Wedding Bells

Wedding Bells

We recently acquired a copy of the 1976 Granada Publishing book of 'Are You Being Served?' which is based around adaptations of seven scripts from the first three seasons in a fairly random order.

The brief CV at the front for Jeremy Lloyd is interesting for its apparent claim that the full title of 'Whodunnit?' is actually 'The Thames Television Popular Whodunnit Detective Show' which probaby wouldn't have fitted on most televisions of the time and would have required Jon Pertwee to contort his body making all sorts of letter shapes at the end instead of his more usual impression of a W.

The cover is of the main cast, of course, with Mrs Slocombe in grey/blue hair and holding aloft a pair of drawers with the instruction 'No Parking' on them, which means we can identify it as being associated with the episode 'Wedding Bells', which we just happened to watch last night.

In the same way that we've talked about the slight differences between 'Dad's Army' scripts and the broadcast episodes, it's interesting to compare the version of 'Wedding Bells' in the book with the one on our DVD set.

The printed one pushes Mr Humphries' anecdote about dressing up as the Red Shadow for the fancy-dress party to the opening scene, but he thankfully the outcome is not altered and he still got time to share a sherry with the friendly policeman who is keen to demonstrate his handcuffs.

Mrs Slocombe's friend, Mrs Axelby, seems to have dropped a few letters along the way and is now referred to as Mrs Axby, which is far too close to 'Mrs Axon' for those of us who would be reading 'Doctor Who And The Claws Of Axos' a year or two later.

The naughty knickers still have the same slogans printed on them, though I do wonder if 'Hello Cheeky' is meant to make the viewers at home think of Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Junkin and Barry Cryer on the radio.

John Clegg's battle with the tight sweater starts the same, but when he is offered the larger size it's a 46 rather than the televised 48. Perhaps they really do shrink after the first wash?

Also, when he exits, the price tag for the sweater is stuck on the back of his very expensive, undetectable hairpiece, which may indicate some material that was lost in the final edit.

When exchanging harsh words with Mrs Slocombe, Mr Grainger "swelled up like an old bull frog" which again makes me think of 'The Claws Of Axos'.

We retain the reference to Old Mr Grace, though he still doesn't get about much these days, but there is little attempt to describe the multi-coloured hairdo Mrs Slocombe is sporting after she has been lacquered solid.

It's an amusing enough work and there's even a sly bit of product placement in the adaptation of 'Camping In' when Mr Lucas mentions the book 'The Sensuous Woman'.

If you turn to the last page, this features twice in the list of other titles that are available, sandwiched between first 'Norma Jean (Illustrated)' and 'Surface!' then again between 'The Great Beast' and 'The Occult' and a snip at 50p.

Three mentions in one book? Looks like someone was on a better commission than the staff of Grace Brothers...

Our video about 'Wedding Bells' can be seen here.

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)