'Allo 'Allo!

David Croft has to be seen as one of the greatest British comedy writers ever. He was the writer for 'Dad's Army', 'It Ain't Half Hot, Mum' and 'Are You Being Served?'. Although not as good as 'Dad's Army', 'Allo 'Allo' is a fine piece of work. Set in war-time France, this show made use of stereotypes of Germans, Frenchmen and Brits. Gorden Kaye gave a tremendous portrayal of unwilling hero, Rene, but the fine cast doesn't stop there. Carmen Silvera (Edith), Guy Siner (Gruber) and the fantastic Arthur Bostrom (Crabtree) also played their parts well. The show was 'Carry On'-esque, unashamedly camp and full of sexual innuendo. I think it is impossible not to hear Crabtree with his customary greeting of 'Good Moaning!', without laughing. Demand from the American market saw the series stretched a bit further than it could manage, but 'Allo 'Allo recovered. The repeats are certainly worth watching.

This show was a staple in Saturday night entertainment here in Norway from the mid 1980's and up into the late 1990's, and considering most of them were re-runs, I in the end felt almost persecuted by this show (would they EVER stop sending that show on Saturday??). It was funny but never THAT funny, or at least so I thought, because when I got into my twenties and the show vanished from Norwegian television - low and behold - I went and ordered the 3 first seasons of the internet! So I guess I was more addicted to it than I cared to admit at first :)

The basic idea of making fun of Nazis never seem to grow old, or in the case of this show: making fun of the Gestapo. The rest of the Germans come off as almost sympathetic and lovable at times, but I mean: how can anyone hate the closet-gay officer Lt. Gruber and his "little tank"? The show is really classic comedy, especially in the way that much of the laughs rely heavily on the fun of repeated catchphrases ("It is I, Leclerc!" - "Good moaning!" "Listen carefully, I shall say this only once" etc) and some truly crazy antics. It IS at times *very* funny and some of the goings-on in this German occupied French village really has to be seen to be believed!

One of my favorite characters is Officer Crabtree, a British undercover-agent posing as a French police-officer, which is quite impressive considering his French makes Inspector Closeau sound like a professor in linguistics. One of his lines that has followed me since I was about 14 was "The French pissants are hiding in the German shiteu" (you figure it out).

So there you have it, if you like the subject of WWII and British comedy "Allo Allo" should be your 'cap of toe' (as Officer Crabtree probably would call it).

Words can't explain how much I love this show, it's just amazing. It's extremely funny, but the only downside is that it's not easy to find on tv these days... In the 80's and early 90's it was very well known and loved, but then disappeared into nowhere... A small town in War time France makes a great setting for this wonderful tv show, and the language barrier is easily fixed... everyone speaks in English, but the British have British accents, the French, French accents, the Germans, German accents etc. Th storyline follows on from the previous episodes, with Rene explaining what happened in the last episode. Watch it, you won't regret it.

Allo Allo may not be offensive as it sounds. I even watched this show in Poland. A sitcom about WWII, Germans, French, British, in a small French town at a small cafe, Renee's. He owns it with his idiot wife, Edith, who helps her ailing, bedridden mother, and hides 2 British airman in her wardrobe/closet. Renee has enough on his plate with his constant infidelity relationships to his servant girls. He always comes up with an excuse to have them in his arms at one time or another. The French resistance and the French communist resistance only complicates Renee's already complicated life. Despite the fact, that the leader of the communist resistance is also in love with Renee too. Michele of the French resistance always says "Now listen very carefully, I shall say this only once." There's plenty of laughs to watch and enjoy on this show. Don't miss it.

If you like Britcoms, then you'll love this series. Every line is a joke, and they're all hilarious. Lots of double entendres/sexual innuendoes and a ridiculous amount of zany one-liners.

The episodes are similar, with some running gags that appear every episode, every time with a different twist. As expected with the British playing Frenchmen, the sarcasm is biting, but almost turned around: the English policeman (bobby) who keeps trying to speak french, with the horrible pronunciation and accent makes tears come to the eyes.

This series is excellent, and missed greatly. Buy it if you can.