I've written before about my love of "Are You Being Served?" on this blog (here, here, and here). There was a spin-off series from 1992-1993 titled "Grace & Favour" in the UK and "Are You Being Served? Again!" here in the states. The surviving Grace Brothers department store staff inherited a rural hotel and began operating it in an effort to salvage what was left of their pensions. The familiar characters were joined by two country staff members: Maurice Moulterd and his daughter Mavis. Young Mavis took a shining to the much older/much gayer Mr. Humphries and this odd couple became one of the ongoing jokes of the series.
I belong to a couple different "Are You Being Served?" fan groups and there are lots of die-hard Humphries/Mavis fans out there. I'm not one of them. But I liked Mavis herself -- and I grew to like her father.
Anyway, I was watching the "Dark Autumn" episode of "Midsomer Murders" last night and suddenly noticed that one of the characters looked familiar. I pondered for a moment and suddenly realized that she was Mavis Moulterd! At least, she looked like the same actress. A quick check with IMdB and I confirmed that murder victim Debbie Shortlands was played by actress Fleur Bennett -- who is the same actress who played Mavis on "Are You Being Served? Again!"
"Dark Autumn" was filmed in 2001, so it was nearly a decade since her more prominent role. But I always love it when favorite actors show up unexpectedly somewhere else -- especially when it's not so obvious.
In the "Midsomer" episode, a local postman was found nearly decapitated while doing his rounds. We learned that he was known as a local lover-boy and had bedded many of the local wives -- including Debbie Shortlands. Who also turned out to be one of the last people who'd shared his company.
The only clue to the murderer's identity was mysterious WWII-era jazz band music playing in the background before the postman's murder. In fact, the music would play every time somebody was about to die. So run if you ever hear jazz band music in the English countryside. Seriously.
Anyway, Debbie had been hired to complete some last minute tax paperwork by one of her fellow villagers. She ended up having to skirt around the village because her direct route had been blocked by police tape. Unfortunately, that gave the killer easy access to her. And once the music began playing, there was no saving poor, poor Debbie...
Sadly, it doesn't look like Fleur Bennett has done any acting over the past decade. Which is unfortunate, because she's quite good.