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'Allo 'Allo Myth

blessmycottonsocks said:
And the one they will never show in today's hideously over-sensitive climate is another David Croft comedy "It Ain't Half Hot Mum", brilliant though it was!
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This very show is currently on one of the satellite channels, watched it on Friday night, came with a "this is of its time" warning, just as funny as I recall it.
 
catseye said:
I think Yith meant that you have to watch Secret Army to appreciate what a good parody of it Allo Allo is.

Secret Army was never conceived as a comedy.
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Exactly. I enjoyed both series for what they were, but enjoyed Allo Allo all the more having previously watched Secret Army.
Rather like how having read (several times) Lord of the Rings, made me appreciate what a brilliant parody Bored of the Rings was.

@gordonrutter, thanks for the head's up about It Ain't Half Hot Mum on a satellite channel - I shall check it out!
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
Exactly. I enjoyed both series for what they were, but enjoyed Allo Allo all the more having previously watched Secret Army.
Rather like how having read (several times) Lord of the Rings, made me appreciate what a brilliant parody Bored of the Rings was.

@gordonrutter, thanks for the head's up about It Ain't Half Hot Mum on a satellite channel - I shall check it out!
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The channel is That's TV and they are currently showing season 6.
 
gordonrutter said:
This very show is currently on one of the satellite channels, watched it on Friday night, came with a "this is of its time" warning, just as funny as I recall it.
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I stumbled across an 1977 episode of "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" the other night. I used to find it pretty funny. I expected to sit wincing a bit at the dated attitudes - but I found much of it laugh out loud funny. Especially entertaining was the scene where the concert party sit and watch in horror as a gawky new auditionee (an RAF man, played by Jeffrey Holland aka Spike from "Hi-De-Hi") shows them all up with his operatic singing, piano playing, tap dancing, trumpet playing, ventriloquism.... he can do everything and he it do much better than anyone in the concert party can.

Like all of those Perry & Croft comedies, the strength was in the ensemble cast and the detailed attention to the varied characters. Some of the individual performances may have been a bit ... 'panto'... but somehow the way they gelled raised the show above that. I always had favourites in those shows, though. In "It Ain't Half" it was Windsor Davies who was always the stand-out for me. In "Allo Allo" it was Officer Crabtree, and in "Hi-De-Hi" it was Gladys Pugh.
 
Don't take my input as criticism.
I've discovered the series on YT.
Doing other stuff during the day, I watched a couple of episodes. I've rediscovered my intent of Secret Army.
 
CharmerKamelion said:
Especially entertaining was the scene where the concert party sit and watch in horror as a gawky new auditionee (an RAF man, played by Jeffrey Holland aka Spike from "Hi-De-Hi") shows them all up with his operatic singing, piano playing, tap dancing, trumpet playing, ventriloquism.... he can do everything and he it do much better than anyone in the concert party can.
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I saw this the other night! That bit was quite amusing but I definitely found it dated overall. I should try some more episodes. Windsor Davies was the best part.
 
CharmerKamelion said:
I stumbled across an 1977 episode of "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" the other night. I used to find it pretty funny. I expected to sit wincing a bit at the dated attitudes - but I found much of it laugh out loud funny. Especially entertaining was the scene where the concert party sit and watch in horror as a gawky new auditionee (an RAF man, played by Jeffrey Holland aka Spike from "Hi-De-Hi") shows them all up with his operatic singing, piano playing, tap dancing, trumpet playing, ventriloquism.... he can do everything and he it do much better than anyone in the concert party can.

Like all of those Perry & Croft comedies, the strength was in the ensemble cast and the detailed attention to the varied characters. Some of the individual performances may have been a bit ... 'panto'... but somehow the way they gelled raised the show above that. I always had favourites in those shows, though. In "It Ain't Half" it was Windsor Davies who was always the stand-out for me. In "Allo Allo" it was Officer Crabtree, and in "Hi-De-Hi" it was Gladys Pugh.
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There was also You Rang, M'Lord? in which Holland played a footman, James Twelvetrees. He and Poppy, his employer's adult daughter, fancy each other.

There are lingering shots of Twelvetrees' anguished face as Poppy conducts her social and love life under his nose. He can't say a thing and she knows it.
Holland's performance was my favourite in that show.
 
escargot said:
There was also You Rang, M'Lord? in which Holland played a footman, James Twelvetrees. He and Poppy, his employer's adult daughter, fancy each other.

There are lingering shots of Twelvetrees' anguished face as Poppy conducts her social and love life under his nose. He can't say a thing and she knows it.
Holland's performance was my favourite in that show.
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Jeffery Holland also played the stationmaster in Oh Dr Beeching! Love that series.
 
