Talk:Are You Being Served?

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Are You Being Served? article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1: 90 days

BBC: Sitcoms Mid‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject BBC, an attempt to better organise information in articles related to the BBC. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page where you can join us as a member. You can also visit the BBC Portal.BBCWikipedia:WikiProject BBCTemplate:WikiProject BBCBBC articles

Mid

This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

This article is supported by BBC Sitcoms Task Force.

Tasks for WikiProject BBC:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Improve BBC, BBC News (TV channel) and BBC News to Good Article status following previous reviews, create BBC Computer Literacy Project (in light of forthcoming 30th anniversary)
Cleanup : Chucklevision - references and general clean-up, Pebble Mill Studios - over-detailed and long, BBC World Service Television - unreferenced and confusing
Copyedit : BBC News, Broadcasting House
Expand : Top 20 start-class BBC articles with most importance: BBC Japan, BBC World Service Television, BBC Lifestyle, BBC Two Northern Ireland
NPOV : Criticism of the BBC (See comments)
Stubs : Stub-Class BBC articles
Other : *Restructure the category
- Add infoboxes to the BBC articles without infoboxes
- Add free-use images to biographical articles where possible
- Add references to Goa Mix (see assessment) and Coat of arms of the BBC
- Return Dad's Army to a Good article. (See comments)
- Reassess BBC following improvements to article.

Comedy Low‑importance

	Comedy portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Comedy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of comedy on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ComedyWikipedia:WikiProject ComedyTemplate:WikiProject ComedyComedy articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

LGBTQ+ studies

This article is of interest to WikiProject LGBTQ+ studies, which tries to ensure comprehensive and factual coverage of all LGBTQ-related issues on Wikipedia. For more information, or to get involved, please visit the project page or contribute to the discussion.LGBTQ+ studiesWikipedia:WikiProject LGBTQ+ studiesTemplate:WikiProject LGBTQ+ studiesLGBTQ+ studies articles

London Low‑importance

	London portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject London, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of London on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LondonWikipedia:WikiProject LondonTemplate:WikiProject LondonLondon-related articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Television: British Low‑importance

	Television portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Television, a collaborative effort to develop and improve Wikipedia articles about television programs. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page where you can join the discussion. To improve this article, please refer to the style guidelines for the type of work.TelevisionWikipedia:WikiProject TelevisionTemplate:WikiProject Televisiontelevision articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by the British television task force.

The following references may be useful when improving this article in the future:

"Are You Being Served? Vol. 6". hive4media.com. Archived from the original on September 6, 2002.

John Inman song called Are You Being Served Sir

Worth a mention in the article I think;

John Inman song - Are You Being Served, Sir? (Not related to the series theme tune other than the title).

It reached number 39 in 1975 - www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FT0hSDOfCY

The Best Of VHS compilation

The text presently reads: "Buoyed by the huge success of the series in the United States, BBC America commissioned a special straight-to-VHS compilation in 1992."

How'd they do that, when BBC America didn't exist until 1998? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.247.21.65 (talk) 00:44, 11 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Fourth wall

(Mr. Humphries) often breaks the fourth wall by talking directly to the television audience . Did he really?--92.201.178.61 (talk) 16:12, 8 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@92.201.178.61 this incorrect, however the camera did sometimes focus on his facial expressions 90.249.6.186 (talk) 06:14, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

In the Fifty Years On episode, he directly tells the audience "We're not going to tell you what it is." (in relation to Mrs Slocombe's birthday gift), by which he does break the fourth wall. In the episode Grounds for Divorce, he looks directly into the camera and says "Have I missed something?", which can also be interpreted as talking directly to the audience. I believe there are a few more occasions where something like that happens. I agree that he definitely doesn't break the fourth wall often, but at least once or twice he does break it. Don't know if that's worth mentioning, though, but it isn't incorrect. ViktorieB (talk) 16:00, 5 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Mr. Granger

Is it worth mentioning that Mr. Granger joined Grace Brothers on the day Baldwin resigned, 28 May 1937? PatGallacher (talk) 23:17, 16 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Merger Proposal

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.

I propose merging List of Are You Being Served? characters into this article. As it is, the list is basically in-universe cruft and all pertinent points are adequately covered in the Characters and Casting section of the main AYBS article. Just Another Cringy Username (talk) 19:35, 2 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I rather reluctantly oppose. Although I wasn't particularly a fan of the series, we do have similar articles on other popular long-running series e.g. List of Dad's Army characters. "Cruft" is open to interpretation. PatGallacher (talk) 21:18, 2 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

In fact we have a whole pile of similar articles, see the category: "Lists of British sitcom television characters". PatGallacher (talk) 21:22, 2 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe it's time to start getting rid of some of those too. WP:LISTCRUFT is a thing. Just Another Cringy Username (talk) 22:20, 2 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

No it is not. Listcruftn is just an essay reflecting someone's POV. As with most Wikipedia essays, tit is practically worthless. Dimadick (talk) 06:39, 4 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

No it is not. Rillington (talk) 12:24, 4 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I'm totally against this merger proposal. As said, there are other similar articles for other popular long-running sitcoms. Rillington (talk) 12:24, 4 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

So keep because WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS? Just Another Cringy Username (talk) 02:07, 12 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Costumed numbers

There is an offensive number in one of the shows. The staff are dressed up in blackface. I do not remember the episode but there it is for posterity. I didn’t know what to make of this when I watched this. How should one suggest a heads up for viewers, but as a U.S. citizen where our history is so fraught with slavery misinformation now and demonstrations not too long ago about removing Confederate statues, this seems an important issue to present to readers of this article on “Are you being served?” Pmtwilly (talk) 17:40, 26 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]