Are You Being Served?
Typical intertitle
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Jeremy Lloyd David Croft
Written by	Jeremy Lloyd David Croft Michael Knowles John Chapman Derren Litten (2016)
Directed by	David Croft Bernard Thompson Harold Snoad Ray Butt Gordon Elsbury John Kilby Martin Shardlow
Starring	Mollie Sugden Trevor Bannister Frank Thornton John Inman Wendy Richard Arthur Brough Nicholas Smith Larry Martyn Harold Bennett Arthur English James Hayter Alfie Bass Mike Berry Kenneth Waller Benny Lee Milo Sperber
Theme music composer	Ronnie Hazlehurst
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	10
No. of episodes	70(list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	David Croft
Producers	David Croft Harold Snoad Bob Spiers Martin Shardlow
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	BBC
Original release
Network	BBC1
Release	8 September 1972 (1972-09-08) – 1 April 1985 (1985-04-01)
Related
Comedy Playhouse Are You Being Served? Are You Being Served? (Australian TV series) Beane's of Boston Grace & Favour

Are You Being Served? is a British televisionsitcom that was broadcast from 1972 to 1985. It was created and written byDavid Croft andJeremy Lloyd. Croft also served asexecutive producer anddirector.Michael Knowles andJohn Chapman also wrote certain episodes. Produced by theBBC,^[1] the series starredMollie Sugden,Trevor Bannister,Frank Thornton,John Inman,Wendy Richard,Arthur Brough,Nicholas Smith,Larry Martyn,Harold Bennett,Arthur English, andMike Berry.

Set inLondon, the show followed the misadventures and mishaps of the staff and their regular rotating series of customers at the retail ladies' and gentlemen's clothing departments in the flagshipdepartment store of a fictional chain called Grace Brothers.

The series was broadcast on the BBC for 10 series, totalling 69 episodes between 8 September 1972 and 1 April 1985, including five Christmas specials. The sitcom proved a ratings hit with UK audiences, and gained international recognition when broadcast across several English-speaking countries, including Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the Republic of Ireland, and the United States; the latter gaining it a loyal following whenPBS television stations began airingreruns in the mid-1980s, along with other British sitcoms.

Are You Being Served? was one of several television series predominant at the time that were adapted for the cinema screen, and afeature film of the same title was released in 1977. A spin-off television series,Grace & Favour ran from 1992 to 1993 with the same main cast. In 2004,Are You Being Served? was ranked 20th in a television countdown ofBritain's Best Sitcom.^[2] Aone-off revival episode with a new cast was created in 2016. The sitcom – including its pilot and Christmas specials – the spin-off and the film have since been released on DVD.

Are You Being Served? depicted the lives of the staff of a fictionaldepartment store, Grace Brothers. Its main characters served in the clothing departments for men and women, alongside their senior staff, maintenance workers and the store's owner. The sitcom focused on the relationships among staff, their attempts to improve sales, and the effects of local events that impacted the store's running.

A key humorous aspect of the series was a parody of theBritish class system, which permeated the interactions among management, sales personnel and the maintenance staff. The episodes rarely featured locations outside the store, with most of the action taking place on the shop floor and the staff-only areas. Characters also rarely addressed each other by their first names, even after work, instead using their surnames in the manner of "Mr", "Miss", or "Mrs".

The sitcom featured humour based on sexualinnuendo, misunderstanding, mistaken identity,farce, and occasionalslapstick. In addition, there weresight gags generated by outrageous costumes which the characters were sometimes required to wear for store promotions, and gaudy store displays sometimes featuring malfunctioning robotic mannequins. The show is remembered for its prolific use ofdouble entendres. Alongside the comedy, some episodes also conducted specialised dance routines which were choreographed either to be natural or sometimes comedic in effect.

