Turned on the comp today and was quite shocked to discover John Inman had died today.

Quite sad news as thanks to AYBS? he was quite a well known and respected comedy figure.

Agreed, although his one dimensional character seemed more fully fleshed out than his off-screen persona (if that's possible, then he managed it.) He's a lesson to us all that a single gag can fuel a whole career.

I imagine the gay community won't shed many tears.

Couldn't quite believe what I was hearing when I heard it on the news this morning. It doesn't seem to be "cool" to like such programmes any more, but I for one love Are You Being Served?, and as one-dimensional as William Clayborne Humphries may be, he was still very funny IMO.

I don't care how cool it is or is not I will always love AYBS? with Mrs Slcombes Pussy and Humphries being so full of energy.

John will be missed.

yeah i had a lot of respect for Mr. Inman, and i also don't care if AYBS is "out of fashion" or uncool compared to todays sitcoms, it is still a funny show.

R.I.P

now he's free... finally

R.I.P.

I was shocked to learn he was 71 actually. I thought he was... around 50 or something.

He was great and so was AYBS.

I watched the news yesterday - ITV I think - and they signed off with the observation that with its double-entendre sterio typing, 'Are You Being Served' was a show that belonged to a different era. I then remembered Benidrom was on tv that night and my heart sank.

RIP John Inman.

All John Inman would ever say about Mr Humphries' sexuality was that he was a nice young man who loved his mum.

RIP.

All good clean fun - and all in the mind. I admit I used to watch it when I was young but not so much when I got older. I think they did drag it out a bit but when it was good it was very good - especially Young Mr Grace.

Amazing that John Inman did'nt really do anything else. I don't think anyone ever had a bad word to say about him though.

I really loved Are You Being Served? and John Inman was an institution I think. People who moan about representation of gay people in programmes like that would do well I think to remember that the shows are reflections of their times in terms of society's attitudes.

Very true. I think that they tend to forget, overlook, or just plain refuse to accept that relatively early shows like Are You Being Served?, no matter how stereotypical, were still 'paving the way' for homosexuals in the media, and indeed in society in general. When Are You Being Served? began, homosexual acts had only been legal for five years, and there was still far more prejudice than acceptance (arguably still the case now, I suppose). No matter what people think of the exact characterisation and portrayal of characters such as WC Humphries, featuring him so prominently in such a mainstream show can only have had a positive impact in 'softening' people to acceptance.

Totally agree with your points raised.

I've read comments with regard to gay sterotypes on this and another thread on BSG and if I'm being really honest here, I'm getting really cheesed off with people having a moan without offering up any kind of solution to their problem.

And so if everyone is so wise in how writers depict homosexuality in such a demeaning stereotypical way, will somebody, anybody, enlighten me how they would introduce a gay character into their sitcom without making them 'stereotypical'.

Well quite. Every character is a stereotype. Peter Griffin is a stereotypical middle-aged white male, with an extra twist of crazy that the cartoon format allows. David Brent is a stereotype of a useless manager. I could go on.