Are You Being Served? the first series on 14 March 1973. Although the first series was aired in the same timeslot as "Coronation Street" on ITV, consequently receiving relatively little attention, the repeats shown later in the year were much more successful. The show became a ratings hit, and after a successful 13-year run, "Are You Being Served?" came to an end on 1 April 1985. Of the original cast, only Frank Thornton, Mollie Sugden, John Inman, Wendy Richard and Nicholas Smith appeared in all 69 episodes of the programme's 13-year run; these five later featured in the sequel sitcom, "Grace & Favour" (also
Last of the Summer Wine themes from "Last of the Summer Wine". Ronnie Hazlehurst used the resulting list for an independently released CD collection titled "Last of the Summer Wine: Music from the TV Show". BBC Radio released audio-only versions of episodes starting in 1995. Peter Sallis provided narration to compensate for the loss of the televised visual elements. All twelve audio episodes were released in CD format. In 1976, a selection of early scripts from the series was published as "Last of the Summer Wine Scripts". A companion guide to the show, "Last of the Summer Wine: The Finest Vintage", was released in 2000.