Vale Mollie Sugden

I was sad to learn today that Mollie Sugden, a woman famous around the world for playing the role of pussy-referencing department store employee Mrs Slocombe on bawdy British comedy Are You Being Served, has passed away at the age of 86.

From The Guardian:

The comedy actor Mollie Sugden died today at the age of 86 after a long illness.

Yorkshire-born Sugden was best known for playing Mrs Slocombe in long-running BBC sitcom Are You Being Served?, a role later reprised for Grace and Favour. She died at the Royal Surrey hospital with her twin sons, Robin and Simon Moore, at her bedside, according to her agent Joan Reddin.

The Telegraph has published a great tribute to Mollie Sugden – here’s a brief excerpt.

Like all the best sitcoms, Are You Being Served?, first broadcast on BBC One between 1972 and 1985 and set in Grace Bros department store, drew on the venerable music hall traditions of familiar social stereotypes, heavy double entendre and jokes that could be seen advancing over the horizon from several miles away. The show benefited from strong portrayals by all its main characters, but it was Mrs Slocombe and her counterpart in menswear, the outrageously camp Mr Humphries (John Inman), who made it unmissable.

Mollie Sugden’s Mrs Slocombe was a recognisable working type – the shopworn divorcee trying to keep up appearances, defying the years with ever more lurid rinses, and returning home alone each night to her “little pussy”, to which there was always at least one reference in every show.

Ahh yes, that infamous catchphrase. Let’s watch it for old times sake, eh?

Brilliant comic timing. Reader Jasmine emailed me today and quipped “I loved her more than I loved Michael”. While it’s not a competition… I think I feel the same way.

MORE:
Mollie Sugden, comedy actor, dies aged 86
Mollie Sugden (Telegraph)

UPDATE! YOUR EDITOR IS A MORON WHO HAS HAD FOUR HOURS SLEEP! YOU CAN NOW ACTUALLY WATCH THE PROPER CLIP FEATURING MRS SLOCOMBE’S FINEST PUSSY MOMENTS!