Are You Being Served?

Missed this first time round, caught it by chance when UKTV ran it instead of one of the original episodes. My first thought was how awful it was. Which was also my second thought. Why bother remaking an old favourite if the actors - some of them well known from other shows - simply attempt to impersonate the original cast? Why set it at a time which contradicts the original show's sequel? John Inman's Mr Humphreys was never as camp as Jason Watkins' version. Arthur English's Mr Harman was never as boorish as Arthur Smith's portrayal. Writer Derren Litten appears to have depended entirely upon second-hand memories of the original show for his inspiration rather than going back to the original episodes and seeing how they were put together for himself. And what on Earth is the audience on? Hysterical shrieks of laughter for some mildly amusing aside? God help them if they ever get to see an original episode, there'd be mass coronaries everywhere.

I wanted to give this a chance as I have loved "are you being served?" ever since I first ran across it on PBS. However, the new actors have completely butchered the characters. I find them irritating, off putting, and bland. It's just not funny, the jokes feel forced. It's actually worse than the movie they made that I made the mistake of buying off of iTunes.

I could only bear to watch the opening few minutes before it was painfully obvious this was less a reboot so much as a sad parody.

Mr Humphries? Please. Yes, he was gay in the original, but he certainly did not go around lifting men's jackets to look at their ass. From what I've read, this "reboot" is just a far cruder version, which completely trainwrecks the intent of the original.

I"m sorry, but no. This is just sadly pathetic. If it gets made into a series, then God help us all because the writers will not have anywhere near the wit of the original staff. This thing will go down in flames (real ones, not those acted by the Imam-wannabee) — and deservedly.

It's been well marketed, and well advertised, but everyone I've spoken to about it have already written it off as a disaster, and seemed hopeful for it to flop.

I made an effort to watch it with an unbiased opinion, despite having just watched the first three series of the original show. I really enjoyed it, I found it funny, and the whole setup was one I could have believed the original cast doing. The performances were very different, and I would imagine could take time to get used to.

Come on BBC, we've been lacking a quality sitcom for so long, maybe that's the reasoning behind this run of prequels and remakes, but as a fan of the show, Please BBC give us a full run, and let it develop!!

It wasn't perfect, and I can imagine purists will hate it, but it deserves a chance. 7/10

As a devoted fan to the original series, I had high hopes for the further adventures of the team of Grace Brothers. Having just finished watching this episode for a second time, holding out hope I had missed something the first time around, I found it to lack the charm and wit of the original. Granted this is the one episode with this new cast but I found this group of actors to have little to no chemistry together. The way these actors portrayed these classic characters was too far away from the originals. Any good actor should make a role they play theirs but the interpretations presented by these actors not only made me miss the original cast but also made thankful that the BBC passed on making further episodes. It wasn't just the acting that was horrible in this episode the writing was atrocious with forced humor that just didn't come naturally or play smoothly. With a stronger script a different cast maybe things would have turned out different for this remake/retelling of a beloved series.