You Rang, M'Lord?
– You Rang M'Lord? is a British comedy series written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, the creators of ..
You Rang M'Lord? is a British comedy series written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, the creators of Dad's Army, It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Hi-de-Hi! It was broadcast between 1990 and 1993 on the BBC. The show was a comedy set in the house of an aristocratic family in the 1920s, contrasting the upper-class family and their servants in a house in London, along the same lines as the popular drama Upstairs, Downstairs.
The series featured many actors who had also appeared in their earlier series, notably Paul Shane, Jeffrey Holland and Su Pollard, all of whom had previously been in Perry and Croft's holiday camp sitcom, Hi-de-Hi!. Also featured were Donald Hewlett and Michael Knowles from Perry and Croft's It Ain't Half Hot Mum, and Bill Pertwee and occasionally Frank Williams from Dad's Army. The memorable 1920s-style theme tune was sung by Bob Monkhouse.
Episodes of You Rang M'Lord? were fifty minutes long, rather than the usual thirty, and attempted to introduce a more reflective approach and more complex plotting than other Croft and Perry series. There was also less reliance on filmed location sequences.
29 Dec 1988
English
Paul Shane, Jeffrey Holland, Su Pollard, Donald Hewlett
This show is set in the year 1927. Lord Meldrum is a wealthy widower and he owns a rubber factory. He lives with his brother Teddy, mother in law Lady Lavender and two daughters, Poppy and Cissy. Meldrum is having an affair with Lady Agatha, wife of his rival Sir Ralph. He is trying to persuade Teddy to marry a socialite Madge Cartwright, but Teddy fancies servant girls more than the upper class ladies so he's reluctant to marry Madge. Poppy is a flapper who often flirts with the servant James. She's very different from her sister Cissy - in appearance as well as in attitude. Cissy fancies women more than men, she wears male clothes and is a member of the workers movement and a workers political party. Lady Lavender is extravagant, she owns a parrot and likes to throw food at servants. The servants live downstairs and they consist of Mrs. Lipton, the cook; James, a stuck up and snobbish servant; Henry, the youngest servant who usually gets kicked behind the ear by James or Mrs. Lipton. The butler Stokes was the last to join the servants, with his daughter Ivy, the maid. He is shady and despises the rich. During the WWI, he and James were in the trenches with Teddy. They saved his life and on account of that, Stokes gets the position of a butler upon his arrival at the house. The lowest ranked amongst the servants is poor Mable, the washing lady. She doesn't live with Meldrums.