Brief Encounter

I always thought that was part of the character!

I'm working my way through the episodes too (again), with my housemate. Last watched Up Captain Peacock. So many classic moments in these episodes. Mostly from Mr Lucas - his reaction to Mrs Slocombe crushing the insect on her plate is priceless!

SirOllyBolly

I recall John Inman being interviewed on Parkinson's Sunday radio show a few years ago now - saying that he was still quite amazed with what they got away with back then.

He referred to one episode where the staff of Grace Brothers had to take home some perfume to bottle it. Mrs Slocombe's account went along the lines of...

"By accident I spilt a few drops on my pussy.... well, I had tomcats throwing themselves at my flap all night"

SirOllyBolly

"What fresh lunacy is this?"

EHV_Emmetts

I didn't get that impression.

Brief Encounter

Well, most of them do tend to stumble on their lines in the early series. They ironed it out midway through the show's run.

EHV_Emmetts

What I have noticed is that Trevor Bannister, playing Mr. Lucas, delivers his lines in a remarkably similar fashion to that of Tony Hancock.

Perhaps TB is attempting to impersonate TH?

bhowells

Good God you are right never picked up on this before.

I have mentioend elsewhere on this forum a radio sitcom that DJ Tony Brandon did for Radio Two in the late eighties early nineties, I am 99% sure that he was impersonationg Hancock.

bhowells

I always liked it when Mrs Slocombe would drop her posh persona and lapse into her natural common mode. The characters of Mrs Slocombe and Miss Brahms seemed very real, reminds me of people I have worked with.

LukeAFB

To digress,

Many years ago, 1970s to be precise, I worked as the Head of Personnel for a Welsh family owned stores group along the lines of Grace Brothers (no, I'm not telling you which company, it's still going!). The company's version of Young Mr Grace had a reputation for being eccentric.

Two of his exploits were well known.

The stores had old wooden floorboards and if he saw a piece of timber sticking up, he would deliberately trip up on it and fall flat on his face, all this without a word being spoken! The stores also had price cards stuck in holders on the counters, similar to old Woolworths versions. If he saw that a card had been placed upside down by a member of staff, he would stand on his head, again with no verbal comments. What made it all the more fun (?), was that he was at least 80 years old!