Review of Allo Allo: Series 5 Vol.2

Introduction

The fifth season of `Allo `Allo was a huge departure for BBC television comedy. The first four seasons of the wartime spoof had been produced as standard sitcom runs of between six and eight half-hour episodes. Season Five was an attempt at a US-style season of twenty-six 25min episodes (four times the usual), to break into the American market. Originally transmitted between 3rd September and 26th November 1988, the season (the second half of which is presented in this set) turned up the absurdity and farce settings to maximum, but unfortunately failed to tickle the fancies of the US programme buyers. In his Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy, Mark Lewisohn is rather dismissive of the originality of the 26-week run, claiming that The Army Game and Bootsie and Snudge had had longer continuous runs of shows. These shows however had been produced at a time when 52-week runs of shows (such as Doctor Who) were commonplace.

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.

`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.

Initially vilified on its 1982 debut by critics who saw it as a dubious attack on those brave French Resistance fighters celebrated in BBC drama The Secret Army, the show was actually intended as a spoof of such earnest wartime drama tv shows and movies including The Secret Army and stiff-upper-lipped adventures such as Colditz.

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.

The second half of season five continued the high standard of buffoonery from the first half - Communist Resistance leader Denise Laroque became a constant threat to Madame Edith as a rival for Rene`s affections. The Reluctant Millionaires and A Duck For Launch continue the saga of the Long-Distance Duck; The Exploding Bedpan has M. Alphonse about to be silenced by the aforementioned device; Going Like A Bomb and Money To Burn complicate matters with counterfeit currency; Puddings Can Go Off and Land Mines for London add explosive Christmas Puddings to Rene`s woes; Flight To Geneva and Train Of Events have Rene trying to flee to Switzerland but failing spectacularly; An Enigma Variation throws the infamous Nazi encryption device into the mix; Wedding Bloss - Edith accepts the wedding proposal of M. Alphonse the undertaker (Kenneth Connor); Down The Drain and All In Disgeese conclude the Enigma storyline in typical `Allo `Allo style.

All in all, uproariously funny as the show was when it originally went out.

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.