The two hosts are engaging and welcoming which is quite nice. They have created their own AYBS community on social media which is a good thing as AYBS deserves a place where the fans can geek about the show. Admittedly for me Mr. Jeff and Mr. Brandon’s personalities are a bit of a mixed bag for me to listen to constantly while binging their show.
Mr. Jeff brings a ton of fact drops and local color to the show, helping understand some of the Cockney slang that the writers used on the series. Sometimes that’s a welcome thing and the show can veer off on a long tangent to discuss various factoids. Sometimes it can feel a bit tedious when you’re just wanting to have the hosts get back to the show and stop deep diving so much that they will end up in China.
Mr. Brandon, over time, became a personality that had me nearly yelling at my phone. While he in no way is a horrible person and tends to be the comic relief of the show (sometimes to great effect but most times I found him not so much) Mr. Brandon tends to be an acquired taste. Most times Mr. Jeff might say something to him and Mr. Brandon has no clue of a reference to the show he might make leaving me floored. He can also go on tangents that take up quite a lot of the episode running time. He brings the “sass and swagger” of the two and for me it got very old and tired even though I still kept plowing through episodes in an effort to finally give the overall show a chance. Sometimes though Mr. Brandon can be a little too much for me. Again as hosts they are very welcoming and wonderful but I find myself sometimes being frustrated when Mr. Brandon will confuse a line or not remember who did what or said what or so on. He seems to have a bit more of a “fly by the seat of his pants” feeling in the way he shares on the show but for me growing up with the show and nearly memorizing episodes because of how much I’d watch them as a kid, it frustrates me a bit more than I expected. Also do not do a drinking game for how often he calls Mr. Humphries cute. You will be drunk and under the table on some episodes. The phrase “it’s so cute” will be uttered so many times, sometimes not even referring to Mr. Humphries, so brace yourself for a cuteness overload apparently.
After listening to the entire podcast one thing that is definitely a negative is it could be evergreen content. Are You Being Served? has been around for about 50 years now so for fans it can be a place to go to whenever you’re stressed or need a pick me up, just watch an episode of the series for a good laugh or just to escape life for a bit. The hosts of the podcast, recording it in 2020 during quarantine, mire it in current events which, 4 years later, I’d rather not have to listen to each episode to get to the actual show and reason I want to listen. They do the same in their “get out and vote” messages each episode. I understand it’s their perspective to put that in there to motivate the fan base, but 4 years later from where things were then it only brings more real world into my hope for escaping it by listening to a podcast talk about a show I adore. And yes it only adds to the pain of the 2024 election to hear them be happy Biden won in 2020 when I know we took a huge step backward only 4 years later. I understand the hosts wanted to have a space where they can put their message out to listeners, but I truly believe this isn’t the place to do it. If you want to really deep dive into topics that you’re passionate about besides the namesake and reason to make this podcast, then by all means do a show that addresses those issues. After a while I found myself fast forwarding 15 minutes into an episode just to hear the actual reason I’m trying to listen.
On the positive side I want to say that their final regular episode where they wrap up the series was quite well done and incredibly informative. As someone who has been on more than a few podcasts, hearing their story of starting their show and learning as they went along was actually quite interesting. Giving the listeners tips and some advice based on their own learning as they recorded was quite nice. The show is nicely produced and when you hear their methods on the behind the scenes of how they created each episode, I can truly say it was one of the best episodes of the show, leaving the listeners with an open door to create something of their own to offer up if they are passionate about anything the way these two hosts are passionate for Are You Being Served? Based on that episode alone I do have to say in all honesty “You’ve all done very well,” as you closed out your show.
