TV Week. 9 February 1980, page 27]

In comparison to the original series Inman described this version of the series as "tighter - there's less padding." "The Cheek of it all Comes Out Again.", TV Week. 29 November 1980, page 2]

Premise

The premise had Mr Humphries (Inman) moving to Australia and taking a sales job at the Bone Brothers Department Store. Apart from the new setting and Australian rather than English characters, the characters and situation were almost identical to that of the original series, as were the set design and layout and even the costuming (down to the senior sales woman's ever-changing hair colours and the female assistants' uniforms). Menswear and ladies apparel shared a floor of a large city department store and the departments came into regular conflict. The staff on the floor were the pompous floor-walker Captain Wagstaff (Reg Gillam), crusty senior salesman Mr Mankowitz (Anthony Bazell), a randy sales junior Mr Randel (Shane Bourne), the strident older sales woman Mrs Crawford (June Bronhill) and the attractive but brassy and common younger sales woman Miss Wigglesworth. Basil Clarke portrayed the store's owner Mr Bone, Reg Evans was the obnoxious cleaner Mr Cocker, and Kerry Daniel played a nurse.

For the final series, produced in late 1980, original regular cast members Judith Woodroffe, who was Mrs Crawford's attractive junior Miss Wigglesworth, and Peter Collingwood who had played the Mr Rumbold-like store manager Mr Gilbert, were unavailable. The replace them, Christine Amor was the new, brassy young female retail assistant Miss Nicholls, and Ken Fraser came in as Mr Fenwick.

Production notes

The series has sometimes been rerun under the title "Are You Being Served Down Under."

The show was mentioned many times on the radio show Get This. It was stated on that show that the master tapes for the series have gone missing, preventing any future DVD release. The National Film and Sound Archive does in fact contain copies of each episode in its vault.

Notes

External links

* [http://colsearch.nfsa.afc.gov.au/nfsa/search/summary/summary.w3p;adv=yes;group=;groupequals=;page=0;parentid=;query=are%20you%20being%20served;querytype=;resCount=20 Are You Being Served? at the National Film and Sound Archive]