'Allo 'Allo!

'Allo 'Allo! is set during World War II, between the occupation of France by German Axis powers in 1940 and its eventual liberation by Allied forces in September 1944.^[10] The story of the sitcom focuses on René Artois, a café owner in Nouvion and a reluctant member of the town's local French Resistance cell who operates under the codename of "Nighthawk".^[10] Because of the occupation of the town by German forces, led by the dictatorial Major-General Erich von Klinkerhoffen, René finds himself caught up between dealing with four problems – the scheme and plots of the town's corrupt commandant, Colonel Kurt von Strohm; the sabotage plans of the Resistance's leader Michelle Dubois; the efforts by Gestapo agent Herr Otto Flick to find a stolen painting and unmask Resistance members; and the love affairs with his waitresses, particularly Yvette Carte-Blanche, each of which he must conceal from both his wife Edith Artois and each of the other waitresses.^[11]

Throughout the programme's broadcast, the sitcom features a number of overarching storylines, with two of these being the most conspicuous. The first, and most prominent, concerns the theft of a valuable painting from the town's chateau – The Fallen Madonna by fictional artist van Klomp (it is usually referred to as "The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies") – stolen by von Strohm, and the subsequent efforts by him to conceal the theft from his superiors and Herr Flick. René is notably forced into handling the stolen painting under threat of execution, but also due to being indebted to von Strohm for allowing him to fake his death when he is sentenced to execution for unjustified accusations of aiding the Resistance in an act of sabotage. The painting itself is at one point lost during its concealment, and when found it is found a copy is forged. It is also sought not only by von Strohm but also Herr Flick who, rather than return it to Berlin, intends to keep it for himself.

The second storyline concerns the involvement of two stranded British airmen, shot down while over Nouvion. Because of their predicament, several plots in a number of episodes focus on the efforts of Michelle to devise plans that can help to send them back to England, with René not only forced to help hide them within his café or keep them under disguise, but also to help in her schemes, sometimes devised by London who relay these plans via a radio installed within the bedroom of Edith's mother. The schemes devised are so bizarre and complicated that they backfire, and usually collide with other schemes concocted by both von Strohm and the Gestapo, invariably leaving all three groups worse off than before. Other storylines include the efforts to remove von Klinkerhoffen's replacement from power, sabotaging the Germans' plan to invade England, and the subsequent build-up of German concern about an Allied invasion of France following the defeat of Italy.^[12][13]

As with previous sitcoms created before 'Allo 'Allo!, such as Lloyd and Croft's earlier collaboration Are You Being Served?, much of the humour is derived from classic elements of comedy including classic farce set-ups, physical comedy and visual gags, alongside a large amount of sexual innuendo, and a fast-paced running string of broad cultural clichés. Like most characters devised for previous sitcoms, the cast for the programme were designed with notable elements to distinguish them throughout the series, be it a catchphrase, gimmick, or saying.^[14]

Like previous sitcoms devised by the creators, 'Allo 'Allo! ends each episode with the caption "You have been watching (in order of appearance)", followed by a short vignette shot of actors who performed in the episode — whether as a main or supporting character — identified by their name in caption within each sequence.^[15] Although the shots appear like a clip from the episode, the production team conduct a separate filming session aimed as a reenactment of a scene the actor was involved in, mostly pertaining to a specific camera angle or action conducted by their character, with the vignette sequence often done in order of their first spoken line; because of Rene's introductory monologues, actor Gorden Kaye is always first in the sequence, except for one episode of series 1 when Edith's background singing caused Carmen Silvera to be credited first.

As each episode builds on previous ones, viewers are often required to have followed the series to the episode they have reached in order to understand the plot. As 'Allo 'Allo! revolved around individual story arcs spread across several episodes, the creators opted for using a comical version of the "As you remember ..." device, commonly used in serials, to act as a recap of events in the current story for the beginning of a new episode. This device within the sitcom was always conducted by René, who would open an episode by breaking the fourth wall (which Michael Bates did in It Ain't Half Hot Mum) to interact with the audience and provide a brief summary of events that had occurred previously, including notable events that had taken place, and also intermittently during episodes to make comic comments. This plot device was rare for comedy (including comedy animation), where plots are prominently gag-driven and self-contained, but its use in 'Allo 'Allo! had a major impact on audiences connecting with the characters. It also had considerable benefits for re-runs, as it allowed local TV stations who had reshuffled episodes for their schedule to ensure that their audiences could be aware of the plot events surrounding the story of the episode being broadcast.

