Are You Being Served?

As an avid viewer of the original series, I remained open minded. The original cast members would be had to duplicate, they were so in sync with each other. John Inman as Mr. Humphries and Molly Sudgen as Mrs. Slocomb are memorable characters. I continued to watch them on "Grace and Favor", so I think I am qualified to offer my opinion. I think the cast choices were good. I feel the new Mr. Humphries is a bit more flamboyant, but I like him. The choice of adding Mr. Conway and a younger Mr. Grace will definitely add a new twist and a bit of flavor. Having said that, after watching the first episode, I want to know where we are going. So bring on more episodes.

Like many people I was sceptical about the BBC remaking old sitcoms like this, especially 'Are you being served?' which is so beloved by so many.

To be fair, this episode (which felt very much like a pilot for a new series) wasn't bad. There were laughs, lots of them, and some decent impersonations of the original characters being given by the new cast. I felt that the actors playing Mr Rumbold and Mr Grainger (yes, we'll scoot over the fact that he retired in the original show) in particular did a good job.

Derren Litten has obviously decided which elements of the history of the show he is going to use/ignore and this meant nice remarks about the 1977 big screen version of the show and Mr Lucas.

It wasn't perfect (the scenes with Matthew Horne) but if I was the Head of Comedy at the BBC i'd push ahead with a full series.

A soulless parody that lacks everything that made the original good. The writing is terrible. I love the original and enjoyed AYBSA spinoff but this reboot is painful to watch.

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

So I think they nailed the remake in terms of writing and set. What I think I found missing was some of the personalities lost in bad casting and/or acting. Mr Humphries seems to have lost his devilish, smarmy smile. That's a huge omission. I also think Humphries could act a little less gay but yet be obvious like Inman did. Mr Peacock I found to be somehow grumpier and less dapper than Thornton. Mrs Slocomb was just ok Miss Brahams as well - just ok Mr Grainger was spot on as well as Mr Rumbold, understanding it's hard to find that Nicolas Smith look The new, actual young Mr Grace could stand to make his annoying self less involved.