Are You Being Served? (1972) - 3 questions

Question: What was the chronological order in which there were new male employees working at Gentleman's Department after others had left the show? Was it Mr. Grainger, Mr. Lucas, Mr. Tebbs, Mr. Spooner, in that order? Or was it another way and who where they replaced by?

Answer: The Gentleman's Department went as follows: Mr. Grainger left after series 5 and was replaced by Mr. Tebbs, who stayed until series 6. He was replaced by Mr. Goldberg for series 7. Meanwhile, Mr. Lucas also left in series 7. Mr. Goldberg left after series 7. Temporarily there were only two employees in the department. At the start of series 8 Mr. Spooner started working. The "third" position was filled first by Mr. Grossman then Mr. Klein. Incidentally, Young Mr. Grace stayed for the first 7 series, replaced by old Mr. Grace. Mr. Mash was on for the first 3 series, replaced by Mr. Harmon.

Question: When everyone is having the meeting about adapting their approach to customers in an American fashion. Captain Peacock says that he heard that Austin Reeds had an unusual position. What was it?

Answer: He actually said that they had an "interesting position," which doesn't refer to any job in particular but is merely a set-up for Mr. Humphries' innuendo-laden response: "That rumor's been going around for some time."

Question: Does anyone know why Wendy Richard (Ms. Brahms) is the only one not wearing blackface for the musical number at the end of the episode?

Answer: In Britain, there was the show Black and White Minstrels which was very popular until the late 70s. The men were all blacked up, but the women weren't - hence Black and White Minstrels. It's been a while since I saw the episode to know if Mrs Slocombe was blacked up as well, but technically she shouldn't have been.