I do wonder how much of a strain it was making Season Three of 'Are You Being Served?'.
With more episodes to cram in, by the time you get to 'New Look', it does feel more like a series of short sketches, rather than anything approaching a fully-formed plot.
You've got a mish-mash of ideas here, as Mister Mash has a fountain (that makes everyone want to spend a penny) and an accidentally rude display for Camishirts to play with.
Mr Humphries is going to be Best Man at his friend's wedding, but that doesn't really go anywhere and instead we veer off into a sequence with the Suggestion Box, that is home to a bus ticket and yet more remains of Mr Grainger's collection of randomly-located pork pies.
We then go up another dead end with the idea of recording announcements to play in-store which never really pays off, either. Though it did raise the mildly interesting question of what the recording order was for the second half of the season, as Miss Thorpe in introduced as being new, despite having already appeared twice before, in 'German Week' and 'Shoulder To Shoulder'.
And, for no readily apparent reason, we then have a short dance routine for John Inman and Young Mr Grace gets to do that thing where you wave your hands in front of your kneecaps as it looks a bit silly.
And in a shocking conclusion to the series, betraying everything that has gone before, the end credits are done on a roller as seemingly no-one has had time to do a camera script fot the individual 'You Have Been Watching' shots.
I just get the slight feeling that there was at air of panic about this one, with everyone hoping for a bit of time to catch their breath before they break some new ground with the first ever Christmas Special...
Our video about 'New Look' can be seen here.
(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)
No comments:
Post a Comment