4 posts tagged “are you being served?”

From YouTube, a tribute to Mrs Slocombe’s pussy, especially since Twitter has inexplicably blocked the hashtag (while happily letting in far coarser language). Enjoy this collection, and I am unanimous in that.

I stayed away from Twitter for a day and was surprised to find #MrsSlocombesPussy a trending topic. When I searched for it, however, nothing came up, and I decided it was an elaborate prank by hackers.

   It was only much later, in a Facebook comment (after I had noted that I had had a 24-hour gap between Tweets) that Kate (who used to blog here at Vox) told me of Mollie Sugden’s passing, at age 86 (odd, there was nothing on my Google News home page). Which means, of course, that I broke Twitter’s search. (Notch another one up to my brilliant skills with computer programs.) And that if I were Frank Thornton, I would be really worried.
   Farewell, Mollie.

PS.: I have just discovered that every other search works on Twitter, just not one for #MrsSlocombesPussy. The reason, says one Tweeter, is that this hashtag has been blocked. Shame on Twitter: it is either down to ignorance (they do not know the cultural impact of Are You Being Served?), xenophobia (American admins balking at British culture), disrespect (to the memory of Mollie Sugden) or dirty minds (everyone else outside Twitter HQ knows that this refers to Tiddles, Mrs Slocombe’s pet cat, and we also know the meanings of pussy, but at least in the rest of the English-speaking world, double entendres are acceptable).

Farewell to Wendy Richard, the only Geordie on EastEnders (her words). It is very sad that relatively young Are You Being Served? cast members such as Richard and John Inman are no longer with us.

Marshall Lancaster’s best line in last night’s Ashes to Ashes on Prime was cut. I can understand the need to cut for advertisements in New Zealand and we will always argue on what is appropriate and what is not, though if you are my age or older you may wonder why the last line was missing. I apologize in advance to anyone who finds this offensive: it is poking fun at the behaviour of a more homophobic time. [Postscript for New Zealand readers: the comments contain a spoiler. Do not read on if you do not want to know.]