Celebrity Deathwatch – Are You Being Served?

Another strange bit of scheduling by the BBC.

As part of its Are You Being Served night, the BBC broadcast two documentaries about actors Mollie Sugden and John Inman. None of the pre-publicity mentioned that both actors are now no longer with us, or that nearly all of the talking heads involved are themselves dead.

For the record, here are the cast details by year of death:

Arthur Brough – Mr Grainger – died 28 February 1978.

Harold Bennett – Young Mr. Grace – died 15 September 1981.

James Hayter – Mr. Tebbs – 27 March 1983.

Alfie Bass – Mr. Goldberg – 15 July 1987.

Larry Martyn – Mr. Mash – 7 August 1994.

Arthur English – Mr. Harman – 16 April 1995.

John Inman – Mr. Humphreys – 8 March 2007.

Wendy Richard – Miss Brahms – 26 February 2009.

Mollie Sugden – Mrs. Slocombe – 1 July 2009.

Trevor Bannister - Mr. Lucas – 14 April 2011.

Which leaves only two of the original cast still with us. Nicholas Smith (as jug eared store manager Mr. Rumbold), and Frank Thornton (as Captain Peacock), who recently celebrated his 90th birthday. Sadly, in the second documentary Frank Thornton wasn’t looking very well at all. But then Mollie Sugden was pretty ill in the 1990s and rallied for another good ten years …

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