Cuthbert Rumbold

---

name	Nicholas Smith
character name	Cuthbert Rumbold
tenure on the show	1972-1984
Rumbold's status	dept. manager 1972-1984
catchphrases	"glad I've found you all together" "I've just come from a board meeting which we held in the boardroom..." "I don't think we can afford that..."

---

Cuthbert Rumbold, played by Nicholas Smith, is the department manager for Ladies and Gent's Clothing in Grace Brothers Department store. Are You Being Served? (AYBS?) fans know little about him as he is the least featured, if highest ranking, member of his department.

Cuthbert is a hilarious character (hilarious in that people laugh at him and not with him...), but not an admirable one. He consistently kisses up to Mr. Grace (both of them), who is the one person with more rank than him in the show, and who has dubbed Cuthbert as "The Crawler." Mr. Rumbold consistently gleans the good ideas of his staff during staff think tank meetings, and then blithely takes all the credit for them: it's as if it's second nature for him to do so. The only times Mr. Rumbold credits an idea to the rightful person is when he or Mr. Grace thinks the idea is a bad one. Cuthbert is also a very tactless person, offending people right and left. One can forgive Mr. Rumbold for his tactlessness though, because he is totally clueless and usually doesn't realize what he's doing (it is probably this cluelessness, innate or not, which makes it so easy for him to take credit for the ideas of others). In fact, our Cuthbert prides himself on his tact and sensitivity! It is his cluelessness which causes hilarious misinterpretations whenever the staff meet in his office to voice complaints, and which ensures that such meetings don't accomplish a thing. Mr. Rumbold is truly the manager of managers! ^_^

Mr. Rumbold is VERY frequently laughed at, for his beacon-like bald head, his massive "jug ears," and his general "hideous" visage. ^_^ Cuthbert is also subject to rather "messy" jokes: he gets hot water poured over him in "Monkey Business"; he gets cream, sugar, AND a cake dumped on him in "Shedding the Load"; he gets slathered with paste in "The Club"; and he gets custard-in-the-face in "Memories Are Made of This." Nicholas Smith (the actor) is also an accomplished piano player (as well as being an accordion player) and many times we see Mr. Rumbold (Smith's character) playing the piano when he and his department are involved in a music-related production (cf. such episodes as "Top Hat and Tails," "Happy Returns," "The Punch and Judy Affair," and "Roots?"). In fact, Nicholas Smith himself composed some of the music used in various episodes of AYBS?

An interesting thing to note is that throughout the run of AYBS?, Mr. Rumbold had a plethora of beautiful secretaries; yet he never noticed any of them and remained faithful to his rather plain, big, and loud wife. One might attribute this phenomenon to Cuthbert's general cluelessness.

In short, Mr. Rumbold may not be the most likeable character, but he can be one of the most hilarious, and although it's a depressing observation in integrity he is no worse than many humans.