"are you free humphries" "im free" he was one of the comic geniouses that made up the show are you being sreved and if your who i think you are im no in the least suprised that you dont know who he is
Oh, this sparked off a huge variety of emotions for me.....being very old, I remember Are You Being Served on it;s first run. I recognised something about Mr Humphries that I saw in myself but was way too young to understand what it was. Once I worked out what it was, I went through this terrible love/hate thing. Yes, I understood what he was, but I was terrified as he was the only gay role model there was on TV at the time and I hoped to god(s) that I wasn't going to 'be like him'. I hated the stereotype he perpetuated.
I once visited a friend who still lived with her Mum, she'd been told I was gay and after a pleasant afternoon drinking tea and eating cakes (terribly civilised) I excused myself to go to the toilet......I heard my friends mum utter the immortal line 'Are you sure he's gay? He's not a bit like Mr Humphries!' Hurrah! Validation!
Then I grew up.
I had the good fortune to meet John about 6-7 years ago (maybe longer.....god it probably was!) and I told him of my Humphries trauma. We wept with laughter, I got called a silly sod. What a lovely man.
awww i agree lol he was a stereotype however he was the only gay rolemodel so there fore who ever the first charichter had been would surely be the stereotype. or maybe it was an attempt by the beeb to make us feel validated i loved his campness wish i could have met him.
