Billing Bewilderment

[One-Legged Tapdancer]

I always thought the order the actors are listed in the credits was kind of interesting. Sometimes it's logical, sometimes illogical, sometimes inconsistent, and sometimes a bit unfair.

Let's start with the pilot, where the billing order goes:
Trevor, Mollie, Frank, Arthur, John, Wendy, Nicholas. Larry Martyn and Harold Bennett are billed in the credits, but do not get as "curtain call".

The weirdest thing here is that Arthur Brough (Grainger) gets billed fourth, above Humphries, which implies that Grainger was originally intended to be a much more prominent character than he turned out to be. Maybe they'd planned to focus more on the Slocombe/Grainger rivalry than they finally did.

This didn't last long, because by the very next episode, it's:
Mollie, Trevor, Frank, John, Wendy, Arthur, Nicholas.

Arthur Brough has been shunted down to sixth, behind Miss Brahms, and I believe he remains there for the rest of the time he is on the show. This seems a bit unfair for him, as he and Miss Brahms are about equally prominent characters most of the time, and Grainger probably got more character development than Miss Brahms ever did.

Mollie and Trevor alternate top billing about equally for the next few years, without much regard to who was featured more in any episode. They should have let Arthur and Wendy switch places every so often, too.

John Inman, who at this point in the series is mainly a second banana to Trevor Bannister, is in fourth place after the pilot. Even as he becomes a more prominent character, he doesn't enjoy a rise to power billing-wise until after Arthur Brough leaves.

Following the pilot, Larry Martyn and Harold Bennet do get to appear on-screen along with their name credit, billed after Nicholas Smith, except in "His and Hers". In that episode, Joanna Lumley appears before Larry Martyn, making it the only time, I think, that a guest star was billed above a regular. It might have happened just because Mr. Mash and Mr. Grace were not appearing in every episode as of yet.

I don't want to go on for too long about this at once, so I'll add more later if we get some discussion going on this.

[Red Shadow]

I've noticed this too, OTL. Sometimes the order in which actors are listed is hard to figure-out. The ironic thing is that I've just finished my fanfic, and I was dealing with the same dilemma just before logging on to the board. Who do I list first, second, third, etc.?

[Melchett]

Interesting observation. I too have wondered about the order. I remember reading that when the series first launched, it was intended to revolve around Mr. Lucas and his dealing with the establishment and class rankings. Characters like Mr. Humphries were intended to be side or supporting characters. The whole idea came from one of the show's creators' time working in a big department store, so it was intended to reflect his experiences.

Of course we all know how the show quickly evolved to a more ensemble show and then to the "Mollie and John Show" in later years.

I think this is why Trevor got top billing initially but that changed pretty quickly.

[One-Legged Tapdancer]

Yeah, I guess the gradual shift in focus to Mr. Humphries happened because of the writers' running out of their own experiences to base episodes around.

Some more things:

I don't think there was a single episode where Frank Thornton wasn't billed third. I'm probably mistaken. So when John Inman started becoming one of the star players, it meant a big drop for Trevor...he had to go straight to fourth (which is where John was). Because it's so consistent, I wonder if this was something contractual for Frank. Maybe a compromise for not getting to be top-billed, even though a lot of the time he wasn't any less of a star than Trevor, Mollie, or John.

The only senior salesman to get billed above Wendy Richard was Alfie "Couldn't you make my part a little bigger?" Bass. If they had made his part bigger, they might've had to knock Trevor down to fifth place!

Say what you will about Mike Berry, it doesn't quite seem right for him to be billed after Mr. Harman. I would think if you were out on the shop floor the whole time, you ought to be billed above occasional visitors like Rumbold and Harman. If seniority rules, why didn't James Hayter and Alfie Bass get billed after Arthur English as well?

[Lucas The Tucas]

It seems like who ever had the biggest roles, came in first & second.

Peacock was third about 62-65 0f the eppies.

Yes, there are a few where he wasn't #3. :lol:

He must have had it in his contract. :yes:


Wendy didn't seem to crack the top 4.


:lucas01:

[Greg WibblyWobbly]

I've always wondered if it had to do with the number of actual spoken lines ?

[Goldie]

I've always wondered if it had to do with the number of actual spoken lines ?
That's run through my mind as well.

[Lady Stableforth]

:fairpussy: