'Allo 'Allo!

I have little to add to this what the other have written here. Accept that what few people seem to know. This brilliant series is a parody on another very good series, Secret Army, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075579/ The cafe, The Gestapo officers, the singing wife, even the characters look the spitting image. But, in all fairness, I think the parody is more brilliant than the original series. Strange, but true. I Think that this is one of the few cases where the parody is better know than the original, and a true red herring in that it is also better. I cannot think of one where this is also the case, although there are more parodies better known then the original (Airport-Airplane to mention one).

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.

I got an urge recently to re watch Allo Allo, I'd forgotten just how wonderful a sitcom it was. Probably the main comedy I remember growing up as a kid, I used to watch with my Dad. The quality of the first three series is enormous, they are slick, hilarious, original and addictive. From Series four onwards as you may expect it does lose a little of its zip and the gags get recycled, but who cares you'll still belly laugh.

Too many favourite characters, and relationships to highlight, but I'll summarise what I feel are the best. The relationship between Renee and Gruber was possible the funniest in the show, the dialogue and misunderstandings right from the very beginning would be the high point of the show. The relationship between Colonel von Strom and Hans was also a joy, their timing was a joy, the show suffered from the departure of Sam Kelly. Both were physically funny too, I always laughed at the 'stuff it down the trousers' gag. Finally in terms of relationship I adored the one between Helga and Heir Flick, his lack of emotion, and her always ending up in her lingerie were hilarious, never stopped being funny.

As for characters, I think my favourites were LeClerc and Mama, the oldies always delivered the laughs, you never knew who was going to end up in her bed, and you never knew what he was going to try and sell. The flashing knobs still make me howl with laughter. Officer Crabtree was an awesome addition, and some of the stuff he got away with, many a time he had me in tears laughing

The Gateau from the Château is hand on heart the funniest episode, with brilliance from Kay and Kelly, while the last ever episode remains very poignant.

It's an absolute joy to watch 9/10