In the 1970s and early 1980s, there was a massively popular BBC sitcom called Are You Being Served, about the “antics” of the staff of the Grace Brothers department store. It was watched by millions, and ran for 13 years.
One of the main characters was Mary Elizabeth Jennifer Rachel Abergavenny “Betty” Slocombe – that’s Mrs Slocombe to you.
She was played by the magnificent Mollie Sugden, a woman of a certain age who was a popular fixture on TV at the time.
Mrs Slocombe was devoted to her cat, Tiddles. She would regale her colleagues each day with tales of its various misfortunes, and was always keen to finish work on time to get home and attend to its catly needs.
She rarely called the moggy by its proper name, though – it was always referred to as “my pussy”.
Yes, that’s right. “My pussy”.
I mean that’s barely a single entendre, never mind a double.
Looking back at Mrs Slocombe’s stories about her pussy now, it’s hard not to gasp with delight at just how unashamedly filthy they were. The fact she always called her pussy “it” instead of “he” only made it better/worse.
You WOULD NOT get away with this kind of thing “nowadays”.
Which is a bit rubbish really.
But hey, at least we have our memories of lines like this.
The writers, Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, got more brazen as time went on. This line is from an episode where the staff of Grace Brothers were seconded to the toy department to demonstrate mechanical dogs.
I mean, really.
So that’s the story of Mrs Slocombe’s Pussy.
And I am unanimous in that.