The idea for the show came from Lloyd's brief period in the early 1950s working atSimpsons of Piccadilly, a clothing store which traded for over 60 years until its closure in 1999.^[3] The inspiration for the store has also been credited to the former Clements ofWatford where the concept of the floor walker character Captain Peacock was devised.^[4]

Are You Being Served? was originally produced as a standalonepilot episode for theBBC TelevisionComedy Playhouse series, but the episode was not selected for broadcast. During the1972 Summer Olympics, television coverage of the games was interrupted by theMunich massacre. The BBC, faced with a gap in the schedules, selected the unused pilot episode to fill a 30-minute slot on Friday 8 September. The episode was not well received by critics, but David Croft's reputation as a writer enabled him to gain support from the BBC's Head of Light Entertainment,Bill Cotton, to turn the pilot into a series. After Croft agreed to a limited budget and a short production schedule, a first series of five further episodes was commissioned. The series was broadcast with the repeated pilot episode as episode one on Wednesday 14 March 1973. Cotton expressed some dissatisfaction with the character of Mr Humphries, and reportedly told Croft to "get rid of thepoof". Croft refused to alter his scripts and threatened to quit, telling Cotton, "If the poof goes, I go".^[5][6][7][8]

The first series was initially aired on a Wednesday timeslot, in competition with theITVsoap operaCoronation Street. As a consequence,Are You Being Served received relatively little attention, but when the BBC later repeated the show on a Friday eveningsprimetime slot, its popularity soared.^[9][6]

The sitcom was recorded atBBC Television Centre in London in front of a livestudio audience, on two main adjoining sets, the Grace Bros shop floor and the staff canteen. The cast and crew filmed one episode each week.^{[10][better source needed]}

After a successful 13-year run,Are You Being Served? came to an end on 1 April 1985.

Of the original cast, onlyFrank Thornton,Mollie Sugden,John Inman,Wendy Richard andNicholas Smith appeared in all 69 episodes. The same five later featured in the sequel sitcom,Grace & Favour (also known asAre You Being Served? Again!). The cast performed in character for a stage sketch on theBBC1 programmeVariety on 19 June 1976.

Although the pilot was produced in colour, thevideotape was wiped in the 1970s, leaving only a 16mmblack-and-white filmtelerecording, which was made for international syndication to countries where colour television broadcasts had not yet been adopted.^[11] In 2009, the pilot episode was restored to colour using thecolour recovery technique previously used for theDad's Army episode "Room at the Bottom". The restored colour version was first shown on BBC2 on 1 January 2010 as part of a specialAre You Being Served? night. As of 2025, the colour version has yet to be released on DVD or Blu-ray.

The 1972Comedy Playhouse pilot had originally been conceived with Mr Lucas as the lead character, providing a vehicle for Trevor Bannister's acting career. In the early episodes, Lloyd and Croft recognised that the characters of Mr Humphries and Mrs Slocombe were raising the most laughter from thestudio audience, and as a result they becamebreakout characters, receiving the best lines in the scripts of the new series. The phrase "I'm free!" was first spoken by Mrs Slocombe in the pilot. John Inman reportedly first used the phrase behind the scenes which amused his colleagues so much that Mollie Sugden suggested to the writers that Inman should be given the line in future scripts. Inman developed "I'm free!" as hiscampcatchphrase in Series 2, and it rapidly became one of the most popular catchphrases in British comedy.^[6]

"Are You Being Served?" theme

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The theme tune, written by the show's co-writerDavid Croft and composerRonnie Hazlehurst, consists of an imaginarylift girl, voiced by Stephanie Gathercole, also Mr Rumbold's first secretary, (r.n. Reeve), (1944–2011), announcing each floor over themusique concrète sounds of acash register and a simple musicalaccompaniment.

The 1977Are You Being Served? film has a different version of the theme tune which is longer, in a different key and without the floor announcements. A remix of the theme was released in 1996 by a dance act calling itself "Grace Brothers",^[12] and featured vocal samples of John Inman and Frank Thornton.

