Mollie Sugden RIP

My mother used to think that some people got a rough ride from the media when it came to the timing of their death. When JFK was assassinated every was talking about it, quite naturally. But C.S.Lewis also died on the same day, 22nd November 1963, and he seemed to be overlooked. My mother used to remind people that Lewis died on the same day as the American president, as if to right a supposed injustice.

Mollie Sugden died yesterday and I thought about whether she would be overshadowed by Michael Jackson's death. I fear she might be as not much has been said. As a fan of hers, not just through Are You Being Served? but from other memorable appearances, I am doing my part in remembering her well. Mollie was the best English actress who could make saucy innuendo sound utterly acceptable. She was capable of all manner of expressions. She was the ultimate funny woman. I think her greatest accomplishment was not that she was appreciated by the British public, which she was, but that she offered Americans the chance to appreciate and laugh at things that the networks deprived them of. Being told by American friends that Are You Being Served? was a special favourite of theirs told be something about how well her humour travelled.

Goodbye Mollie!