Founder's Day

Founder's Day

It's fair to say that our inbox has seen a lot of action in recent weeks, with all sorts of eclectic material starting to fill the folders for Episodes 32 and 33.

So please forgive us if we don't manage to do a blog entry every day, as this plethora of audio riches is demanding a fair bit of attention just to sort out what is going where exactly.

But we've managed to keep up with our weekly 'Are You Being Served?' video schedule by uploading our look at 'Founder's Day' from 11th March 1977.

In brief, Young Mister Grace is approaching the big 80, implying that he was born in 1897, assuming that there is no Grace Brothers Dating Controversy to be tackled here. It appears that art is almost imitating life, as Harold Bennett apparently entered on the scene in 1898.

To mark this, the staff come up with a 'This Is Your Life'-style celebration which involves a number of strange doctored black-and-white photos, plus the unforgettable sight of John Inman playing his own mother on faded film stock.

Before we get to this point, Mister Grainger gets to do his impression of a North Sea oil rig as he tackles his soup with a bundle of coloured straws.

And Tim Barrett makes enquiries about multiple fur coats, all of which sees him very close to his character of Malcolm from 'Terry And June', especially if you've heard our Christmas Special (Episode 30)....

Also, Lisa wishes to point out that her mention of 'James Lewis' was somewhat off the mark, as she meant to say 'Hugh Fraser'.

The one that co-founded House of Fraser circa, 1849, that is, not the one from 'Poirot'.

Which is, funnily enough, something else that pinged into our inbox this very week...

Our video about 'Founder's Day' can be seen here.

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)