John Inman, who died this morning. Photograph: Samantha Pearce/PA
About a year ago, Jon Savage sent me a CD he'd compiled of gay music from the early 50s to the mid-70s, when disco briefly blasted the closet door off and made gay culture almost mainstream. Not restricted by copyright laws (unlike the still-brilliant official version that came out last June), Queer Noises included such lairy delights as the Rolling Stones' Cocksucker Blues, the Tornadoes' Joe Meek-produced Do You Come Here Often and the New York Dolls' Trash. Towards the end was Are You Being Served?, a single released by John Inman that got to the dizzy heights of number 39 in October 1975 - and the news that Inman had died at 4am this morning made me listen to it again.
Described by the late gay journalist and activist Kris Kirk as "a comedy record that isn't remotely funny", Are You Being Served? encapsulates everything that was loved and hated about Jon Inman's character Mr Humphries in the sitcom of the same name. Starting with his catchphrase "I'm free!" the song sees Humphries demonstrating his sales technique in the menswear section of Grace Brothers, the department store where the show was set. The Fast Show's "suits you, sir" tailors had nothing on Mr Humphries: to a light jazz accompaniment, Inman delivers lines such as "If you'd like some swimming trunks, we've got them pale or spotty/We've also got some see-through, that really tan your..." then a voice, meant to be a lift attendant, announces "beachwear!" "Oh these are gay, I've got some round the back," continues Inman. "And if you want a bit of flash, then try a plastic mac!"
I have to say that Are You Being Served? - both the record and the series, which was huge when I was growing up, running from 1972 to 1985 - does make me laugh, although Mr Humphries undoubtedly perpetuated all the stereotypes of what gays (like me) are supposed to be. Mr Humphries is mincing and predatory, simultaneously pathetic - he lives with his mother - and a source of some fear (at the end of Are You Being Served the song he's trapped the customer in the changing room with goes: "I'm sorry that this fitting room is rather dark and chilly/Just try these on and mind that zip, in case you catch your..." "Sportswear!"). The writers Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft did their best to post-rationalise Humphries in the face of justifiable anger by gay activists, by saying that Humphries was never meant to be gay but just a mother's boy (as if). I seem to remember that Inman also cited the BBC as once ordering Croft to "get rid of the poof", to which Croft replied "if the poof goes, I go" - perhaps he was making the argument that Mr Humphries was at least improving gay visibility. Although was this the kind of representation the still-fledgling gay rights movement could have done without?
It's easy to trace the TV legacy of John Inman. Both he and the equally camp Larry Grayson, who presented the Generation Game around the same time, undoubtedly set a template for the gay man on telly, and to my mind it's only incredibly recently that we've arrived at gay TV presenters who can be funny without the punchline automatically being who they go to bed with - Simon Amstell is probably the best example. It'll be interesting to see whether his death and the many years since Are You Being Served means that Inman is rehabilitated as a positive influence in gay culture and history. Though I'll still laugh at Mr Humphries (I've got a soft spot for Lloyd and Croft's comedies), I kind of hope not.