AgProv said:
Although I still think it'll be a cold day in Hell before we see Love Thy Neighbour on TV again (could be wrong)
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If frankiefelix can name drop:-
frankiefelix said:
I've had drinks with Officer Crabtree and he's GORGEOUS. ❤
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So can I :)

Rudolph Walker's children were in the same playgroup as mine which meant the family was part of the same baby sitting circle,

Mind you we didn't have a TV at the time so the other Mums had to give me the heads up that he was an actor otherwise I wouldn't have known he was famous. They were just Rudy and Lorna as far as I was concerned. :)
 
frankiefelix said:
I've had drinks with Officer Crabtree and he's GORGEOUS. ❤
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Ah hem- Helga;
158.jpg
 
Linking 'Allo, 'Allo via Secret Army, I discovered on You Tube today The Fourth Arm ... which completely passed me - and apparently many - by.
 
CharmerKamelion said:
I bet he's got Ze Fallen Madonna With Ze Big Boobies* in that rucksack.


*by Van Klumpf
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Herr Flick (Richard Gibson) was great.

He was talking to someone else, so when I asked for a photo, I only asked Helga and Gruber so as not to interrupt him.

As Helga and Gruber moved in for the photo, Gruber said (in a German accent) ''Ah, I see Herr Flick is coming to join us''.
(Herr Flick had seen us and came over without me having to ask him).

Afterwards I thanked them all and shook Herr Flick's hand and he said ''Zat is quite alright''.
 
Quoting myself from a few years ago -

'Allo 'Allo was a complicated thing. The former Mr Snail, at the time a high school teacher, escorted a party of 15 year-olds to a live performance in London and was totally befuddled by the mix of accents, pass-the-parcel 'stolen Madonna With The Big Boobies' running joke and the general lightning-fast plot-moves.

He said he lost track right away and resigned himself to an evening of cutting-edge innuendo and Nazi-mocking. All about as British as you could possibly imagine!
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CharmerKamelion said:
It was all very clever and very, very funny. I used to love the way Michelle of Zer Resistance spoke in 'Clouseau French' to the other French characters but switched to clipped 'what ho chaps' upper class English when she was talking to the British Airmen. Made me laugh every time. Such simple conceits but brilliantly done.
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Try this snippet of the French dubbed version of Allo Allo:

Michelle of the Resistance speaks very English accented French around the 5:30 mark!

 
Our theatre group has just done a run of "Allo Allo", I thought it would be dated but it was very funny, although it was hard work for the cast because of the accents and timing. Our Officer Crabtree was magnificent and the over cast were PDG, what let us down were the uniforms which we hired ( Usually make in-house). However not many people noticed and it was a huge success, even with the younger audiences who had no preconceived.

I made the parrots and was rewarded with a Fallen Madonna commemorative mug.
 
Eyespy said:
Our theatre group has just done a run of "Allo Allo", I thought it would be dated but it was very funny, although it was hard work for the cast because of the accents and timing. Our Officer Crabtree was magnificent and the over cast were PDG, what let us down were the uniforms which we hired ( Usually make in-house). However not many people noticed and it was a huge success, even with the younger audiences who had no preconceived.

I made the parrots and was rewarded with a Fallen Madonna commemorative mug.
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Sounds great. Particularly good to know you had a good Crabtree! But ... 'I made the parrots' ??? More info please!
 
Ahh, the parrots, one of Leclerc’s cunning disguises was an old parrots seller. A radio was concealed in a cockatoo- many awful puns an jokes.

Annoying from my point of view is that we did Treasure Island at Christmas for which I made a lot of parrots, gave them away as it was pretty unlikely we’d use them again.
 
Eyespy said:
Ahh, the parrots, one of Leclerc’s cunning disguises was an old parrots seller. A radio was concealed in a cockatoo- many awful puns an jokes.

Annoying from my point of view is that we did Treasure Island at Christmas for which I made a lot of parrots, gave them away as it was pretty unlikely we’d use them again.
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I am fascinated by the parrots, @Eyespy . Do any pictures exist??

Love the Fallen Madonna mug. Your friend has really captured van Klumpf's style and brushwork. I say that as someone who had the privilege to see the original, hanging on the wall of a servant's stairwell in Longleat House, Wiltshire, sometime in the early 90s. I think it may have since been stolen, rolled up and inserted into a knackwurst for smuggling purposes.
 
I will let her know, she actually painted 2, not sure what happened to them as they are not in the prop store, although judging by the smell the Knackwurst are in there somewhere.
 
Eyespy said:
Charmer, you wish is my command. This is the fake cockatoo radio and Eddie andEvel, stunt parrots from treasure island.
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Excellent! Before I enlarged the photo I thought those were real birds! My breath is now bated for the cockatoo radio (which is a sentence I never thought I would type!!!)
 
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