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Captain Stephen Peacock
Tve17101-84-23
Are You Being Served?
& Grace and Favour
Portrayed by Frank Thornton
Duration 1972–1985; 1992–1993
First appearance Are You Being Served? (1972)
Last appearance Grace and Favour (1993)
Created by Jeremy Lloyd
David Croft
Profile
Occupation Floor Walker

Captain Stephen Peacock is a fictional character from the BBC One comedy show, Are You Being Served?. He is played by Frank Thornton, who went on to take the popular role of Truly in Last of the Summer Wine. Thornton appeared in the 2010 documentary of the show due to him being one of the few remaining actors from the show.

Role[]

Mr. Peacock is an extremely arrogant floor supervisor, referred to then as 'floorwalker' in English department stores, and former military Captain. He is often rude to staff,acting like a complete stuffed shirt the majority of the time. Even when kind, his aforementioned rudeness returns by the end of each uttered sentence. He is also very insecure in work matters concerning position, and his leering behavior towards most women makes him quite a despicable character.

Member of the elite Commando unit, on two occasions he admits he was in the Royal Army Service Corps (logistics). By 1975 he has been working at Grace Brothers for 20 years.[1]

Captain Peacoc He considers himself above the assistants with both his position and his dubious military record; he likes to brag about his experiences fighting Rommel in North Africa. Mr. Mash likes to tell the staff that Peacock served in the NAAFI instead, and probably didn't ever leave England, and Mr. Goldberg hints that Peacock's real rank was a Corporal.[N 1] Allegedly, despite his rank, Peacock began as a sweeper in the stockroom.

His behavior with other women in the store is disgusting, and would be considered sexual harassment today. He is not physically attractive, which makes his alleged success with women dubious. It is heavily implied in several episodes that Captain Peacock has had dalliances with women outside of his marriage, mostly with ladies from the store such as the secretaries working for Mr. Rumbold (in particular Miss Belfridge). He has also been known to cast his eye towards Miss Brahms (who has referenced his attempts at seduction during office parties). He has even been known to flirt with Mrs. Slocombe occasionally (though this is the exception rather than the rule, as usually it is Mrs. Slocombe who uses her charms on him when she wants something). These situations have often gotten Captain Peacock into both marital and professional trouble (usually as the extremely jealous Mrs. Peacock often confronts him while he's at work), but due to his quick wit he is usually able to work his way out of both situations.

Captain Peacock generally tends to have a hate-hate relationship with whoever is the junior in the menswear department; both Mr. Lucas and Mr. Spooner have gotten the sharp end of his tongue (as their more carefree, relaxed attitude towards work clashes with his more professional demeanor). He rarely clashes with Mr. Humphries, having told him at one point that he considered him to be an excellent salesman; however he had no qualms about stating the case against Mr. Humphries in Conduct Unbecoming when it appeared Mr. Humphries had embezzled money. He often clashes with the head of the menswear department, whether that be Mr. Grainger, Mr. Klein, Mr. Tebbs or Mr. Goldberg, usually over a matter that involves the menswear department having to share floor or counter space with the ladies' department. He also irritated Mr. Grainger whenever anything involving a promotion or the company boardroom was mentioned; Mr. Grainger would become jealous as he had been at the store longer, while Peacock seemed to relish the opportunity to reinforce his senior position.

Grace and Favour[]

Frank Thornton reprised the role of Captain Peacock for the spin-off show, Grace and Favour, in 1992.

Notes[]

  1. Mr Lucus had earlier described him as 'Corporal, later Captain, Stephen Peacock' when calling him up for his anecdote during the 'This is your Department' event in Founder's Day[2]

Sources[]

  1. "I'm Free! - The Complete Are You Being Served?". Orion Books. 1999. 
  2. "Founder's Day". Are You Being Served?. 1977-03-11. No. 3, season 5.

External links[]

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