Having found at my favourite op-shop a 50-cent-DVD of "Are you being served?", I'd convinced myself that this was one of the shows that attracted such large crowds that it was standing-room only in Barton House's TV Lounge in the 60s.
And yet, Wikipedia tells me this is chronologically impossible as "Are you being served?" wasn't screened until the 70s by which time I had left the boarding house in Canberra for a construction camp in New Guinea where there was rumble in the jungle but no television at the time.
Still, the catchcries "Are you being served?" and "Are you free?" stayed with me, as did the image of Mr Humphries. Back then, I didn't know the difference between a homosexual and a homophone and always thought it was Mr Humphries' diction when people talked about his rolling r's.
Now the government is spending $122 million to explain the difference. How times have changed!