There is an homage to the theme tune in theLadytron song "Paco!" from the album604, and New Zealand bandMinuit's "I Hate Guns". A lugubrious version of the theme tune is featured on the albumThe Ape of Naples by theexperimental music groupCoil. The theme tune has also been covered by Australian bandRegurgitator on their 1999 album...art. Pop singerJamelia's song "Window Shopping" (from her 2006 albumWalk with Me) begins with a sample of the familiar cash register sound effect as well as Mrs Slocombe's voice inquiring, "Good morning, Mr Grainger; are you free?"

The song was also used in a 2016Audi advertisement for itsQuattro range.

Cast ofAre You Being Served?

Original cast of 1972–75. (From left):Mollie Sugden,Wendy Richard,Trevor Bannister,Nicholas Smith,Larry Martyn,Arthur Brough,John Inman, andFrank Thornton.

Series 8 cast of 1981. (left to right): (top)Arthur English, Wendy Richard,Benny Lee,Mike Berry; (bottom) Nicholas Smith, Frank Thornton, Mollie Sugden,Vivienne Johnson, John Inman,Kenneth Waller, Louise Burton

• John Inman asMr Wilberforce Claybourne Humphries: acamp-acting sales assistant (later the senior) in gents' clothing. Inman often portrayed the character as being implied to have agay lifestyle,^[13] with Humphries frequently usingdouble entendres in episodes.
• Mollie Sugden asMrs Betty Slocombe: a senior sales assistant and head of the ladies' department, often portrayed with a different hair colour in each episode. The sitcom frequently saw Sugden's character telling double entendre stories about her pet cat, often referring to it as "my pussy".^[14]
• Wendy Richard asMiss Shirley Brahms: a young, attractive, working-class,cockney junior sales assistant to Mrs Slocombe, who sometimes referred to her as "dead common".
• Frank Thornton asCaptain Stephen Peacock: a haughtyfloorwalker who purportedly fought in theNorth Africa Campaign of World War II, although in one episode a wartime acquaintance reveals him to have been aNAAFI corporal. Croft designed the character to command respect and often act as leader during difficult times, with little backstory exploration.
• Arthur Brough asMr Ernest Grainger (series 1–5): a 40-year veteran of Grace Brothers, a senior sales assistant and head of the gents' department. Croft devised the character as being somewhat unlikeable and displaying his age such as sleeping during opening hours. Brough made his final appearance as Grainger in the 1977 film, dying before taping began on the sixth series.
• Trevor Bannister asMr James/Dick Lucas (series 1–7): a young, penniless, womanising junior salesman in the gents' department, often cheeky and mocking to the female staff in the ladies' department. Bannister maintained his role in the show until the end of the seventh series, before leaving to focus on his other commitments. In an interview held after the sitcom's conclusion, Wendy Richard claimed the sitcom was originally devised to be a platform for Bannister to secure his career on other television programmes.
• Nicholas Smith asMr Cuthbert Rumbold an autocratic, obsequious person, but an altogether bumbling and incompetent floor manager. He seemed to never understand explanations, but used his own confused interpretations to create comedy effect.
• Harold Bennett as"Young" Mr Grace (series 1–8): the elderly but stingy owner of Grace Bros, often portrayed with attractive young women and a running joke of him being respected despite being slightly too old for his position. Bennett died following the eighth series, prior to the broadcast of the 1981 Christmas special; his character was referenced in the first episode of the spinoff seriesGrace & Favour.
• Larry Martyn asMr Mash (series 1–3): a working class stock and maintenance man at Grace Bros, often mistreated by Peacock due to rules regarding the presence of maintenance staff during opening hours. The character was designed to help portray some of the specially designed comedic display units that would feature in episodes. Martyn left the sitcom after the 1975 Christmas special, with his character written out of the programme.
• Arthur English asMr Beverley Harman (series 4–10): a working class stock and maintenance man at Grace Bros, who garners more friendly relations with the floor staff than Mr Mash. English's character was created after Martyn's character was written out of the series, with Harman becoming a staple in the sitcom through much of its broadcast.
• James Hayter asMr Percival Tebbs (series 6): a prominent salesman assigned to the men's department in order to replace Mr Grainger. The character was created following the death of Brough, but lasted only for the sixth series, after which he was paid generously to leave by a snack manufacturer which wanted him to exclusively voice its television adverts.
• Alfie Bass asMr Harry Goldberg (series 7): a senior salesman, originally a junior, brought in to replace Mr Tebbs after retiring. Bass was brought in to replace Hayter after his departure, but dropped out of the programme following the conclusion of the seventh series.
• Mike Berry asMr Bert Spooner (series 8–10): a junior sales assistant, mimicking similar traits to Mr Lucas. Berry was brought in to replace Bannister following his departure from the programme.
• Kenneth Waller as"Old" Mr Henry Grace (series 8): "Young" Mr Grace's even-older brother, who took over the running of Grace Bros while his younger brother took a sabbatical to write his memoirs. LikeDad's Army'sClive Dunn, Waller was much younger than his character's age and so underwent makeup similar to Dunn to "age up". The actor was brought in to replace Bennett, who left the series after the first episode of Series 8 due to declining health. "Old" Mr. Grace wasn't received well by fans, so he was dropped in favour of bringing back "Young" Mr. Grace as an invisible character.
• Milo Sperber asMr Grossman (series 8): an expert shoe salesman assigned to the shop floor between men's and ladies'. The character was brought in as a replacement for Mr. Goldberg, but Sperber dropped out after four episodes to take a lucrative movie role.
• Benny Lee asMr Abraham Klein (series 8): a sales assistant assigned to the gents' department to help out with upcoming sales in the store. Like Sperber, Lee lasted only four episodes before writers dropped his character from the sitcom.
• Candy Davis asMiss Belfridge (series 9–10),: the final and longest-lasting of Mr Rumbold's secretaries, an attractive younger woman heavily implied to be in a relationship with Captain Peacock.

