'Allo 'Allo!

'Allo 'Allo! is a British sitcom broadcast on BBC One from 30 December 1982 to 14 December 1992 comprising eighty-five episodes. It is a parody of another BBC programme, the wartime drama Secret Army and was created by David Croft, who also wrote the theme music, and Jeremy Lloyd. Lloyd and Croft wrote the first 6 series. Series 7 onward was written by Lloyd and Paul Adam. Lloyd and Croft were also responsible for the popular sitcom Are You Being Served?. In 2004, 'Allo 'Allo came 13th in Britain's Best Sitcom.

Plot[]

Set during World War II, 'Allo 'Allo! tells the story of René Artois, a French café owner in the town of Nouvion (the town square was based on a courtyard at Lynford Hall, Norfolk where the pilot episode was shot). Germans have occupied the town and stolen all of its valuable artifacts. These include the first cuckoo clock ever made and a painting of The Fallen Madonna by Van Klomp (known to those who have seen it as The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies). The local commandant has decided to keep them for himself after the war and forces René to hide the painting in his café. Hitler also wants the painting and sends Herr Otto Flick of the Gestapo to the town to find it. Flick, in turn, conspires to keep it. The paintings are duplicated by a forger, get mixed up and put in knackwurst sausages. One is sent to Hitler on an ammunition train, which gets blown up, one is hidden, and the other is eaten for dinner by Flick himself.

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.

Main Characters[]

Captain Alberto Bertorelli

Locations[]

Exterior shooting took place in Norfolk, much of it at Lynford Hall.

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.

Trivia[]

This and Bread are the only 2 BBC sitcoms of the 1980s to use videotape for the outdoor scenes. Although most BBC sitcoms used 16mm film for the outdoor scenes, all BBC sitcoms did not start using videotape for the outdoor scenes until the 1990s.