The main characters of the series were of four different nationalities — French, German, English and Italian. Lloyd and Croft portrayed this by having non-English characters speak English with the accent of the foreign language, while the English characters spoke in upper-class English accents. French, German and Italian characters could understand each other when speaking, but the English characters could not understand the others without someone "translating" for them and vice versa.

The police officer Crabtree was introduced in the second series. Because the character was an undercover Englishman with a poor grasp of French, the actor, Arthur Bostrom, spoke perfectly when the character spoke in English, but extensively deployed malapropisms to represent when the character was speaking in French. Bostrom altered certain words in his sentences, substituting different vowels or consonants, changing them into different or nonsensical words, usually laden with innuendo. An example is the line "I was passing by the door, and I thought I would drop in," which Bostrom pronounced "I was pissing by the door, and I thought I would drip in." Another example is Crabtree's greeting of "good morning," pronounced "good moaning."^{[citation needed]}

The Fallen Madonna, usually referred to as The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies,^[16][17] by the fictional painter van Klomp is a portrait of a bare-breasted woman, which provided a running gag in the show. The first episode of the first series of 'Allo 'Allo! (1984), following the pilot, was titled The Fallen Madonna.^[18] In an earlier pilot, the painting was referred to as The Reclining Madonna.

There were sustained attempts by the occupiers to appropriate the Fallen Madonna, a local treasure, to provide a nest egg after the war. The painting was seen and hidden in various guises; it was often secreted, with suggestive possibilities, in a long knackwurst sausage. An incredible number of forgeries of the Fallen Madonna were made, mostly by Lieutenant Gruber and Monsieur Leclerc, which were hidden in knackwurst sausages in René's kitchen. The forgeries were subsequently destroyed in various ways (burned, blown up, minced, eaten by a dog, etc.). In the end of the 'Allo 'Allo! series the Fallen Madonna is found long after the war by an elderly René; he and his mistress Yvette quickly elope to Spain with the painting to live happily ever after.

Having previously sold for £4,000 in 2007, the original prop portrait from the series (The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies) sold for £15,000 at East Bristol Auctions in December 2018. The picture was purchased by a buyer in Nouvion.^[19] The BBC presented the 6th Marquess of Bath with a specially commissioned copy of the prop that was hung alongside Old Masters in Lord Bath's ancestral home, Longleat.^[16][20]

After the pilot aired in December 1982, a full-length first series of seven episodes was commissioned and aired from September 1984 onwards. Series two, three and four followed annually, with six episodes each.

Series five was commissioned with a view to syndicating the show in America.^[21] As a result, it aired as a single long series of twenty-six episodes between September 1988 and February 1989, with each episode running only twenty-five minutes to allow for commercials. The attempts to air the show in America failed (although screening rights to the series were later sold to PBS), and so series six had only eight episodes commissioned, which aired from September 1989 onwards.

On 25 January 1990, Gorden Kaye suffered serious head injuries in a car crash brought on by gale-force winds.^[21] This delayed the start of the seventh series, which consisted of ten episodes airing from January 1991 onwards. Series 8 (7 episodes) followed in January 1992, and the ninth and final series of six episodes aired later that year from November onwards.

Two Christmas specials were also made. The first was a 45-minute episode, which followed Series 2 in 1985, and the second was also a 45-minute episode, screened at Christmas 1991, preceding Series 8.

In 1994, two years after the series ended, the BBC broadcast The Best of 'Allo 'Allo!, a compilation of clips from the series, linked by new scenes featuring Gorden Kaye and Carmen Silvera, in which René and Edith reminisce about the events of the war.

On 22 March 2007, a one-off special episode entitled The Return of 'Allo 'Allo! was filmed in Manchester, and was broadcast on 28 April 2007 at 9 pm on BBC 2. The storyline involves René writing his memoirs after the war, and the events from the final episode in 1992 have been overlooked. The new scenes were interspersed with clips from the original series and new interviews. The actors who reprised their roles were: Gorden Kaye, Vicki Michelle, Sue Hodge, Kirsten Cooke, Arthur Bostrom, Guy Siner, Robin Parkinson, John D. Collins and Nicholas Frankau. In addition, Richard Gibson and Sam Kelly are interviewed, although they are not reprising their respective roles. The only main characters who did not appear in the reunion at all (barring those cases where the actor or actress had died) were Private Helga Geerhart (played by Kim Hartman) and Herr Engelbert von Smallhausen (played by John Louis Mansi). Jeremy Lloyd wrote the new material.^[22][23]

In 2022, Channel 5 aired a 67-minute special retrospective for their "Comedy Classics" series. Cast, crew and celebrities discuss and pay tribute to the show. The documentary features interviews with Guy Siner, Vicki Michelle and Kim Hartman, as well as a previously unseen archive interview with Gorden Kaye. The show is narrated by Stephen Mangan.^[24]

The show's premise was not to make fun of the war but to spoof war-based film and TV dramas, and in particular the BBC1 drama Secret Army, which ran from 1977 to 1979 and dealt with the activities of a Belgian "escape line" that returned Allied pilots to Britain, working from a Brussels café and later restaurant. Many of the elements and characters are directly taken from Secret Army, such as the café owner having an affair in the restaurant under the nose of his wife, a bed-ridden woman in a room above who knocks on the floor for attention, a pianist who is also the forger, and the enmity between the Gestapo and the German military. Many storylines for 'Allo 'Allo also derive directly from episodes of Secret Army, such as the valuable paintings and the accompanying forgeries, which both the Germans and the Resistance are seeking to obtain in the Secret Army second series episode "Weekend". Some actors from Secret Army also appear in ''Allo 'Allo!: Richard Marner, Guy Siner, John D. Collins, Hilary Minster, David Beckett and Louis Sheldon. Inspiration was also drawn from patriotic black-and-white British melodramas of the 1940s.

The French village setting is reminiscent of 1972's Clochemerle, whilst René's intermediary role between the Germans and the Resistance reflects a comic version of Rick from Casablanca (as well as directly matching the proprietor of the café in Secret Army).

Having a café-cabaret in the plot, music was often performed on the show. This usually took place with Madame Edith singing, and either Lt. Gruber or Leclerc at the piano, played (out of vision) by Roy Moore. Occasionally, characters could also be seen whistling or humming tunes at certain points.

David Croft and Roy Moore composed the theme tune performed at the start and end of each episode. It features a French-style melody performed on an accordion, accompanied by a string quartet and other instruments, in the ³
₄ (waltz) time signature. The title is "'Allo 'Allo", and the first lyrics are:

'Allo 'Allo, we meet again,
And just as before ...

Carmen Silvera sang the full song and it was released on LP in the 1980s.^[25]

The café cabaret music usually took the form of 1930s film and show tunes – reminiscent of the way period songs were also used in Secret Army.

Most popular was "Louise" from the film Innocents of Paris (1929), which featured a number of times and was even sung in the "broken-French" language of Crabtree, who pronounced the title "Loo-woes". Gruber sang a number such as "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" from Show Boat or "(I Got a Woman Crazy for Me) She's Funny That Way" by Neil Monet and Richard A. Whiting. He gazed at René in a slightly lustful manner, replacing lyrics such as "woman" and "she" with "boy" and "he". He caused a particular sensation with his straight version of Noël Coward's "Mad About the Boy".

Naturally the "La Marseillaise" and the German national anthem "Deutschlandlied" featured from time to time, for example where several French peasants sang La Marsellaise to celebrate the expected bombing of the Germans, but the singers flawlessly and without hesitation switch to Das Lied der Deutschen when the Germans come past. Helga also sometimes stripped to a rather raunchy version (arranged by Roy Moore) of the latter tune.

Captain Bertorelli could be seen singing "'O Sole Mio (It's Now or Never)"; and the British airmen in a prisoner of war camp could be seen singing "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball".

