Mollie Sugden, wonderfully talented comedienne who played Mrs. Slocombe on the British tv series ARE YOU BEING SERVED died a day or two ago at the age of 86 after a long illness. Friends say she had been failing for the past 9 years, since the death of her beloved husband. Her twin sons were with her at the end. "Mrs. Slocombe" will be fondly remembered by fans of the series for her frequent comments about her pussy cat, and for her dignified announcement: "I am unanimous in that." Rest in peace, dear Mollie.
I'm very sorry to hear this. I'm a big fan of Mollie Sugden & the Are You Being Served? cast. One of the best, a great group of performers.
Wow. Wendy Richard died a year or two ago, John Inman before that .... I can't imagine many are left. Certainly not Young Mr Grace.
Frank Thornton, who played Captain Peacock, remains--he's 88 now! And Nicholas Smith, aka Mr. Rumbold, is 75. The staff of Grace Brothers Department Store has sadly dwindled.
I see Trevor Bannister is also OK. And just a couple of years younger than Nicholas Smith !
Strewth ! Mr Rumbold was obviously younger than he looked. Must have been the hair thing.
Did you know that they brought John Inman out here to Oz and did a local version of the show ? The premise was that Mr Humphries is 'loaned' by Mr. Grace to his Australian cousin, Mr. Bone, to take over as head of Men's Wear at Bone Brothers. Every UK character has an Aussie analog who looks and acts similarly. All I can say is that it worked better than some of the other trans-continental 'remakes' I've seen. The US version of our KATH & KIM for example completely missed the point.
"They all did very well".
My wife introduced me to "Are You Being Served" when we first got together 20 years ago...for that reason alone, the show and it's characters will always be special to me.
Rest In Peace, Mollie.
I got hooked on AYBS about 18 years ago. It was on at 11:00PM ever night on Rochesters PBS Station. Back then as well as now our budget didn't allow for full basic cable (over $80.00 a month) so we have the striped down version of basic cable my kids lovingly refer to as "Welfare Cable". Oops I digress. At 11:00PM the only thing on TV other than local news was AYBS. After about 3 episodes I was hooked. Eventually my wife also became addicted. She would refer to it as (Blue Hair).
"....turn to PBS. Blue Hair is on........."
I loved the way they never make any verbal reference to the crazy colors of Mrs. Slocombe's hair. That takes a lot of restrain for the writers. Because if they did it would have cheapened the joke.
Also you have love those cat references...
Mrs.Slocombe: "What about this fog! My pussy's been gasping all night."
or
Mr.Humphries: "Mrs. Slocombe. Mr. Rumbold would like to know why you're late."
Mrs.Slocombe: "Well the central heating broke down. I had to light the oven and hold my pussy in front of it".
The older I get the sadder I feel when I hear about the loss of these truly talented entertainers. Entertainers who were so good that their craft, and yet didn't feel the need to be always in the public eye and pontificate to the world the vastness their endless talent.
In the few interviews Ive seen with Mollie Sugden. She seemed like a real class-act and will be sorely missed..... and I am unanimous in this!
I used to love watching the show, big fan of British comedy. Another sad loss, R.I.P. ms. Sugden.