Review of Allo Allo: Series 5 Vol.1

Introduction

Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once, as I wish to get that particular joke out of the way.

`Allo `Allo has to be one of the most successful and popular of the BBC`s "traditional" sit-com output. It ran from 1984 - 1992, over nine seasons and a total of 84 episodes, including a record-breaking fifth season run. The series reunited writer-producers David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, who had previously brought the world Mrs Slocombe and her pussy, and introduced to the world the unlikely sex-symbol café owner Rene Artois and his staff.

Set in occupied France during the Second World War, Rene, played by former Coronation Streeter Gorden Kaye just wanted a quiet, simple life. He viewed the occupation force as little more than an inconvenience and a clientele to serve just the same as his regular customers. As long as they didn`t shoot him or blow up his café, he was happy. Married to the tin-eared Madame Edith (Carmen Silvera), he was even happier in the arms of his waitresses Yvette Carte-Blanche (Vicki Michelle) and Maria Recamier (Francesca Gonshaw). When Madame Edith sang to entertain the customers, he could always do like the German officers and stuff cheese in his ears.

The Germans tended to be relatively harmless, as long as he stayed on the right side of Colonel Von Strohm (Richard Marner) and his aide Captain Hans Geering (Sam Kelly) by having Yvette and Maria entertain them. If there were problems with the Germans, they usually came from local Gestapo officer Otto Flick (Richard Gibson) gestapoing, the German commander General Von Klinkerhoffen (Hilary Minster) throwing his weight around, or Lieutenant Hubert Gruber (Guy Siner), who fancied Rene.

A quiet war was the last thing Rene could expect, however, thanks to the Resistance in the form of beret-and-raincoat-wearing Michelle Dubois (Kirsten Cooke) who billeted two downed British airmen with Rene. Messages were often delivered by aging forger Roger LeClerc (Jack Haig), who was a former lover of Madame Fanny (Rose Hill), Edith`s bedridden mother.

Over the nine seasons of the show, more convolusions, misunderstandings and calamities befell Rene as fate thrust him from one farcical situation to another. Successive seasons introduced new characters, such as new waitress Mimi LaBonc (Sue Hodge), a resistance plant who replaced Maria who had escaped France by posting herself to Geneva as a Red Cross parcel, and Crabtree (Arthur Bostrom), a British Intelligence agent who thought he could spoke Fronch leak a notive.

Initially vilified by critics who saw it as a p*ss-take of those brave French Resistance fighters celebrated in The Secret Army, the show was actually a p*ss take of The Secret Army and its stiff-upper-lipped adventures.

Season Five was a departure for both the series and the BBC. The first four seasons had been produced as standard sitcom runs of between six and eight episodes. Season Five was an attempt at a US-style season of twenty-six episodes (four times the norm). The first half of the season is presented in this set, and the second half will be forthcoming just after Christmas. Available in Region One for quite a while, it has taken time for Universal Playback to licence the episodes. Some of that delay is undoubtedly to do with the BBC`s 2Entertain venture, which looked like it would take over the release of shows Universal Playback had been licensing.

Originally transmitted between 3rd September and 26th November 1988, the episodes pick up with Herr Flick stuck in the Chateau dungeons disguised as a Fraulein Von Kinkenrotten in "Desperate Doings In The Dungeon"; progress through "The Camera In The Potato", "Dinner With The General", "The Dreaded Circular Saw", "Otherwise Engaged", "A Marriage Of Inconvenience" and "No Hiding Place" to the insanity of the season highlights "The Arrival Of The Homing Duck" and "Watch The Birdie" when British intelligence sends Rene a Long Distance Homing Duck rather than the more usual pigeon. The half-season set concludes with "Rene - Under An Assumed Nose" where he dons a false schnoz made of plastique, "The Confusion Of The Generals", "Who`s For The Vatican?" and "Ribbing The Bonk".

Breathlessly barmy, the experiment proved that the high standard of writing could be maintained with a "bullpen" of writers under the command of a showrunner, and the model has been applied to other sitcoms since. The following seasons of `Allo `Allo, however, returned to the regular 6-8 episode length. Season Seven was delayed for twelve months following Gorden Kaye`s near fatal injury in the storm of January 1990.

Video

Presented in the original 4:3, `Allo `Allo was shot on a combination of studio video and location 16mm as standard for the era. The episodes on the disc look fine with little age-related problems on the videotape. Colour is excellent, although the video seems a little ramped on contrast, making highlights very bright and flare-y.

Audio

Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo replicating the Nicam transmission of the show in the late 1980s.

Features

Subtitles.

Conclusion

One of the highpoints of the British comedy canon and a worthy successor to Dad`s Army and Are You Being Served. A non-stop feast of innuendo and misunderstanding, traditional farce has never transferred as well to the small screen as in this show. A wonderful cast at the top of its game in these episodes, and some of the funniest shows in the series run. A classic.