"Captain" Stephen Peacock

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name	Frank Thornton Ball
date of birth	15 January 1921
sun (zodiac) sign	Capricorn (the Goat) - earth sign
ruling planet	Saturn
character name	"Captain" Stephen Peacock
tenure on the show	1972-1984
Peacock's status	dept. floorwalker 1972-1984

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Captain Stephen Peacock, played by Frank Thornton (actually his name is Frank Thornton Ball: that's right kids, Frank Thornton Ball...) is the department floorwalker for Ladies and Gents' Clothing at Grace Brothers, the department store in Are You Being Served? (AYBS?). Captain Peacock, though not a really lovable character ("it's his forbidding stare"), is definitely an entertaining one; thus he is consistently the third-most featured member of the Grace Brothers staff.

The reason why Captain Peacock is not so lovable is simply because he is downright sleazy: every person alive is that way to a certain extent, but Captain Peacock personifies a great exaggeration. The audience learns from Mr. Goldberg, who served in the army alongside Stephen, that Captain Peacock's true rank is Corporal, hence the quotes around the word "Captain." One might think that Corporal Peacock lied about his rank in order to help secure the job of clothing department floorwalker, no? Aside from Mr. Rumbold, the manager of the clothing department, Captain Peacock has the most seniority of all the clothing staff and he will use his rank like a weapon against others when he wants something or when he's feeling bitchy. And when HE gets bitchy, no one escapes his anger. Of course however, he always kisses up to Mr. Rumbold, the one person who has control over him. Our Stephen is a perennial grouch as well (though he lightens up as the episodes go on), always reprimanding either Mr. Lucas or Mr. Spooner for their brattiness/misconduct. Many times his reprimands are justified; many times they are not. And besides being a grouch, Steven is a stickler for protocol, which would not be a bad thing except that he breaks protocol when he has something to gain from not obeying it. His arguments with Mr. Mash and Mr. Harman all occur when THEY have fractured that protocol.

More Stephen sleaze (god, I'm making him look bad! oh well...): Stephen pretends to be the tough, macho army guy, but in fact he is not. E.g: He lies his way out of a wrestling match in "The Hero" when he could have got out of it just as easily by pointing out the fact that he never wanted to fight and that Mr. Rumbold had foisted the responsibility onto him. Hilariously enough, it is usually Mrs. Slocombe who comes through whenever Stephen chickens out, in such episodes as "Big Brother," "A Personal Problem," and "Sit Out." Yet his pretended macho-ness must be paying off, because when it's coupled with his leviathan charm, our Stephen becomes irresistible to women: these women must go after the father figure type (or is it the "grandfather figure"?)... At any rate, Stephen is a bit (actually, more than just a bit) of a Casanova at Grace Brothers (he's been dubbed The Red Shadow and like Mr. Lucas has been called the Robert Redford of Ready-Mades) and he has either hit on or had dalliances with many women, including Miss Brahms and even Mrs. Slocombe (back in 1964). Consequently, his wife is understandably paranoid about her hubby and Stephen ends up "paying for his dilettanting" (whether or not it's real or just imagined by his wife) in episodes like "Oh What a Tangled Web," "A Personal Problem," and "Grounds for Divorce."

So what exactly makes Captain Peacock a popular character if he has a personality that leaves much to be desired? Well, the main reason is that Stephen is very laughter-making all by himself. His awesome eyebrows (not really awesome as in "cool" but awesome as in "awe-inspiring") are extremely mobile and they always manage to make Stephen's expressions of anger and/or shock extremely hilarious. Of course, the huge bags under his eyes and the droll mustache help to increase the laughter value. His wit is as sharp as his "forbidding stare" and we're entertained, if not really admiring of, the way he acts and the way he gets the schtuff he wants. It's especially hilarious when Stephen goes out of character, like in "Grounds for Divorce" where he dons some unorthodox garb, and it's extremely funny whenever we see Stephen getting his comeuppance for his snobbishness and/or miscellaneous disagreeable actions (like in "A Bliss Girl" where he is temporarily demoted or in "The Old Order Changes" where Mr. Rumbold quite refreshingly tells Stephen to get stuffed). Moreover, even if Stephen's personality is not the best, he does have his moments, such as in "Closed Circuit" when he devises a plan to try to hook Miss Brahms up with Lord Hirly, and "Mrs. Slocombe Expects" where he forgives Mrs. Slocombe for breaking store rules after taking a look at a bunch of kawaii kittens. Captain Peacock is closest, friendship-wise, to Mr. Grainger; aside from Mr. Grainger Stephen is not that close to the other staff members. Even though Captain Peacock and Mrs. Slocombe had a thing going in the past, they now have a love-hate relationship and they are always getting into arguments, usually over the point-of-sale display models which Captain Peacock approves for use in Mrs. Slocombe's department and which Mrs. Slocombe inevitably rejects for their "common"-ness.

And there you have it... "Captain" Stephen Peacock: the flirtatious floorwalker with the forbidding stare!