Special Sub-Topic: Grace Brothers and Sisters Authored by: DevonshireLass Sub-topic of: Are You Being Served?

In one episode, an item is lost and there was a £100 reward offered for its return. Everyone thinks they have found it, but of course, only one of them did. What was this thing?

A diamond. Some paste beads were lost from a dress and everyone thought they found the diamond as they each found one of these worthless beads. The episode was ‘Diamonds are a Man’s Best Friend’ and was aired in 1973 when £100 was worth a lot more than it is now.

Mr Humphries is well known for saying ‘I’m free!’ but he had another catchphrase. When a customer was not sure of a fit, he would say - what?

It will ride up with wear. He would also knee clothes to make them a little larger. This consisted of his putting his knee in a jacket armpit (or whatever) and pushing slightly, breaking a few of the stitches. It was always funny to see him deal with returned goods and turning the tables on the customer, making the defect their fault.

In 1975 the staff were asked to think of things which could increase sales for Christmas. Someone eventually thought of the staff dressing up as Pantomime characters. Whose idea was this?

Young Mr Grace. Of all the costumes, Miss Brahams fared best with a fairy outfit. The others were highly impractical, although Captain Peacock’s relatively immobile job suited his snowman costume.

Although we hear a great deal about Mrs Slocombe’s pussy, we never actually see the cat.

f. She brought the cat into the store on one memorable occasion, and we saw her head poking up out of her handbag. My favourite storyline regarding this animal was when Mrs Slocombe phoned her up and spoke to her, only to find she had a wrong number.

Why did Mr Humphries pretend to be a shop mannequin in ‘It Pays To Advertise’, first shown in April 1977?

The look-alike dummy lost its head. The other look-alike mannequin was of Mrs Slocombe. When Mr Humphries stood in the place of his look-alike dummy he was horrified when Mr Lucas was told to change the clothes, and Mrs Slocombe and Miss Brahams were all eyes.

When Captain Peacock encounters a bully from another department, he soon found himself in a tricky situation. A boxing match was arranged to sort out the difficulty. What happened after Peacock pretended to be incapacitated?

Mr Humphries goes into the ring and wrestles. This episode (‘The Hero’) was first aired in November 1979. Over the years John Inman (Mr Humphries) had donned some outrageous outfits, but this one has to be one of the funniest.

After Mr Humphries caught a highly infectious disease the whole department was placed in quarantine. This meant they had to spend the night in the store. What happened?

They had to share a waterbed in the basement. They spent the night in the camping department in 1973 (‘Camping In’), and the home-from-home was an arrangement for Mrs Slocombe alone in the ‘The Apartment’ in 1979. This story was from 1981 and the waterbed featured only in the last scene when they were trying to stay still even though they were sneezing.

When Old Mr Grace thought that he had once known the mother of one of the members of staff he believed that (s)he could be his child. Who was this?

Mr Humphries. It turned out that Mr Humphries was not the ‘Heir Apparent’ after all, much to his relief. And, I think, the relief of Old Mr Grace as well!

In the 1981 episode ‘Roots’ we are told that it is Young Mr Grace’s birthday, and the staff do not want to pay out for a present for him, so they put on a musical number. Unfortunately they were given conflicting evidence of his roots, so kept changing the programme. Which of the following is not performed?

Russian Cossacks dancing. The programme ends with them dancing and singing as black and white minstrels. Very possibly this could have been one of the last times such was shown in a new programme on British television. This would not shown now because it is not politically correct.

What happened to Mrs Slocombe when she was hit on the head with a golf ball in 1983?

She started acting like a little girl and wore outrageous frilly frocks. One has to wonder where all the costumes came from throughout the thirteen years of the programme’s life - unless Grace Brothers had a party costume department. The outfit Mrs Slocombe wore in this episode was reminiscent of Shirley Temple, only more flamboyant.