In a small café in occupied France, René Artois tried to keep the Germans happy, the Resistance happy, his wife happy and his waitresses happier still. For ten years on BBC One, 'Allo 'Allo! turned the Second World War into one of television's best-loved farces.
Listen very carefully
The show came from Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, the partnership already behind Are You Being Served?. Their starting point was Secret Army, a serious BBC drama about the Belgian Resistance. 'Allo 'Allo! took the same ingredients (a café, hidden airmen, coded messages, sinister officers) and played every one of them for laughs.
The pilot went out on 30 December 1982 and the series ran until 1992, with nine series and 85 episodes in all.
The story that never ended
René, the reluctant café owner in the town of Nouvion, is landed with two British airmen to hide, a forged painting to protect and a German army that drinks at his tables. The painting, "The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies" by Van Klomp, was hidden in a knockwurst sausage and went missing, swapped and recovered so many times that keeping track of it became part of the fun.
Each episode opened with René talking straight to camera to recap the plot so far. The story simply carried on from week to week, which was unusual for a sitcom and made it easy to get hooked.
Who was in it
- Gorden Kaye as René Artois, forever caught in a clinch with a waitress when his wife walked in
- Carmen Silvera as Edith, whose singing made customers stuff cheese in their ears
- Vicki Michelle as Yvette, the waitress with a soft spot for René
- Kirsten Cooke as Michelle of the Resistance
- Arthur Bostrom as Officer Crabtree, the English policeman whose French was hopeless
- Richard Gibson as Herr Otto Flick of the Gestapo
- Guy Siner as Lieutenant Gruber
- Richard Marner as Colonel von Strohm
- Kim Hartman as Private Helga Geerhart
The catchphrases
Few comedies have given the nation so many lines to repeat in the pub.
"Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once."
Michelle's warning to René came before every hare-brained Resistance plan. Officer Crabtree's mangled French gave us "Good moaning", and Edith's suspicious "René! What are you doing with that serving girl?" was usually answered with "You stupid woman!"
Why we still love it
'Allo 'Allo! was broad, saucy and silly, and it knew it. The cast clearly enjoyed themselves, the running jokes paid off week after week, and it became a family favourite. A long-running stage version toured theatres around the country, and the cast reunited for a one-off special, The Return of 'Allo 'Allo!, in 2007.
What do you remember best: the knockwurst, Crabtree's "Good moaning", or Edith's singing?