• Freddie Wiles asGoddard (series 1–6): a non-speaking chauffeur to "Young" Mr Grace, who was usually assisting the elderly man in standing up.
• Hilda Fenemore asElsie (series 2–7): a cleaner at Grace Brothers on friendly terms with the maintenance men, but treated with disdain by the department staff due to her lower social class. The character was also referred to as Ivy and Daphne.
• Moira Foot asMiss Thorpe (series 3): a secretary to Mr Rumbold.
• Doremy Vernon asMrs Diana Yardswick (series 3–10): the canteen manageress at Grace Brothers, famous for serving unappetising food and her distinctively unfriendly service. Her full name is only revealed in later series in separate episodes.
• Penny Irving asMiss Bakewell (series 4–7): the young, naïve secretary to "Young" Mr Grace, who frequently accompanied him around the store and on several implied romantic conquests.
• Diana King andDiana Lambert asMrs Peacock (series 4, 8–10): the wife of Captain Peacock, who (correctly) suspects that he has extramarital interests.
• Vivienne Johnson asMr Grace's Nurse (series 6–8): a permanent companion to both "Young" and "Old" Mr Grace, whose competence as a medical professional is outshined by her sex appeal. The character was dropped after both Mr Graces became off-screen presences. Another nurse, uncredited and non-speaking, appeared in the first five series and was played by Pat Ashley.
• Jimmy Mac asWarwick (series 7–9): a maintenance colleague of Mr Harman's who assists with the department's displays.
• Keith Hodiak asSeymour (series 9–10): another maintenance friend of Mr Harman's, more relaxed and cheerful than Warwick, and more involved in the department's activities.

Are You Being Served? was initially broadcast from 1973 to 1985. Each series had between five and nine episodes. Counting the pilot episode, all episodes and specials from the series, and the film, the show ran for sixty-nine episodes and ten series. Each episode was self-contained, with no continuing story or theme throughout the series.

