Grace & Favour
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grace & Favour (known in the United States as Are You Being Served? Again!) was a British sitcom, and the sequel series to the long-running programme Are You Being Served?
It was screened on BBC1 for two series runs, in 1992 and 1993.
Contents |
[edit] Premise
The elderly and womanizing Young Mr Grace, head of Grace Brothers Department Store, had recently died while on holiday in the Caribbean with his personal secretary, Miss Jessica Lovelock. (Characters were quoted as saying, "When her top popped off, so did he.")
As per the instructions in his will, the final workers left at Grace Brothers' closing sale (coincidentally, most of the staff who were present in the original series) were named co-beneficiaries in his will.
Young Mr Grace had invested their pension funds in a multitude of businesses so he could write them off as tax losses, and allotted the staff a country manor house. The will stipulated that they could not sell the house and split the profits, so the workers agreed to move to the country in order to make the manor house into an inn and live off the proceeds. Miss Lovelock was given the best accommodations in the house, angering the former staff members from the start.
Another stipulation in the will was that in order to cash what measly pension they were allotted, Miss Lovelock was required to sign their cheques, meaning that unless they treated her well, they wouldn't see their money at all.
[edit] Cast
Out of the original cast, most of the actors reprised their roles for the new series. Mike Berry, who played Mr Spooner, chose not to return, but other cast members did agree to do so.
Mollie Sugden had met with limited success in her own television serial Come Back, Mrs Noah and reprised her popular role of Mrs Slocombe. Wendy Richard, successful since the original 'Are You Being Served?' as Pauline Fowler in EastEnders, agreed to play Miss Brahms once more. Also returning to their roles were John Inman, who played the effeminate Mr Humphries, Frank Thornton, who played the floorwalker Captain Peacock, and Nicholas Smith as the former head of departments Cuthbert Rumbold.
New additions to this programme were Joanne Heywood as Miss Lovelock, Billy Burden as farmer Maurice Moulterd, and Fleur Bennett as his daughter, Mavis.
[edit] Plot
At the start of the series, Mr Rumbold had trouble trying to find new staff to fill the vacancies (he had yelled at the previous staff and given them an ultimatum that if they didn't like how he did business, they could leave; they left). With time running out, the old Grace Brothers employees had to have their picture taken as the inn staff for a travel brochure, and they started to run the inn themselves with the help of Farmer Moulterd and his daughter.
Farmer Moulterd's daughter, Mavis, could barely conceal her crush on Mr Humphries, and although it was hidden at times, he was shown to reciprocate such feelings (they cried after they talked about their feelings whilst cutting onions). After that episode, however, Mr Humphries was shown to be rather ambivalent not to Mavis, but to the idea of a relationship with anyone. Since the two were sharing a bed (the nights were very cold, Mavis reasoned), all of the staff assumed they were having sex, which flattered Mr Humphries, but he eventually denied any such goings-on.
On her first day in the country, Mrs Slocombe tried to move a gypsy's wagon that blocked the highway, and was arrested for wagon theft. The local newspaper also took a picture of the wagon flying by with Mrs Slocombe strewn about, adding to her embarrassment. At her trial, all of her colleagues were called as witnesses, but it was Farmer Moulterd who produced doubt and won the case for her. Mrs Slocombe was grateful, despite her constant irritation that he brought up their sexual relationship during the War, which she insisted never happened.
Malcolm Heathcliff, a man who wanted to have a relationship with Mavis, was very jealous of Mr Humphries and threatened him with violence every chance he had. During a cricket match, Mr Humphries accidentally hit Malcolm on the head with a ball, which only followed with more threats later. In the end, however, he mainly wanted to scare Mr Humphries, which worked almost all of the time.
In the second series, the staff put on a traditional harvest festival dance for octogenarian American visitors, and put on a showcase of British arts and culture for a tour group from Mongolia. In the final episode, the inn booked a group of monks who had taken a silent oath, which was discarded after their bare feet hit the gravel outside.
[edit] Location filming
All external filming for the series was undertaken in and around Tetbury in Gloucestershire. Primary filming was at Chavenage House, just outside of Tetbury.
