Having just finished watching the entire two series of Grace & Favour (also known as Are You Being Served? Again!) I felt it necessary to write about it.
What we have here is a relatively gentle comedy which in 1992 was seen as very much old hat. 'Allo ' Allo! was cancelled, the tide was turning towards comedies like Absolutely Fabulous and Men Behaving Badly. It is very much in the same vein as other David Croft comedies such as Dad's Army (obviously G&F is nowhere near that pinnacle), It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Hi-de-Hi!, You Rang, M'Lord? and the aforementioned 'Allo 'Allo!.
The cast are carried over from Are You Being Served? and they are obviously having fun here and also very comfortable in their roles. The newly cast members of the crew are all very stereotyped but are all played well. Billy Burden who, with his broad accent, provides the most obvious comedy. Secondly, Joanne Heywood is dryly amusing as the stuck-up ex-mistress of Young Mr. Grace. The major addition to the cast is Fleur Bennett who is incredibly sweet and has a great camaraderie with the established cast.
The series was cut off after two series, much like Croft's other series Oh Doctor Beeching. In the case of Grace & Favour I think there was a lot more that could have been done but it seems like the powers that be were slightly embarrassed by this throwback to a previous era.
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