Mrs Slocombe Expects

Mrs Slocombe Expects

Season Five of 'Are You Being Served' kicks off on Friday 25th February 1977 at 8pm, with 'Porridge' following at 8.30pm. That there Wikipedia claims that the shows are recorded a mere one day before transmission, which seems astonishing if it's true and makes absolutely no allowance for people to even catch a cold.

Weather reports for that month indicate that the snow everyone gets covered with at the start wasn't really a thing down in the South, although West Yorkshire had a fair old bit on the 25th.

But this ain't a documentary, we're here for the comedy and there's enough of that as everyone gets the wrong end of the stick when Mrs Slocombe's pussy is found to be expecting kittens.

Young Mister Grace has been studying customer psychology and a scheme is cooked up for the staff to dress up as customers in an attempt to boost those familiar flagging sales figures. Though the end results are somewhat variable, with Jennifer Lonsdale being put off by Miss Brahms' lack of class.

Mister Grainger tries much too hard and won't let go of some gloves once he's got them in his grasp. Mister Humphries has some success, though possibly not in the way he was expecting and it seems that he never follows up on the offer he receives.

Mister Rumbold is not very sympathetic to Mrs Slocombe's situation, preferring to makes some poor pussy puns, while Young Mister Grace spends a few moments serving behind the Menswear counter before the strin becomes too much for him.

Mister Harman hides the pregnant pussy in the tea urn, which he claims is 'bunged up with sentiment', allowing for a rare sight of the legendary feline, or at least its tail.

When the kittens arrive, they seem a be a few weeks old, which makes us wonder if there's a time anomaly in the Ladies Changing Room, which could explain a great deal about the sales figures.

Possibly Cashmere and Silk need to be assigned later in the season?

But everyone gets to hold a kitten in the end titles, which is rather lovely!

Our video on 'Mrs Slocombe' expects can be seen here.

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)