With one raised hand and a perfectly pitched “I’m free!,” John Inman turned a simple catchphrase from Are You Being Served? into a defining moment of British television. As Mr. Wilberforce Clayborne Humphries, Inman created one of the earliest openly effeminate (and unmistakably queer-coded) characters on mainstream TV — in an era when visibility of any kind was rare, risky, and often discouraged.
Debuting in 1972, his cheerful “I’m free!”— originally an innocent sales-floor line — became a cultural wink heard around the world. For LGBTQ viewers, especially those watching quietly at home, Inman offered something revolutionary: camp, confidence, and a character who refused to apologize for who he was.
