Here I outline my plans for where I hope to take the blog this year
First, an apology. It’s been a while since I posted on the blog and consequently, I’ve got rather behind schedule. As some of you will know, I do have other interests but I’m not making excuses. I should have posted more and I can only apologize for that. There is still a lot to write about, even though Grace and Favour finished 30 years ago. I hope now to post monthly and here is what you can look forward to during the year.
Firstly, I plan to finish reviewing all the episodes. So far I’ve only done three, there are another nine to go. Then there are the podcasts; as many fans will know two very enthusiastic American fans covered all the episodes in That Does Suit Madam, in great detail so I need to review those. It’s interesting to hear things from an American perspective; not everything translates so well for an American audience, as you’ve probably discovered if you’ve heard Mr Geoff and Mr Brandon trying to decipher some of the English expressions and references in the series.
I also found a couple of interviews with John Inman on YouTube in which he refers to the series and I will be commenting on those. Grace & Favour doesn’t often feature in interviews, as it’s largely in the shadow of the far more popular and long-running Are You Being Served?!.
At some point, I would like to take a more detailed look at the filming process and what went on behind the scenes, but for this, I may need some additional help so it may take me a while to dig into the archives and pick people’s brains.
You have probably seen that I have been using my own drawings of the characters in the blog. This is primarily to avoid copyright issues. It seems to be a minefield, trying to find who owns the copyright to the photos and what permissions I need to use them so I decided to draw the characters instead of using photos. I still have more to do. It’s a rather time-consuming process apart from being difficult so please bare with me.
Looking further ahead, I would like at some point to visit Chavenage House, in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, the actual house that’s used for the Manor. It would be great if I could write up something on that and post a few photos of the Manor and the surrounding area which feature in the series. I’m not sure if that will be possible but it’s something I will be looking into in the future.
It has been suggested to me that I interview some of those who played minor characters in the series and it certainly would be interesting to get their impressions of working with the main cast and on the series. The Croft & Perry Podcast has already interviewed at least one of them (Andrew Barclay who played Mavis’s jealous ex-boyfriend) but I should really raise my profile and promote my blog more before I can do this. I should point out that I have no connections with the BBC or the tv industry and rely on a few individuals who have very kindly provided me with information.
I do have more plans for future posts but I’m reluctant to mention them just yet as they are rather tentative. Sorry if this is rather vague but I will reveal more as soon as I can.
Finally, I would just like to thank everyone who has shown an interest in the blog and for their suggestions and feedback. On the subject of feedback, I’ve been informed that people can no longer leave private comments. There used to be a comments box for private messages but this has disappeared, possibly when I updated WordPress. As far as I can tell, comments can still be left on the blog but if anyone has any problems they are welcome to email me. I’ll try to rectify this issue shortly. Thanks for your interest and enjoy the blog.
© 2023, John Fraser. All rights reserved.
Thank you for taking the time to create a site that speaks to those of us who truly appreciated AYBS/G&F and love reminiscing about how fantastic these two series were back in the day and STILL are! I am 50 and an American who has always preferred the kind of classic tv that only the UK could deliver. I enjoyed, primarily in syndication, the AYBS series when I was very young, it is so very nostalgic to me, as is G & F, which I watched years later as a young adult. Today, my 3 daughters, raised on all the best that the 70’s, 80’s, & 90’s had to offer, they too, LOVE both of these amazingly hysterical and classic bits of British TV, my husband (who never experienced more than the random episode Benny Hill while growing up), has found himself to be a true fan of these shows, I couldn’t be prouder, really. I am grateful to you, John for caring so much that you put such a loving effort into providing a fan site such as this, I know that you must be very busy and perhaps haven’t added as much as you may have wanted on your site and that is absolutely ok, what matters is that you created this in the first place and that can never go unappreciated nor forgotten and it never will. Thank you again and best regards. 🙏
Thanks so much for your lovely comments. I really appreciate them. I must admit I have been busy with other things but I haven
t forgotten the site, it’s important to me. I am actually in the process of transferring the blog to a new address at
https://graceandfavourtvseries.blogspot.com/
It may look slightly different but it will be the same content, just easier for me to manage. It’s live now. I hope to write up posts on all the episodes this year and anaything else I can think of. Thanks again for taking the time to comment. I’m just about to go out now but I’ll catch up with your other comments soon. Bye for now.
American who has become a fan of many of the “golden era” of Britcoms.
I have just come across your blog and was very happy to view the content that I was able to access.
You mention having put up pages for the first three episodes, but I have only been able to access the first two — through links in the left-column of the page.
I do not see any other navigation offered or search functionality to allow access to any content not otherwise linked.
I am entering this comment using the button to insert source and am not sure that it will work, as normal text entry does not function in the comment box. (My browser is a current version of Chromium).
Here’s hoping that you are able to continue this project and add to the content and functionality of your blog. Thank-you!