In 1977, as for many otherBritish sitcoms of the time, a feature film was released. The film version ofAre You Being Served? followed the staff of Grace Brothers taking a package holiday together while the store is closed for redecoration, a loose adaptation of the play version from the year before. Set in the fictional resort of Costa Plonka, in Spain, the entire cast of the television series reprised their roles in the film.^[15] Reviews of the film were generally mixed, with theMonthly Film Bulletin reviewer John Pym declaring, "The humour consists mainly of withering selection of patent British puns; an inflatable brassiere, some let's-insult-the-Germans jokes and a rickety thunder-box which bolts from the outside are thrown in for good measure."^[16]

Buoyed by the huge success of the series in the United States,BBC America commissioned a special straight-to-VHS compilation in 1992. Running at 78 minutes,The Best of Are You Being Served featured newly shot scenes of Mr Humphries reminiscing with his elderly mother, Annie, about his time working at Grace Brothers. Both roles were played byJohn Inman. The additional sequences were filmed in America, when John Inman was in Phoenix, AZ to promote the show on the local PBS channel, and directed by Don Hopfer.

In 2016, aone-off revival episode was announced and filmed atdock10 studios. It was broadcast as part of BBC'sLandmark Sitcom Season, a celebration of 60 years of television sitcoms.^[17] It was set in 1988 with the original characters, played by a new cast.^[18]

ActorsJohn Challis portrayed Captain Peacock andSherrie Hewson andRoy Barraclough were cast as Mrs Slocombe and Mr Grainger respectively, with comedianArthur Smith as Mr Harman. Mr Humphries was portrayed byJason Watkins, Miss Brahms byNiky Wardley, and Mr Rumbold byJustin Edwards.^[19][20] New characters introduced in the show included Young Mr Grace's grandson, also called Young Mr Grace, played byMathew Horne; Miss Croft, named as a tribute to series co-creator David Croft, played byJorgie Porter; and newcomer Mr Conway, played byKayode Ewumi. The episode was written byDerren Litten. The BBC issued a press release saying: "It's 1988 and Young Mr Grace is determined to drag Grace Brothers into, well 1988, but he has a problem on his hands. Mr Humphries, Captain Peacock, Mr Rumbold and Mrs Slocombe all seem to be stuck in another era. A new member of staff, Mr Conway, joins the team but will he help shake things up or will he just put a pussy amongst the pigeons?"^[17]

The episode was aired in August 2016 to universally poor reviews for both the writing and the acting.^[21][22] No further episodes were commissioned.

Almost immediately after the cancellation ofAre You Being Served? in 1985, the cast began suggesting a spin-off toJeremy Lloyd andDavid Croft. Though all felt the department store format was exhausted, it was suggested the characters could be moved to a new location. In 1992, most of the original cast reunited forGrace & Favour (known asAre You Being Served? Again! in the United States and Canada). The new series followed the characters after Young Mr Grace's death, when they are forced to run a hotel in a dilapidated manor house that was purchased using their pension fund.Grace & Favour ran for two series.^[23]

In the summer of 1976, a stage adaptation ofAre You Being Served? ran at theWinter Gardens, Blackpool. Directed by Robert Redfarn,John Inman,Mollie Sugden,Frank Thornton,Wendy Richard, andNicholas Smith reprised their characters from the television show while the characters of Mr Lucas, Mr Grainger, and Mr Mash were recast. The play had basically the same plot as thefilm version which would debut the next year, though Young Mr Grace's role was omitted entirely and Mr Mash had less to do than Mr Harman in the film. Reviews for the play were mixed; a writer for the BlackpoolDiarist of the Stage declared it the funniest show he had seen in thirty years, while Michael Leapman fromThe Times declared the play to be worthless except for the final line, though he admitted he had never seen the television show.^[24] The play has occasionally been run at other theatres since.

In 1979,Garry Marshall, in the midst of success producing and directingHappy Days and its spin-offs, produced a pilot for an American version ofAre You Being Served?,Beane's of Boston, remaking the episode, "German Week" for thetelevision pilot.

At the time, Americanised versions of British series, includingThree's Company,All in the Family, andSanford and Son were doing well in the ratings, and Marshall hoped to capitalise on this with his script for the production.

