Are You Being Served? The Movie (1977)

I suppose that it must have made sense for everyone to capitalise on the huge success of this BBC sitcom and follow in the footsteps of “Dad’s Army” (1971) by making a movie. Watching it now, it struggles amidst a sea of innuendo-ridden stereotypes and writing that ought to have died out with the “Carry On” films, but despite that there is chemistry on display here from a group of actors who were clearly not only enjoying themselves, but trying quite naturally to ensure that the audience did too. It’s based around the staff of a department store who are all made to take their summer holidays at the same time so their building can be refurbished. With every expense to be spared, they are dispatched to the “Costa Plonka” where their hotel is still under construction and so they are placed in tents. Without the formal structure of their day-to-day lives governing their behaviour, they can flirt merrily as they enjoy the sunshine, the cheap wine and even a revolution led by the local equivalent of Che Guevara. For me, the stand out was always Mollie Sugden’s prim and proper “Mrs. Slocombe” - I had a very similar school teacher, though her hair was usually blue-tinted. Thereafter it is an amiable enough ensemble cast effort that when watched in the context of 1970s Britain largely manages to avoid the excesses of unpleasantness that still dogged some of the corporation's other creative efforts that emerged from the late 1960s with a much more passive-aggressive style of just about everything-ism. It isn’t without it’s cringemaking moments, certainly, but if you consider it as a panto with better props and lighting and allow sentiment to cloud your vision, then it’s not as awful as you might expect. I suspect that I am not unanimous in that.