“All star cast” for Are You Being Served? reboot
I'm free? BBC will reboot a classic 70s sitcom as a one-off episode.
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Wow. Sometimes you can just never guess what wild and whacky idea TV is going to hit you with next.
The BBC is set to reboot iconic ’70s sitcom Are You Being Served? with an “all-star cast” for a one-off episode.
UK comedy site Chortle reports “…it has been confirmed that the Corporation will return to Grace Brothers with a studio audience recording confirmed for March 5.” It’s not clear if a full series will follow.
The BBC says it will “pick up where Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft’s much loved comedy left off,” and promises to “bring some of the nation’s all-time favourite sitcom characters including Mrs Slocombe, Captain Peacock, Miss Brahms, and Mr Humphries back to life with an all star cast.”
The original sitcom ran for ten seasons from 1972 to 1985 on BBC One with John Inman, Mollie Sugden, Wendy Richard and Frank Thornton. None of the original principals are still with us following the death of Nicholas Smith (“Mr. Rumbold”) in December.
Updated: BBC One previously announced it was remaking a host of classic comedies including The Good Life, Up Pompeii! and Keeping Up Appearances to celebrate 60 years since Hancock’s Half Hour became the first sitcom on British TV. The broadcaster also previously announced it was remaking Ronnie Barker’s Porridge.
Are You Being Served Down Under? had two seasons in TEN in 1980 and 1981 with John Inman joining local cast including June Bronhill and Shane Bourne.
15 Responses
In keeping with the casting of the original series, I trust that a bevy of modern day glamour models and page three girls will be given the roles of young Mr Grace’s nurses and Mr Rumbold’s secretaries.
What next a reboot of Love Thy Neighbour, however instead of a Jamaican family moving in next door we have a Muslim one…oh wait…then again I guess a UK one may put some biting topical satire into it.
The scripts were great, but the cast were the linchpin to the entire show. Whoever the actors are, will have big shoes to fill.
Not sure if these reboots of classic 70s comedies really work, not just because of the evolution of comedy and humour since then, but also because in terms of satire and commentary, they are very much locked in a particular era.
Are You Being Served? offered a fairly simplistic satire of the British class system punctuated by innocent, yet obvious innuendo and while I still enjoy seeing a repeat, if you adapt that concept for today, it becomes something different. The whole makeup of British society is so different in 2016 to what it was in 1972 when the remnants of a social order dating back to the Victorian era were still clinging on.
Likewise Dad’s Army, which remains one of my favourites. When it originally aired, WWII was in living memory and plenty of people in the audience either would have known or all about the home guard or even had experience of them. The underlying…
Was very much a smack in the face for the BBC to announce this on the day they closed BBC3, killing off a whole new generation of comedic talent in order to help remake some 70s sitcoms.
I could imagine David Walliams in the Frankie Howard role for Up Pompeii …
Yes, he played him in Frankie Howerd: Rather You Than Me (2008).
I remember getting excited by Carry on Columbus in 1992 with Julian Clary, Jim Dale, Rik Mayall etc but ultimately didn’t work for me.
also a lot of people do not know that Munich Olympics has got a part to play in the success of Are you being served because of the 3 days of Mourning due to the siege and BBC were running out of programs to play and played the pilot episode and the rest is history….
David, The is happening for a reason
BBC in June is celebrating 60 years since the first Sitcom aired in UK and that is the reason why Vicar of Dibley, Are you being served and being suggested as a once off episode.
Mrs Brown Boys have been confirmed for a live episode for June 2016.
If this is done well and they get the right cast it could work, but I would prefer if the characters were new. Perhaps descendants of the originals. So Mrs. Brahms son as the head of menswear. I just hope they stick to the same sort of humour and not try to make it something it wasn’t.
What an appalling idea. The show belongs to a certain era that has passed, a style of comedy beautifully satirised by Ricky Gervais in Extras (When the Whistle Blows).
You just gave me a casting idea, Ricky Gervais as Mr Humphries! I think Ricky would do a great job of honouring John while bringing his own flair to the part.
The reboots are all one off episodes to celebrate 60 years of British sitcom on the BBC which will screen in November. Although if they rate well, then there could be additional episodes made.
Seems pointless now that none of the original cast are still with us. Exactly what audience are BBC trying to appeal to with a “reboot”?
The beauty of the original was that the cast could hold their own based on their merit and chemistry. There was no need for frivolous celebrity casting.