Mr. Humphries is never elaborated upon. Though Mr. Humphries exhibits many of the behaviors typical of a gay stereotype, his true sexual orientation is never explicitly confirmed in the series. The reticence was a necessity given prevailing attitudes at the time the series was produced: after the first five episodes of "Are You Being Served?", a senior BBC executive ordered David Croft to "Get rid of the poof" from the show – Croft declined, saying: "If the poof goes, I go." Many jokes throw Mr Humphries into heterosexual clinches. At one point he is asked to fill in for Mrs. Slocombe at
Mr. Humphries contain much discussion over the possibility of Mr. Humphries being promoted to senior sales assistant when Mr. Grainger retires, later seasons have him exclusively as a junior, albeit still senior to Mr. Lucas or Mr. Spooner. Sometimes, this failure to promote is explained when the new junior seems to be more adept at sales than he (such as Mr. Goldberg) and is thus promoted in his place, but in other cases, it is unexplained. From a narrative perspective, the writers had trouble promoting Mr. Humphries because the character seems to work best trapped in the middle of everything, rather than