In 1986, Gorden Kaye and Vicki Michelle released a version of the hit song "Je t'aime... moi non plus". The characters of Yvette and René could be heard talking and canoodling in a comic manner whilst the familiar musical "Je t'aime..."' melody played in the background. The song got to number fifty-seven in the UK Singles Chart.^[26]

In 1985, Gorden Kaye and Carmen Silvera appeared in the Royal Variety Performance in character as René and Edith, and sang "I Remember It Well" from Gigi.^{[citation needed]}

The show gave rise to a successful touring stage-show featuring most of the TV cast. This ran from 1986 to 1992, and included three London stage runs as well as international tours.^{[27][28][citation needed]}

In January 1990, Gorden Kaye suffered serious head injuries in a car accident. As a result, his understudy, John Larson, played the part in a London Palladium production. Kaye had a dent in his forehead for the rest of his life from a piece of wood that smashed through the car window. He wanted to end the television show after his accident, but was persuaded by Jeremy Lloyd to continue.^[29] In Australia Gorden Kaye's part was played by Australian comedian/impressionist Max Gillies (later, Gorden Kaye repaid the favour when he took over Max Gillies' role in another play in Australia, when Max Gillies was unable to take part).^{[citation needed]}

The show was last performed for a summer season at Bournemouth's Pier Theatre in 1996.^[30]

In 2007 Gorden Kaye, Sue Hodge and Guy Siner reprised their roles in a production of the stage show in Brisbane, Australia. They were joined by Steven Tandy as Colonel von Strohm and Jason Gann as Herr Flick.^[31]

A new touring show, based on the 1992 tour written by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, opened at the Gordon Craig Theatre in Stevenage, Hertfordshire on 29 August 2008 before going on a national tour the following year.^[32] Vicki Michelle reprised her role as Yvette Carte-Blanche. The cast also included Jeffrey Holland playing Rene Artois and his wife Judy Buxton playing Michelle Dubois. Other cast members included Robin Sebastian as Gruber, James Rossman as Herr Flick, Nell Jerram as Private Helga Geerhart and Claire Andreadis as Mimi Labonq.

The theatrical version is also frequently performed by amateur theatre companies in the UK and elsewhere. , A sequel stage show, 'Allo 'Allo 2 – The Camembert Caper, written by David Lovesy, David Pibworth and Steve Clark, adapted from the TV series and approved by the Croft and Lloyd estates was published by Concord Theatricals in September 2023. This is also available for theatre groups to perform worldwide.

 

Exterior shooting took place in Norfolk, much of it at Lynford Hall.^[33]

Between 1982 and 1987, and from 1989 to 1992, all interior scenes were filmed in front of a studio audience at the BBC Television Centre studios in London. For the fifth series, recorded from December 1987 to August 1988, production moved to BBC Elstree Centre in Studio D. With hopes for a US syndication deal, the BBC planned to make 26 new episodes of the sitcom; hence, a bigger space was needed for the production. Even though the US syndication deal did not go ahead as planned, production remained at BBC Elstree Centre for the remainder of the fifth series. With more space available, the outside set of Café Rene became a semi-permanent structure in the former ATV Garage building.^[34][35]

In Australia, Roadshow Entertainment, under licence from the BBC began releasing the series on DVD in 2006, on a semi-annual basis. To date, all series have been released on DVD; only The Return of 'Allo 'Allo! TV special remains to be released.

Universal Playback, under licence from the BBC, began releasing the series on DVD in 2002. In the UK six boxed sets with series 1–9 have been released, as well as a complete boxed set.

The original UK releases have episode titles superimposed over the openings of the episodes (series 1–4). The 2013 re-release of the complete series boxed set omits the majority, but not all of these superimposed titles. The American releases have no on-screen episode titles, reflecting the way that the shows were originally transmitted.

In January 2004, BBC Worldwide began releasing the show itself on DVD in North America, distributed by Warner Bros., beginning with Series 1. The releases continued on a somewhat irregular basis (approximately twice-yearly).

• Note: The Best of 'Allo 'Allo! is included as an extra on the series nine DVDs.

A video game adaptation named 'Allo 'Allo! Cartoon Fun was released for the Amiga in 1993 by Alternative Software. It is a platform game where players control René.^[36]

• Are You Being Served?
• Keeping Up Appearances
• Hogan's Heroes

 

Wikiquote has quotations related to 'Allo 'Allo!.

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 'Allo 'Allo!.

• 'Allo 'Allo! at BBC Online  
• 'Allo 'Allo! at BBC Online Comedy Guide
• 'Allo 'Allo! at epguides.com
• 'Allo 'Allo! at IMDb
• 'Allo 'Allo! at British Comedy Guide