English actor and comedian John Inman was BOTD in 1935. Born in Preston, Lancashire, he was raised in Blackpool where his mother ran a boarding house and his father ran a hairdressing business. Like many young homosexuals, he enjoyed dressmaking and amateur dramatics, and began acting in music hall productions in his teens. After leaving school, he became a department store window dresser and later joined a touring theatre company as a scenic artist. He made his professional acting debut in the 1960s, appearing largely in musical comedies and pantomimes. After small roles in television sitcoms, in 1972 he was cast as Mr Humphries in Are You Being Served, a raucous sex comedy set in an upscale department store. Asked by the show’s creators David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd to “camp it up”, he created the definitive portrait of a pre-liberation “pansy”, adopting a mincing walk, effeminate gestures and limp flapping wrists, a high-pitched voice and a signature innuendo-laden catchphrase, “I’m Free!” In keeping with the cultural rules of sissydom, Mr Humphries was never expressly identified as gay, described instead as a “mother’s boy” and apparently without a sex life. The show became an international success, attracting up to 22 million viewers at its peak in 1979, running for ten series and including a 1977 film. Beloved by straight audiences, Inman was criticised by gay activists for perpetuating negative stereotypes about homosexuality. He released a series of music singles as Mr Humphries in the 1970s, and participated in a series of remakes with diminishing returns, including the excruciating reunion series Grace & Favour in 1992. He had small roles in the films The Tall Guy and Shakespeare in Love and made occasional appearances on stage and television shows. Inman never spoke publicly about his sexuality, but was in a 33-year relationship with Ron Lynch, entering into a civil partnership in 2005. He died in 2007 aged 71. His legacy continues to be controversial, though his sissy persona was adopted by generations of younger TV performers, notably Julian Clary in Terry and Julian and James Dreyfus in Gimme Gimme Gimme.