Most of the characters were substantially similar to those of the UK version, with slight name changes in some instances. The one significant difference was that the Rumbold character was replaced by "Franklin Beane" (George O'Hanlon, Jr.), the young nephew of the proprietor who has recently been put in charge of the department.

Jeremy Lloyd'sLaugh-In partner,Alan Sues, was cast as Mr Humphries, a decision Lloyd regretted, saying Sues had been miscast.

Other cast included futureMagnum, P.I. starJohn Hillerman as Mr Peacock,Charlotte Rae as Mrs Slocombe,Lorna Patterson as Miss Brahms,Tom Poston as Mr. Beane (the Mr. Grace equivalent),Larry Bishop as Mr. Lucas,Morgan Farley as Mr. Grainger, andDon Bexley as Mr. Johnson (the Mash/Harman role).

Ultimately, CBS passed onBeane's of Boston and a full series was not produced.^[25]

An Australian adaptation, also calledAre You Being Served?, ran for two series and sixteen episodes from 1980 to 1981 onNetwork Ten. It starredJohn Inman as Mr Humphries, who travels to Australia on loan from Grace Brothers to work for the Grace brothers' cousin, Mr Bone at his department store, Bone Brothers (the name Grace Brothers being the name of an actual department store chain founded in Sydney in 1885). Renamed versions of characters from the original series rounded out the cast includingJune Bronhill as Mrs Crawford, a copy of Mrs Slocombe, and Reg Gillam as Captain Wagstaff, a copy of Captain Peacock.Jeremy Lloyd adapted episodes for the show from his own scripts from the BritishAre You Being Served, drawing from the then-new episodes of the seventh series for series one of the Australian version, and a selection of older episodes for series two. Lloyd would later say he hated the process of adapting the episodes, which were mostly left intact with the exception of some topical jokes, which were changed or deleted.^[26]

TheTROS, the Dutch broadcaster that showedAYBS? in the Netherlands, invited over the key faces of the original cast twice to reprise their characters on Dutch television (albeit not for a full, half-hour episode). First in 1976, Dutch comedianAndré van Duin entered a shop and ran into Mr Humphries, Miss Brahms and Mrs Slocombe.^[27] A different special was made in 1994, on the occasion of the 30 years jubilee of theTROS. This time, the search was for a replacement for Mrs Slocombe, with Mollie Sugden, John Inman, Frank Thornton, Wendy Richard, and Trevor Bannister all reprising their roles.^[28] In 1985 John Inman also assisted in character as co-presenter for a quiz.^[29]

The series gained much of its popularity with TV viewers by "pushing the envelope" through its deliberate-yet-subtle use ofrisquévisual gags,innuendo-infused dialogue and cleverly disguisedsophomoric humour. These comical devices also attracted some mild criticism, in part for relying on sexualstereotypes anddouble entendres – e.g., Mrs Slocombe discussing her cat (always referred to as herpussy): "Animals are very psychic; the least sign of danger and my pussy's hair stands on end."

John Inman's portrayal of Humphries' over-the-top antics and sharp-tongued, witty responses, along with his trademarkcatch-phrase "I'm free!", were enthusiastically embraced by many audience members, and the character evolved into agay icon in popular culture. Despite this, Inman pointed out that Mr Humphries' true sexual orientation was never explicitly stated in the series, and David Croft said in an interview that the character was not homosexual, but "just a mother's boy".^[13] In an episode of the spin-offGrace & Favour, the character is further described as neither a "woman's man" nor a "man's man" and as being "in limbo".

The series was shown in the United States onPBS stations and onBBC America, as well as in manyCommonwealth nations around the world. PBS first began airing it (on 24 stations) in 1987, and viewership steadily climbed as more stations carried it. By the early 1990s, it had gained such a loyal following that American viewers of the show formed fan clubs and were in large attendance wherever cast members made guest appearances.

Are You Being Served? aired in Canada in prime time onGlobal Television Network in the mid-1980s and late night onYTV. The show aired on Saturday evening prime time from the mid-1980s to late 1990s. It was also available to Canadian viewers from most border PBS stations in the United States.

