No Sale

No Sale

Thursday, 8th April 1976... Donald Gee and Bob Hoskins are still 'On The Move', 'Fingerbobs' is all 'Bumpy' and 'Are You Being Served?' returns for its fourth series with 'No Sale'.

That Thursday schedule is pretty solid, with 'Tomorrow's World' and 'Top Of The Pops' leading in to our visit to Grace Brothers, followed by the first of six editions of 'The Burke Special'.

The store is experimenting with early opening so that people can shop on their way to work. Unusually, this actually turns out to be quite a good idea, as takings go up for once, but the staff are less keen on the arrangement and do their best to sabotage the sales figures.

Mister Humphries is at least vaguely familiar with 'Doctor Who' (though the fact that he enters dressed in a similar fashion to Ben Jackson is probably a coincidence), so I like to think that he was part of that huge audience for 'The Seeds Of Doom' earlier in the year.

Mister Grainger is sporting one of the comedy crossed plasters that you only see in 'The Bash Street Kids' after being bonked with a bottle of bismuth and Mrs Slocombe's hair is in a bit of a state after a ride in the sidecar of Miss Brahms' dad's motorbike.

Mister Lucas gets to tell one of his tallest stories ever, but Mister Rumbold appears to be between secretaries at the moment, possibly due to the production team having splurged on lots of actors to play the customers.

However, a phone-call from a mysterious voice sparks his interest, even if the caller is guilty of breaking the Trade Descriptions Act (1968), which leads to Young Mister Grace getting wonderfully confused.

It takes the combined skill of the Gents and Ladies Departments to nobble this dangerous new way of selling, so it's a refreshing change to see them united in a common goal, in contrast to their typical previous friction.

Our video about 'No Sale' can be seen here.

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)