Few situation comedies have aroused such loyal affection in television viewers as Are You Being Served?And no character was more beloved than the irrepressibly camp Mr Humphries, played by John Inman. From the moment in 1972 that Inman was asked to appear in a pilot episode for the show, his days as a struggling actor were over. The series ran for a dozen years and was regularly watched by half of Britain. It was later a cult success in the US.

Originally, the show’s writers, David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, envisaged it as another ensemble piece in the same vein as Croft’s previous hit Dad’s Army. The humour was to arise not so much from plot as from the interaction between staff of the old-fash-ioned Grace Brothers department store. No single character was meant to dominate, certainly not Mr Humphries. Wilberforce Clayborne Humphries was originally conceived only as the kindly mentor to the handsome new boy, Mr Lucas (played by Trevor Bannister), who had top billing. Inman also had to compete with strong performances from the better-known Mollie Sugden as Mrs Slocombe, Frank Thornton as Captain Peacock and Wendy Richard as the glamorous Miss Brahms.

But it was Inman that audiences took to. Every time he delivered his catchphrase, “I’m free”, in his singsong voice, or minced across the set, he received such a tremendous laugh that his character was written up some more. In due course he became the focus of much of the comedy.

One reason family audiences loved him was for his warmth. Mr Humphries was affectionate and seemed genuinely pleased to see everyone. Another was his fondness for atrocious puns and double entendres.

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Unlike some less talented comic actors, who complained about being linked with one role, Inman was refreshingly grateful to be known, ever afterwards, as Mr Humphries. “He’s what people expect of me, and he’s what I do best,” he said.

Though perenially trim, Inman was pushing 40 when he joined the series after a long apprenticeship in theatre. He was born in Preston, the son of a hairdresser. Later the family moved to Blackpool and ran an eight-bedroom boarding house. “I was quite a peculiar child, with an obsession for making frocks rather than playing football,” he said.

Educated privately at a former girls’ school, Claridge House in Preston, and then at a secondary modern, Inman left school at 15 to work in a local outfitters called Fox’s. He showed a talent for window dressing and progressed to arranging displays at Austin Reed in Manchester.

His real ambition, though, was to act. He had been hooked on the bright lights ever since seeing Charlie Chester perform, and when he was 13 he made his debut in a play, Freda, on the South Pier Pavilion, Blackpool. He got a job as the South Pier’s dogsbody, sweeping up and making tea, and played farce in summer shows. But his slight, boyish build and gap teeth did not lend themselves to many parts.

It was pantomime, for which Inman’s camp mannerisms were well suited, that gave him a break. After playing one of the ugly sisters in Cinderella at Coventry, he turned professional, and in 1972 his friend David Croft sent him the BBC Comedy Playhouse script for a pilot episode of Are You Being Served?

This was based on Jeremy Lloyd’s experiences of working as a salesman at Simpson’s in Piccadilly Circus. “It was a great cast. I was the only one in it I’d never heard of,” Inman said. In the pilot episode the Mr Humphries character, who had only three lines to speak, was conceived as a rather shabby man. Croft, as a favour, suggested that his friend could “camp him up a bit”.

The pilot was followed by five more episodes in 1973: “I think those shows went out against Coronation Street, so nobody saw them. Some months later they were repeated on Friday night and they rocketed away,” Inman recalled.

Even so, the show had its teething problems and during the second series a group meeting was called, after which the writers and cast decided to go for smuttier puns. The new formula pleased British audiences, who never seemed to tire of hearing jokes about Mrs Slocombe’s pussy. Croft would ask: “Dare we do that?” and Inman would reply: “David, you have created a monster. You have to let him go.”

Mr Humphries was the sartorial butterfly of the department, beautifully turned out with matching silk tie and handkerchief. After a lifetime dedicated to measuring inside legs, he was expert in all the salesman’s tricks.

Inman camped up the character for all he was worth. It was he who invented Mr Humphries’ innuendo-laden catchphrase — “I’m free” — which has remained instantly recognisable. He also developed the trademark Mr Humphries walk, an effeminate bustle, one hand poised on hip, the other fluttering in mid-air. The fledgeling gay liberation movement did not immediately see the joke, demanding that Inman be removed from the series. But as stereotypes were broken down over the years, the series became cult viewing for some in the gay community.

Inman briefly left the show, when he was offered his own sitcom on ITV, Odd Man Out, in 1977. But that was not a success, and in 1978 a conciliatory BBC asked him to return, which he did. He also made two pop records: Are You Being Served? and The Teddy Bears Picnic in 1975, and in 1977 he and the rest of the cast made a film of the show.

When the series ended in 1985 Inman returned to the boards to play pantomime dames, and continued until he fell ill in 2004. Inman, who designed all his own costumes, took playing dames seriously, and was committed to the art of panto.

“There’s nowhere else in the world that this blend of music-hall, slapstick and so much more could flourish and we should be very proud of pantomime,” he said in 1997. His cartoon-like acting style influenced later shows such as Little Britain.

In 1992 the Grace Brothers team reunited for a follow-up sitcom, Grace and Favour, set in a hotel. The show was dropped after its second series.

But Are You Being Served? became an unexpected hit in the US, as popular with conservative Southerners as with liberal West Coasters. Along with other members of the cast, Inman was dispatched on pro-motional tours and was mobbed in New York.

For the past 30 years, Inman lived in a mews house near the canal in Little Venice, West London, despite a fire in 2004. After a lifetime of living in hotel bedrooms, he enjoyed leading a life of quiet, domestic routine.

Inman was a private man who did not like talking about his sexuality, but in 2005 he entered into a civil partnership with his partner of 35 years, Ron Lynch.

John Inman, actor, was born on June 28, 1935. He died of complications arising from hepatitis A on March 8, 2007, aged 71