The series was successfully screened in Australia. It began onABC Television in 1974 and was repeated by ABC in Australia several times.^[30] By 1978, the rights to early episodes had been acquired by the commercialSeven Network who gained a larger audience than it had received on the ABC.^[31]Are You Being Served? was ranked as the top-rated show on Australian television for 1978, being watched by 2,255,000 people in five cities.^[32] New episodes were aired on ABC until 1984. After that, the last series was broadcast on theSeven Network.

The entire series was screened in New Zealand onTVNZ.

Seven early episodes were novelised for a book, written by Jeremy Lloyd, calledAre You Being Served? – Camping in and other Fiascos. This was written in 1976, and republished in 1997 byKQED Books. The seven episodes featured are "Camping In", "Up Captain Peacock", "Wedding Bells", "His and Hers", "Coffee Morning", "The Hand of Fate" and "The Clock".

In 1995, KQED Books publishedAre You Being Served – The Inside Story byAdrian Rigelsford, Anthony Brown, and Geoff Tibbals, with a foreword by Jeremy Lloyd, and sub-titled:The Inside Story of Britain's Funniest – and Public Television's Favorite – Comedy Series. In 212 pages, the book's six chapters cover: The Cast of Characters, Behind the Scenes, The Episodes, The Spin-offs, Trivia Quiz, and Glossary.^[33]

In 1998, Are You Being Served? 25 Years, a guide to the series was published by Orion Media. It was written by Richard Webber with David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd. The book contains an introduction by the actress Joanna Lumley. The book is 176 pages.

In 1999,I'm Free! The Complete Are You Being Served?, a guide to the series, was published byOrion Books. It was written by Richard Webber, with contributions from David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd. This book as stated on Amazon is 176 pages. It also contains the introduction by Joanna Lumley, so it is probably a reprint of the 25th year anniversary book.

A board game was also produced in the 1970s. Players moved round a board resembling the shop floor to purchase one item from each of the four counters and leave the store, before their opponents and without going over budget.

All episodes exist in the BBC Archives. All ten series, as well as both series ofGrace & Favour are now available on DVD in the UK (Region 2). TheAre You Being Served? film was released in 2002. A colour-restored version of the original pilot episode has yet to be released commercially but is available in the US to stream onBritBox.

All ten series, as well as both series ofGrace & Favour (in packaging titledAre You Being Served? Again!) and the film are available on DVD in Region 1 (North America).

All ten series, as well as both series ofGrace & Favour and the film have been released in Australia (Region 4).

A DVD titledAre You Being Served? – Best of The Early Years andAre You Being Served? Christmas Specials have also been released.

• List of films based on British television series

• Rigelsford, Adrian; Brown, Anthony; Tibballs, Geoff (1995).Are You Being Served?: The Inside Story of Britain's Funniest – and Public Television's Favorite – Comedy Series. San Francisco: KQED Books.ISBN 0-912333-04-9.
• Clayton, David (26 September 2024).I'm Free!: The Life and Times of John Inman. History Press. p. 9.ISBN 978-1-80399-308-9. Retrieved25 October 2025.
• Berman, Garry (16 February 2011).Best of the Britcoms: From Fawlty Towers to The Office. Simon and Schuster. p. 11.ISBN 978-1-58979-526-6. Retrieved25 October 2025.

Wikiquote has quotations related toAre You Being Served?.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAre You Being Served?.

• Are You Being Served? atBBC Online
• Are You Being Served? atBBC Online (Archived BBC Comedy page)
• Are You Being Served? at theBritish Film Institute
• Are You Being Served? atBritish Comedy Guide
• Are You Being Served? at theBFI'sScreenonline
• Are You Being Served? atIMDb
• Are You Being Served? Virtual Video Vault
• Are You Being Served? Forever
• The Grace Brothers' Multimedia DepartmentArchived 23 December 2019 at theWayback Machine
• Are You Being Served? Central

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