Stephanie Reeve (née Gathercole) is an English actress.
Primarily active in the theatre, she is best remembered today for her work on Are You Being Served?, in which she played Mr. Rumbold's unnamed secretary for five episodes. Reeve also provided the voice of the "lift girl," or elevator operator as they were called in the United States, used in the series theme, and hence narrated the theme text. Are You Being Served? was her first, and also her only, break into television. For a short period in the late 1960s Stephanie taught at Fairchildes Girls' School in Croydon, until concentrating full time on her then-fledgling acting career. At first she wanted to call herself Stephanie Cole, but she discovered that there was already another actress who used that name.
A native of Croydon, Stephanie returned to teaching after giving up acting.
The titles narration which Gathercole-Reeve, in lift-girl character, provided for the theme text reads as follows:
- "Ground floor: Perfumery, stationery, and leather goods, wigs and haberdashery, kitchenware and food. Going up....
- "First floor: Telephones, gents' ready-made suits, shirts, socks, ties, hats, underwear, and shoes. Going up....
- "Second floor: Carpets, travel goods, and bedding, materials, soft furnishings, restaurants, and teas. Going down....
- "First floor: Telephones, gents' ready-made suits, shirts, socks, ties, hats, underwear, and shoes. Going down....
- "Ground floor: Perfumery, stationery, and leather goods, wigs and haberdashery, kitchenware and food. Going up...."
Though this was not officially stated, the contents of this narration could be presumed to describe the floor-by-floor layout of Grace Brothers, the fictitious department store upon whose second floor most of the instalments of Are You Being Served? were situated.
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